EPISODE 3 : The Rave Show

substances: Methamphetamine (capsules)
levo-5-hydroxytryptophan (5-htp)

After the experience with the candy flip not only did Swim decide further experimentation with this newfound ally 'sass' need to be done, but he also had developed a reputation around his small town, everyone who he had assisted with rolling at the previous woods rave had nothing but great things to say about it and also wanted to experiment further. The next opportunity they got was at a local venue with a moderately unknown dubstep band playing. And yes they were more a band than the common Djay setup. This time the sass was sourced through an extremely sketchy roundabout series of connections which simply cannot go without further explanation. One of Swim's old friends (who was a known tweaker) came into town for a couple of days and stopped by one of Swim's friends house. There he was sampling his version of 'sass'. The color and texture of this 'sass' was very much different from the white pearly colored substance that Swim had previously obtained, this was in amber colored shards. Knowing the sellers history Swim couldn't help but to ask if this was meth, which the seller assured him it was not. Today of course Swim knows that real MDA or 'sassafras' should be a purple tint if made properly, however there are other synthetic routes which include reducing pseudo-ephedrine to meth, then P2P, and then administering safrole oil in benzene to produce precisely this type of coloration and drug. Regardless, at the time, Swim and friends didn't know any better but were impressed by the substance nonetheless.

In order to obtain said chemical once Swim's old friend had left town again, he had to contact the seller's contact 'Trout'. Aside from having a sketchy gang name as such, Trout lived in a sketchy apartment on a sketchy side of town and was extremely sketchy. After sitting outside of the apartment building for nearly half an hour, 'Trout' finally let Swim and Bike into his apartment where a plethora of high schoolers were clearly high out of their minds. Trout kept asking Swim to show him the money and tried acting like a total gangster, Swim finally handed over eighty dollars in return for ten capsules of a much whiter substance than previously acquired, two of the capsules were completely empty. Swim promptly returned the capsules which Trout then exchanged for another empty capsule and one with something in it. Somewhat annoyed Swim and Bike left figuring they weren't going to get much more out of the shady situation.

Swim was able to make most of his money back selling the capsules at ten dollars a piece, leaving two for himself to test.

-1.00 Hour : Swim prepared for the show as a handful of individuals came over to get the extra sass from Swim. Butterflies rose in his stomach in anticipation of both the techno experience and the amplification through the chemicals.

0.00 Hour : Swim ingests one of the capsules orally, this is about 15 minutes before the actual show was to begin, he figured he'd save the other for the right time during the show, knowing that the door security was incredibly lax.

0:15 : Swim starts to feel slightly stimulated, granted it could have easily been placebo effects and playing off Swim and his friends excitement.

0:30 : Effects have definitely become noticeable as the show is underway and he realizes dancing is an uncontrollable and wonderful feeling act.

0:45 : Swim feels as if he's reached a plateau from the single capsule and is interested to see if a second capsule will double the euphoria. At this point he doesn't have the visual disturbances caused from the previous sass, but certainly feels warm and tingly all over. He sneaks into the bathroom to pop his second capsule.

1:00 : Almost instantaneously Swim is skyrocketed into a place of ecstacy, time becomes extremely blurred from here until the end of the three hour show, and once again he experiences the visual candy of the previous trip. His jaw is clenched and he feels like he can taste the music as well as the aura's of everyone around him.

3:00 : The show ends and everyone in Swim's party retreats to an after party, where they discuss their 'roll' more than the actual show itself. Swim was glad to have contributed to this awesome time for all, and was certainly still noticing the effects long after he expected to. Though the show ended rather early (before midnight), he could tell that the night was but starting.

5:00 : Swim feels what some would call 'gakked' out, his jaw is hurting from clenching, and his body feels completely drained, though his mind is still very much awake somehow. Swim smoked some cannabis which to his pleasure seemed to bring back the good feelings and overpowered the negative and noticeable comedown.

7:00 : Still not completely at baseline, Swim decides it might be time to get some rest. He returns home (which was across the street at the time) to try to get some sleep. Unfortunately this was not in the cards as Swim rolled around restlessly still feeling strange tingling sensations all around him. More than ever Swim questioned the methiness of what he had consumed. After about an hour of rolling around he finally drifts off into dreams.

Episode 2: Sid and Molly

consumed:

150 micrograms LSD (approximate)
300 milligrams MDA


Immediately following the Hippy Flip, Swim and the group at the Rave Cave had a series of much smaller misadventures mostly involving alcohol and cannabis (both in extreme excess) until a couple weeks later, when the group had caught word of a 'rave' to be held out in the woods. This sort of thing was gaining popularity in the area and being as Swim and Bike had talked about hosting such an event themselves, they figured it couldn't hurt to check it out. Coincidentally one of Swim's fellow coworkers had subtly mentioned that he had a relatively large amount of 'sassafras' (being codeword for refined MDA crystal) that he had just picked up from the West Coast. Having an abundance of money at this point Swim decided to get a couple grams. Swim's coworker warned of the potency of the stuff which only made Swim more excited. The crystals were off-white to amber colored and were hard crystals that needed to be crushed to powder. In the next couple hours prior to the show Swim got the word out about his new acquision with much interest to his friends. The couple grams Swim had bought practically sold themself leaving Swim with only a few points which his buddy had assured him would be more than sufficient. In the process of getting rid of the rest of the 'sass' Swim managed to trade a point to a buddy for a tab of acid. Now normally this wouldn't be anything altogether special, however this was Swim's first time doing either substance and he was planning on both, assuring Swimself that The Hippy Flip was adequate preparation.

