Nations using drugs and the effects they have on them. I don't want a PSA ad, just what kind of drug a nation would and how it hits them. I don't have any preferred character, but I did some ~research~ on popular drugs in the main ones.
Question do you specifically want only those characters with the drugs listed? Or is it kind of like a free for all and what you listed are just some possibilities? Also is a human AU OK?
I should have been clearer, sorry about that. That list is only for reference purposes, I'd like any character(s) with any drug(s), I just thought that listing the most popular ones for the main characters would somehow help. I was wrong, obviously D:
This story is a collaboration, so if it seems a little choppy in parts, our apologies. I'm still editing it, but it's all planned out and mostly done, so it shouldn't be too long between updates.
On with the story! ______
Japan’s hands were cramping from so much time spent tapping on his keyboard, his back ached, his vision was blurry, and he had long ago lost track not only of how long since he had slept, but how much coffee he had consumed. He hadn’t drunk every cup that he’d made, though—at this point, he kept spilling it. Luckily not on anything vital.
He would have kept working until he passed out, but fortunately he wasn’t entirely alone; he was so focused on his work that he had blocked out all sounds, but eventually Tama got tired of his failure to respond to his hungry meows and pawed at his leg. He wasn’t using claws (yet), but unfortunately, the unexpected touch startled him so much that he dropped his coffee mug—not for the first time, but evidently for the last. It shattered on the floor, the sound of breaking ceramic making him wince; it hurt both his ears and his heart—that was his favorite mug!
Tama flattened his ears and hissed, displeased at the scary sound; out of the corner of his eye, Japan saw Pochi turn tail and run. “I’m sorry!” he blurted out, unhappy at having caused his pets so much distress. His own heart was pounding, too—apparently, even something as small as upsetting his little companions was enough to get his adrenaline up today.
Well, that and the multiple pots of coffee couldn’t be helping.
As much as he wanted to clean up the remains of his mug, his animals needed reassurance and food. He was able to get Pochi calmed down quickly enough, and poured him a bowl of dry food that he happily set upon, but Tama would not relax; he accepted being petted, but eyed Japan somewhat warily and refused to purr no matter where he was scratched.
“What is the matter with you today?” Japan asked, frustrated. “I know I haven’t been paying you the proper attention, but I am busy! You know how often I’m loaded down with too much work.”
Tama gave him what he could only interpret as a look of pure distain, then turned his back.
“Fine,” he snapped, standing up. “I will feed you and you will leave me alone, deal?” He stalked to the cabinet and yanked out the box of cat food; unfortunately, he was apparently moving more quickly than he thought and nearly dropped it. At his wits’ end, he cursed a blue streak, at least managing to fill Tama’s bowl as he did.
He meant to go right back to work, but he had managed to forget about the broken mug until he saw it again. Muttering even more curses, he picked up the pieces, only to drop them and snarl at a sudden sharp pain; due to his hands still shaking, he’d cut himself. Japan stared at the blood welling up from his fingertips, suddenly feeling faint. He tried to step back, but his body was no longer obeying him and he collapsed to the floor. He was fortunate enough not to land on any ceramic shards, but for reasons that had nothing to do with the pain of landing on a hard surface, it was rapidly becoming all he could do to keep himself from screaming until his throat was raw—which he just might if he let himself start. He knew, because he’d done it before in centuries past.
He curled up as tight as he could on the floor, hands over his mouth, trying to remain in control… a cruel joke, under the circumstances. No matter how many times he experienced this, the feeling of doom that accompanied it always convinced him almost completely that his heart was about to burst and he was going to die.
The urge to scream subsided, eventually, but his heart was still pounding, he was shaking and sweating, and he felt like he wasn’t getting enough air. Eventually, these attacks went away on their own, but if he didn’t do anything, even after they were over he was usually a wreck for the rest of the day. Knowing that, he wasn’t going to passively wait when there was something he could do to actually help himself.
Despite how unsteady he was, he managed to get to his feet; moving carefully, he walked to his bedroom and opened the closet door. As clichéd as it was, he had a secret compartment in the side of it; he pushed aside the business suits and felt for a small depression, then pushed on it.
With a quiet click, the hidden drawer opened; it was nearly full of sex toys, some intended for such extreme play they would probably make Germany blanch.
Japan ignored them all and felt around in the top of it until he found and pressed a second button, then closed the drawer again, turned to the opposite wall, and pushed on a panel; it was actually a slender door, leading to what used to be part of a storage room. He slipped inside, fumbled around until he found the light switch, and then gratefully dropped onto the couch that took up an entire wall of the small room. He still felt like he was going to collapse and die at any moment, but he had gotten where he needed to be safely, and he was within seconds of finding relief.
