Something strange is happening to me.
We're at Conrad's vacation house, a sprawling mansion that orbits the gas giant Hades-3. (His father owns both the house and the planet.) Conrad is in the living room watching sports. His girlfriend Alyssa is standing by the mirror in the bathroom, fixing her hair. Her friend Kat is sitting near the bay windows, watching the stars and the roiling vermeil clouds on the world below. Dillon is in the kitchen, mixing drinks. Brad is slouched on the sofa, watching everyone with a lazy smile.
And I don't know which of them I am.
Perception shifts. A few moments of Alyssa, running my fingers through silky hair. A moment of Dillon, using my knife to slice limes for the drinks. A moment of Kat, feeling awe of those looming bands of color, of those constantly churning swirls that look so majestic, and make me feel so insignificant. Then Conrad--pride at my team's success, at my father's wealth.
Then Brad. I feel quite smug. "It's starting to work," I tell them. "You can all feel it, can't you?"
Dillon comes in from the kitchen with the drinks. I hand one of them to Conrad, who thanks me, and one to Kat, who takes it silently. "Feel what?" I ask.
Brad gestures to the smoldering bowl at the center of the coffee table, at the Callipsarian pipe and whatever that shit was we've all been smoking.
"Something very strange is happening to me," Kat says.
Brad ignores her. "You see, I had this idea. A few weeks ago, Dillon and I were talking politics, and he brings up this thing about Rawls."
Conrad sighs and orders the computer to take a break. I want to watch the end of the game, but this is starting to feel really weird.
Alyssa comes out of the bathroom, looking gorgeous, as always. I sit down on the couch next to Conrad. "What's going on, Brad?" I ask. "What was that stuff you gave us?"
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