Just prior to leaving for the event, Swim parachuted a point of the sass along with the tab of dose and then jumped in the full car to ride up. The driver had also parachuted a point assuring everyone he was experienced with molly and sass. Within a half an hour, he was second guessing himself and his driving ability, and Swim was in a technicolor world Swim had never imagined existed. Now let me just say for anyone questioning the differences between mushrooms and acid, mushrooms take you to very dark, though incredible places, acid on the other hand, takes you to a brightly neon flavored alien world where the scariest part is how crazy everything is. Pure MDA also has hallucinogenic properties which potentiate the effects of LSD.

The setting we arrived in was set up perfectly for what Swim was experiencing, the only light through the woods between stages was that of glowsticks wrapped around trees, and the ravers walking to and from the stages, giving the distinct impression that invisible people with glowsticks were walking around. As the neon lights warped Swim felt Swimself go into a mode where everything around Swim seemed to connect perfectly and Swim started dancing uncontrollably. Music sounded so good, and everything felt so good, especially head massages from random rave girls. The cold mountain wind felt like refreshing pool water on a hot summer day, and lollipops tasted like festive explosions of fruit flavoring. Not to mention the taste of menthol cigarrettes which was nothing short of smoked candy to Swims pallette. Truly, Swim never wanted to come down, and if Swim had known at the time how bad the comedown would be, Swim would have felt even more inclined to stay up. But inevitably the show ended, and we headed back, in a short period of time Swim started to develop what many fondly call 'E-tardation' where my serotonin levels had been depleted to such an extent Swim could hardly formulate my own name. In the recess of the event we gathered at the Rave Cave to roast a few bowls and go over what had happened, everyone remarked at the potency of the sass Swim had gotten and Swim replied with an inquisition to my mental state, "How long is this going to last?" Swim asked. The group of experienced rollers laughed and replied "A day or two", and also added that there was this miraculous easily acquired substance called 5-HTP which was a natural precursor to serotonin that actually replaced serotonin as it was being depleted, and that if Swim took 100 mg before and after rolling that Swim could altogether avoid this 'E-tardation'. Well, this was certainly a learning experience.

Episode 1: The Hippy Flip

Consumed: 1 pill ecstacy (??? ingredients unknown)
1/8 oz. psilocybe cubensis
1/4 oz. cannabis
? alcohol

Date of experience: 6/6/09

Swim had just gotten out of a long term, extremely controlling, voilent, absolute Hell of a relationship and was in search of something to get Swims mind off the whole ordeal. Swim was just getting off work from a ho-hum job waiting tables at a Mexican restaurant. Swims only other compadre at the outfit was the owner Horacio who lived directly across the street from the restaurant as he had for many decades previous. One of Swims good friends Bike, lived less than three blocks down the street in a apartment complex mainly rented out to older folks...much older folks. Despite it's target audience the crew that generally attended Bike and his roommate JGs pad had fondly nicknamed it the 'Rave Cave'. You can probably make a broad estimation of the events that typically occurred at said humble abode.

When Swim arrived Swim already had an idea of what was going to take place, Swim personally had never tried ecstacy or X, and more out of spite for Swims late girlfriend was going to be taking it with a group of lovely ladies as well as Bike and JG. Though Swims memory is a little foggy, if habit serves correctly, we probably started off with a few introductory bowls and greetings ;D , before all dropping the bombs, yellow if memory serves correctly, with a pistol stamp. About half an hour after taking them everyone was starting to say they were feeling the effects, having never tried this sort of thing Swim was rather unimpressed at the time being. However after a few drinks the ladies begin to loosen up to the party a litte bit and Swim didn't really mind whatever Swim thought Swim didn't feel. About an hour in one of the girls Kaley said that she had some mushrooms in her car, Bike mentioned that he had to work in the morning but wanted to hippy flip anyways. Swim insisted if we proceeded he could not miss work. He promised so we went for the boomers. Swim was no n00b to shrooms by this point so Swim knew to eat them with Peanut M&M's to kill the fungal taste of feces. Within a half an hour Swim was in a world I had never experienced, a cubensis paradise void of worry or care. Almost immediately Bike and Swim decided we'd leave the beautiful group of rolling ladies to JG's devices (they were giving eachother massages when we had left) to go adventure our small town in the dead of night. Not shortly after leaving his house Bike insisted he had to urinate, and wanted to do so at the nearest gas station. Knowing our mental situation Swim recommended this be avoided and he should appreciate the ability to urinate in the outdoors. Despite better warning Bike proceeded to go into the gas station only to bother to clerk to such a point he thought we were trying to run some diversion on his store and threatened to call the cops. Swim scolded Bike and then we quickly headed back to the Rave Cave where they were watching the film Waking Life. Though Swim had watched the film several times before, never before had any of it made a lick of sense, however now under a state of inebriation Swim could understand the film perfectly, and it even seemed to somehow connect everything together and for a brief moment Swim understood the world and undescribable waves of emotion washed over Swim. Swim remembers Swim had a hard time keeping Swims face in one position and probably looked really interesting as it kept contorting. And after everything, Bike ended up calling in sick in the morning.

Looking back Swim would say that this sole event is largely responsible for the whirpool of events about to follow. Swim would definitely attribute the empatheogenic effects of both the cubensis as well as the ecstacy to the bond that the group he was with that night developed for eachother.