With still-trembling hands, he opened the tin of herbs—all pre-ground, because he couldn’t do much of anything when he was in need of them—and put a large pinch into the business end of the hose, then attached it to the vaporizer already set up on the table and turned it on.
Maybe it was just a conditioned response, but Japan would swear that his heart palpitations started to slow to a normal pace as soon as the sweet scent of marijuana started filling the room. He focused on breathing as evenly as he could for the time it took for the machine to heat up (less than a minute, though it always felt far longer) and then took the mouthpiece between his lips and inhaled. After so many centuries of use, he had trained himself to be able to hold in a lungful of the smoke or vapor as long as needed, no matter how much trouble he was having controlling his breathing.
Within minutes, his heart rate had slowed nearly to normal, he was breathing easily, and his trembling was coming to a stop. Japan exhaled a lungful of the sanity-saving vapor and actually smiled in relief; though he wasn’t willing to admit it in public, to him marijuana was a godsend—literally, Amaterasu herself had told him how even its smoke could benefit him (though of course Korea claimed he had been the one to introduce Japan to it). While he would very much prefer it if his panic attacks would just stop, they were tolerable with treatment; technically others existed, but in his experience, marijuana was his best bet.
“This is, of course, my own fault,” he admitted, looking at the ceiling; he was always a little chattier when high. “Really, why do I always do this?” The economy was bad, and yes, his boss wanted his reports very soon, but no one’s life was hanging in the balance. Doing governmental reports had little in common with the times in history when his decisions had been life or death for many; during some particularly dark times, he’d been having panic attacks every day, sometimes more than once. In more peaceful times, if he had a panic attack, he’d usually brought it upon himself.
“I should cut down on coffee,” he mused. “That never helps; after a while my mind starts racing too much to be very productive, and it keeps me from sleeping, and then I drink more and I get even worse. Not sleeping is definitely my problem today… how long has it been? Heh, I don’t even remember… it’s all blurred together. Too bad I don’t have a window in here… oh, I forgot my watch.” He took another drag; sometimes he needed to reload the vaporizer once or twice before he was fully calm, but he could already tell it wouldn’t be necessary today.
“I should sleep now… if only sativa was immediately stronger than caffeine. Though, I suppose if it was, it would be smokeable Valium.” He giggled. “That would certainly be strange! I wonder, what would happen if Valium was set on fire?” As high as he was, it was an amusing thought.
Another likely reason he was in such bad shape today was because he hadn’t been eating; he realized that only when he happened to glance at the storage bin in the corner and saw the Pocky boxes inside it. “Oh! Of course that’s where I put them.” He giggled again and moved to open the box; he kept snacks in here because, well, he wasn’t immune to getting the munchies when he was high and his smoking room was too far from his kitchen.
By the time he had gotten through two full boxes of Pocky and another three pouches of candied fruit, the burnt-popcorn smell that meant the buds were spent was permeating the room, and Japan felt much better. He turned off the vaporizer, tipped the remains of the used-up buds into the proper container, and exited back into his closet. He was still going to be somewhat useless for getting work done that required much thought, so he sought out his pets; he’d definitely scared them earlier, and he needed to make amends for that.
Pochi approached him first; the little dog seemed to have forgotten the earlier incident already, and trotted up to him as cheerfully as ever. Japan smiled down at his loyal companion and knelt down to pet him; predictably, the change in position nearly made him fall over, but he caught himself on the wall and petted Pochi anyway. “Good dog,” he murmured, stroking the soft fur.
He could have easily lost himself in just that, but eventually he remembered he needed to find Tama and apologize to him, too. Managing to stagger to his feet, he went into the kitchen for a small bag of kitty treats; unsurprisingly, he found his cat lounging in the afternoon sunshine in front of the balcony door. Tama looked up at him, a little warily, but didn’t move.
In case caution was required (even he couldn’t read the atmosphere well when this stoned), Japan smiled at him but didn’t come close enough to touch. “Are you enjoying the warm floor, Tama? I’m sure it feels nice. You know what would be even better? Lying on that warm floor while eating a treat.” He held up the bag; Tama looked at it with interest. “You know what’s in this. Do you want some? It’s yummy…” Well, to cats. Japan had tried some once while not entirely lucid and regretted it.
Figuring he could approach without scaring Tama off, he knelt down again to give him a treat… and promptly fell right over. Fortunately, this time it didn’t hurt; he’d managed to roll onto his side more than outright collapse, so he was simply left staring at the ceiling for a moment before he figured out what had happened.
