Blackfeather Woods addict with a pen

The burning sensation within his skin and eyes was a mental side effect of his craving, and as such was not a true reaction. There was no real irritation there, only a psychosomatic one, until Mou had gotten hold of those florets of white blossoms. He heard Maegi's voice slice through the air with warning and concern, but he couldn't help the small amount of plant matter that slipped down his throat any more than he could've helped his desperate need for his medicine; he was an addict and would do anything to make himself reach that blissfull stage of floating.

But she was right, he was stupid. Her questions were met with huffing and shrugging and a whole manner of out-of-character posturing as he tried to back away; Mou didn't want her around him right now, not unless she had some medicine for him. Especially not if she was going to come between him and his goal of acquiring that high. So what if these were the wrong plants? So what if he'd never seen them before; he didn't know where the poppy seeds came from and there was just as much likelihood he could get high off of these flowers as any other. As we've covered, Mou was stupid.

What he had ingested wasn't incredibly toxic — there were some varieties of hemlock that looked decidedly similar to queen anne's lace, you see — but it did have an effect. The clusters of white flowers soured his stomach as soon as they touched down in to the pit of his belly, and afterward Mou felt a sensation similar to capsicum spreading across his lips, his tongue, down his throat — and his recoiling became more frantic, more panicked, when he realized his mistake. No, he hadn't ingested a poison, but the irritation of aethusa cynapium was not something to laugh at.