After a pause, he remembered Tama, and looked over to see his cat merely blinking at him. “I’m all right,” he said automatically, then chuckled slightly. “You must be wondering how clumsy I can be to fall so easily. Well, we cannot all be as graceful as you cats are.”
The warm tatami mats really were quite nice… he decided to just lay back for a while and enjoy the sun like Tama was. His caffeine level was still too high to let him fall asleep there, but that was fine; he was perfectly content to stay where he was and just relax.
Sometime later (he couldn’t have said if it was several minutes or several hours) he heard a crunching sound; puzzled, he looked for the source of it and saw the bag of kitty treats he had forgotten about. Tama clearly hadn’t, and had discovered the bag wasn’t actually sealed; thus, he had his head in the bag and was munching away happily.
Japan cracked up. “Oh, of course!” he said between giggles. “I forget about the treat I promised you, so you just help yourself!” Clever kitty.
There was a sudden sound at the front door; a quick, brisk knock. Unfortunately, it took a while for the sound to even register on Japan; he heard it, he just didn’t realize what it was immediately. That did have a bit to do with how much of his focus was on Tama, still eating with his head in the bag; in Japan’s current state of mind, that was about the funniest thing ever.
It finally dawned on him what that banging had been, though—oops. “Coming!” he called, then tried to spring to his feet. What he actually did was get to his knees, manage to stumble, and fall into the wall next to him. Where he started giggling again.
There was a pause before his visitor spoke. “Japan?” Ah, it was Germany; before Japan could attempt to get up again, the door opened and Germany quickly made his way inside. “Japan? Are you all right?”
By that point, all he had managed was to end up on his back on the floor again; he looked up—or perhaps down was more appropriate, since he’d been staring at the ceiling again. (There was a neat pattern of light there and he wasn’t sure what it was reflecting from.) “Oh, Germany…” he giggled again. Yes, his friend did look funny upside down. “Hello.”
________
Historical Notes: According to my research, marijuana used to be quite important to Japanese religion and culture; according to one article, though my dictionary doesn't back this up, there's a special prayer for Amaterasu called "taima", which literally means "cannabis". True or not, I figured Japan himself could accept medicating what he would probably see as a sign of weakness if a goddess, especially such an important one, told him to.
Also, historical records really do point to Japan first getting marijuana from Korea. XD
Next installments coming as soon as I stop hating the dialogue in them!
I enjoyed this look at Japan. Also this look at cannabis use. I've heard of all the varied possibilities it can be used for, and this makes it clearer.
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Various - Drugs
(Anonymous) 2012-03-04 03:56 am (UTC)(link)America: Cocaine
China: Chemical precursors
England: Heroine, cocaine, synthetic drugs
France: European-produced synthetic drugs
Germany: European-produced synthetic drugs
Italy: Cocaine
Japan: Marihuana, E, amphetamines
Seconding and some questions
(Anonymous) 2012-03-04 08:07 am (UTC)(link)None the less seconded?
Re: Seconding and some questions
(Anonymous) 2012-03-04 04:41 pm (UTC)(link)I should have been clearer, sorry about that. That list is only for reference purposes, I'd like any character(s) with any drug(s), I just thought that listing the most popular ones for the main characters would somehow help. I was wrong, obviously D:
So, yeah, free for all!
Human AU and canon are both great.
Thank you for letting me clarify this, anon.
Herbal Relief (1/?)
(Anonymous) 2012-06-10 09:29 am (UTC)(link)This story is a collaboration, so if it seems a little choppy in parts, our apologies. I'm still editing it, but it's all planned out and mostly done, so it shouldn't be too long between updates.
On with the story!
______
Japan’s hands were cramping from so much time spent tapping on his keyboard, his back ached, his vision was blurry, and he had long ago lost track not only of how long since he had slept, but how much coffee he had consumed. He hadn’t drunk every cup that he’d made, though—at this point, he kept spilling it. Luckily not on anything vital.
He would have kept working until he passed out, but fortunately he wasn’t entirely alone; he was so focused on his work that he had blocked out all sounds, but eventually Tama got tired of his failure to respond to his hungry meows and pawed at his leg. He wasn’t using claws (yet), but unfortunately, the unexpected touch startled him so much that he dropped his coffee mug—not for the first time, but evidently for the last. It shattered on the floor, the sound of breaking ceramic making him wince; it hurt both his ears and his heart—that was his favorite mug!
Tama flattened his ears and hissed, displeased at the scary sound; out of the corner of his eye, Japan saw Pochi turn tail and run. “I’m sorry!” he blurted out, unhappy at having caused his pets so much distress. His own heart was pounding, too—apparently, even something as small as upsetting his little companions was enough to get his adrenaline up today.
Well, that and the multiple pots of coffee couldn’t be helping.
As much as he wanted to clean up the remains of his mug, his animals needed reassurance and food. He was able to get Pochi calmed down quickly enough, and poured him a bowl of dry food that he happily set upon, but Tama would not relax; he accepted being petted, but eyed Japan somewhat warily and refused to purr no matter where he was scratched.
“What is the matter with you today?” Japan asked, frustrated. “I know I haven’t been paying you the proper attention, but I am busy! You know how often I’m loaded down with too much work.”
Tama gave him what he could only interpret as a look of pure distain, then turned his back.
“Fine,” he snapped, standing up. “I will feed you and you will leave me alone, deal?” He stalked to the cabinet and yanked out the box of cat food; unfortunately, he was apparently moving more quickly than he thought and nearly dropped it. At his wits’ end, he cursed a blue streak, at least managing to fill Tama’s bowl as he did.
He meant to go right back to work, but he had managed to forget about the broken mug until he saw it again. Muttering even more curses, he picked up the pieces, only to drop them and snarl at a sudden sharp pain; due to his hands still shaking, he’d cut himself. Japan stared at the blood welling up from his fingertips, suddenly feeling faint. He tried to step back, but his body was no longer obeying him and he collapsed to the floor. He was fortunate enough not to land on any ceramic shards, but for reasons that had nothing to do with the pain of landing on a hard surface, it was rapidly becoming all he could do to keep himself from screaming until his throat was raw—which he just might if he let himself start. He knew, because he’d done it before in centuries past.
He curled up as tight as he could on the floor, hands over his mouth, trying to remain in control… a cruel joke, under the circumstances. No matter how many times he experienced this, the feeling of doom that accompanied it always convinced him almost completely that his heart was about to burst and he was going to die.
Japan absolutely despised his panic attacks.
Herbal Relief (2/?)
(Anonymous) 2012-06-10 09:37 am (UTC)(link)Despite how unsteady he was, he managed to get to his feet; moving carefully, he walked to his bedroom and opened the closet door. As clichéd as it was, he had a secret compartment in the side of it; he pushed aside the business suits and felt for a small depression, then pushed on it.
With a quiet click, the hidden drawer opened; it was nearly full of sex toys, some intended for such extreme play they would probably make Germany blanch.
Japan ignored them all and felt around in the top of it until he found and pressed a second button, then closed the drawer again, turned to the opposite wall, and pushed on a panel; it was actually a slender door, leading to what used to be part of a storage room. He slipped inside, fumbled around until he found the light switch, and then gratefully dropped onto the couch that took up an entire wall of the small room. He still felt like he was going to collapse and die at any moment, but he had gotten where he needed to be safely, and he was within seconds of finding relief.
With still-trembling hands, he opened the tin of herbs—all pre-ground, because he couldn’t do much of anything when he was in need of them—and put a large pinch into the business end of the hose, then attached it to the vaporizer already set up on the table and turned it on.
Maybe it was just a conditioned response, but Japan would swear that his heart palpitations started to slow to a normal pace as soon as the sweet scent of marijuana started filling the room. He focused on breathing as evenly as he could for the time it took for the machine to heat up (less than a minute, though it always felt far longer) and then took the mouthpiece between his lips and inhaled. After so many centuries of use, he had trained himself to be able to hold in a lungful of the smoke or vapor as long as needed, no matter how much trouble he was having controlling his breathing.
Within minutes, his heart rate had slowed nearly to normal, he was breathing easily, and his trembling was coming to a stop. Japan exhaled a lungful of the sanity-saving vapor and actually smiled in relief; though he wasn’t willing to admit it in public, to him marijuana was a godsend—literally, Amaterasu herself had told him how even its smoke could benefit him (though of course Korea claimed he had been the one to introduce Japan to it). While he would very much prefer it if his panic attacks would just stop, they were tolerable with treatment; technically others existed, but in his experience, marijuana was his best bet.
“This is, of course, my own fault,” he admitted, looking at the ceiling; he was always a little chattier when high. “Really, why do I always do this?” The economy was bad, and yes, his boss wanted his reports very soon, but no one’s life was hanging in the balance. Doing governmental reports had little in common with the times in history when his decisions had been life or death for many; during some particularly dark times, he’d been having panic attacks every day, sometimes more than once. In more peaceful times, if he had a panic attack, he’d usually brought it upon himself.
Herbal Relief (3/?)
(Anonymous) 2012-06-10 09:41 am (UTC)(link)“I should sleep now… if only sativa was immediately stronger than caffeine. Though, I suppose if it was, it would be smokeable Valium.” He giggled. “That would certainly be strange! I wonder, what would happen if Valium was set on fire?” As high as he was, it was an amusing thought.
Another likely reason he was in such bad shape today was because he hadn’t been eating; he realized that only when he happened to glance at the storage bin in the corner and saw the Pocky boxes inside it. “Oh! Of course that’s where I put them.” He giggled again and moved to open the box; he kept snacks in here because, well, he wasn’t immune to getting the munchies when he was high and his smoking room was too far from his kitchen.
By the time he had gotten through two full boxes of Pocky and another three pouches of candied fruit, the burnt-popcorn smell that meant the buds were spent was permeating the room, and Japan felt much better. He turned off the vaporizer, tipped the remains of the used-up buds into the proper container, and exited back into his closet. He was still going to be somewhat useless for getting work done that required much thought, so he sought out his pets; he’d definitely scared them earlier, and he needed to make amends for that.
Pochi approached him first; the little dog seemed to have forgotten the earlier incident already, and trotted up to him as cheerfully as ever. Japan smiled down at his loyal companion and knelt down to pet him; predictably, the change in position nearly made him fall over, but he caught himself on the wall and petted Pochi anyway. “Good dog,” he murmured, stroking the soft fur.
He could have easily lost himself in just that, but eventually he remembered he needed to find Tama and apologize to him, too. Managing to stagger to his feet, he went into the kitchen for a small bag of kitty treats; unsurprisingly, he found his cat lounging in the afternoon sunshine in front of the balcony door. Tama looked up at him, a little warily, but didn’t move.
In case caution was required (even he couldn’t read the atmosphere well when this stoned), Japan smiled at him but didn’t come close enough to touch. “Are you enjoying the warm floor, Tama? I’m sure it feels nice. You know what would be even better? Lying on that warm floor while eating a treat.” He held up the bag; Tama looked at it with interest. “You know what’s in this. Do you want some? It’s yummy…” Well, to cats. Japan had tried some once while not entirely lucid and regretted it.
Figuring he could approach without scaring Tama off, he knelt down again to give him a treat… and promptly fell right over. Fortunately, this time it didn’t hurt; he’d managed to roll onto his side more than outright collapse, so he was simply left staring at the ceiling for a moment before he figured out what had happened.
After a pause, he remembered Tama, and looked over to see his cat merely blinking at him. “I’m all right,” he said automatically, then chuckled slightly. “You must be wondering how clumsy I can be to fall so easily. Well, we cannot all be as graceful as you cats are.”
The warm tatami mats really were quite nice… he decided to just lay back for a while and enjoy the sun like Tama was. His caffeine level was still too high to let him fall asleep there, but that was fine; he was perfectly content to stay where he was and just relax.
Herbal Relief (4/?)
(Anonymous) 2012-06-10 10:04 am (UTC)(link)Japan cracked up. “Oh, of course!” he said between giggles. “I forget about the treat I promised you, so you just help yourself!” Clever kitty.
There was a sudden sound at the front door; a quick, brisk knock. Unfortunately, it took a while for the sound to even register on Japan; he heard it, he just didn’t realize what it was immediately. That did have a bit to do with how much of his focus was on Tama, still eating with his head in the bag; in Japan’s current state of mind, that was about the funniest thing ever.
It finally dawned on him what that banging had been, though—oops. “Coming!” he called, then tried to spring to his feet. What he actually did was get to his knees, manage to stumble, and fall into the wall next to him. Where he started giggling again.
There was a pause before his visitor spoke. “Japan?” Ah, it was Germany; before Japan could attempt to get up again, the door opened and Germany quickly made his way inside. “Japan? Are you all right?”
By that point, all he had managed was to end up on his back on the floor again; he looked up—or perhaps down was more appropriate, since he’d been staring at the ceiling again. (There was a neat pattern of light there and he wasn’t sure what it was reflecting from.) “Oh, Germany…” he giggled again. Yes, his friend did look funny upside down. “Hello.”
________
Historical Notes: According to my research, marijuana used to be quite important to Japanese religion and culture; according to one article, though my dictionary doesn't back this up, there's a special prayer for Amaterasu called "taima", which literally means "cannabis". True or not, I figured Japan himself could accept medicating what he would probably see as a sign of weakness if a goddess, especially such an important one, told him to.
Also, historical records really do point to Japan first getting marijuana from Korea. XD
Next installments coming as soon as I stop hating the dialogue in them!
Re: Herbal Relief (4/?)
(Anonymous) 2012-06-12 04:15 am (UTC)(link)