"Why do I have whiskers!?" Luna shouted the moment she saw her reflection in the mirror the next morning. Someone drew whiskers on her cheeks with a black marker while she was asleep! She let her guard down and this is what happened.
Lyria and Epsilon pointed at Astrid who was doing all she could to hold in her laughter.
"Astrid!" Luna took a pillow and started slapping her friend with it. "I thought we agreed to only draw on Amelie's face! We were an alliance!"
"My bad!" Astrid couldn't hold it in anymore and laughed hard. "I couldn't resist. I missed drawing on people's faces while they're asleep."
Luna continued hitting her with a pillow before marching to the bathroom to wash off the whiskers. She closed the door behind her.
"You want some breakfast? We have noodles." Epsilon was already eating her bowl of noodles.
"We already had noodles for dinner," said Lyria.
Epsilon shrugged. "We only have noodles here."
Astrid noticed a strange bottle in Epsilon's room. She couldn't help but wonder about it. "What's this?" she asked out of curiosity.
"Oh. That's one of the smuggled goods my family sells. Concentrated silentbloom extract. It's a stimulant. One sniff of it gives you a massive energy burst, about the same level as drinking three cups of espresso without any undesirable side effects or withdrawal symptoms, although there were some reports of experiencing hallucinations when they had too much of it."
"Aren't these addictive drugs!?" Astrid once read the news about the banning of silentbloom products. It caused an uproar some years ago because a major soda company that used silentbloom in their products suffered huge losses from the ban.
Epsilon shrugged. "They're not really dangerous to the body. Some stupid kids just broke into the government office and drew on the statues while being high on silentbloom. There's no real research that noted any addictive qualities. In reality, it's no different from being high on coffee."
Astrid stared at the bottle. She wasn't sure whether it was really a threat to society or not. "Do you use this stuff?"
"Not really. I just like making new products out of it. I'm trying to make a formula that's sure to produce the hallucination effect. Just to scare people, you know? It won't really physically harm them." Epsilon pulled out a vial from her drawer. "This is my latest formula, the Epsilon Poison #14. I haven't tested it yet, but it should work. You can spray it on someone's face and it will immediately take effect."
Astrid had an idea. What if they used this on the enemies in Aries?
"Epsi, are you able to produce a lot of that stuff? We might be able to use this against Lyngvi and Magnus."
A wicked grin formed on Epsilon's mouth. "I'd be delighted to make more of this just to see it in action. Magnus, however, will require a much more... powerful formula." She started to laugh like an evil mastermind. She enjoyed torturing the Jupiter guildmaster.
Astrid felt a little sorry for Magnus. "Thanks. This should put us at an advantage."
Luna walked out of the bathroom completely whisker-free. "My face feels liberated again." She noticed a spray bottle on top of Epsilon's cabinet. It had a pretty container, so she couldn't help but examine it. "Is this a new perfume, Epsi?"
"Luna, no! Don't touch that!" Epsilon tried to stop her, but it was too late. Luna already sprayed Epsilon Poison #14 on herself. It wasn't long before she collapsed on the bed. For a few seconds, she made no movement.
"Luna!" The three girls hurriedly gathered around their fallen companion.
"Oh Tank, no! We mustn't! This isn't appropriate..." Luna was smiling and blushing while being deep inside her hallucination. Astrid poked her with the marker. "Stop it, Tank..." She squealed.
Epsilon rubbed her chin. "Huh. Interesting."
"Is this supposed to happen?" Astrid asked.
"I have no control over the hallucinations people are supposed to see when in contact with the poison, but I didn't expect it to be like this."
Astrid bent down near Luna's ear. She spoke with a deep voice imitating Tank, "Luna, this is Tank. I have a secret to tell you. I... I... I'm in love with Frisk!"
"What!? You and Frisk!?" Luna was shocked.
Astrid stood back up. "This is kind of fun."
"Do you have an antidote?" Lyria asked Epsilon.
"Sadly no. It should fade away soon though. I doubt she sprayed a huge amount on her. I can keep watch over her here if you need to go out and do some preparations. I'd like to observe the effects of the Epsilon Poison #14 and take notes," replied Epsilon. "Even if I did have an antidote, I doubt Luna would want her hallucination to end."
"I knew it! I knew there was something going on between you and Frisk!" shouted Luna.
Astrid did her Tank voice imitation again, "I couldn't help myself. Frisk was just so... hot!"
Luna gasped.
As Astrid and Epsilon were busy having fun messing around with Luna and her hallucination, Lyria excused herself and left the noodle shop first. She wanted to get started on gathering information about Lyngvi. It was going to be hard getting any inside information on him because of his celebrity status, but Lyria had collected years worth of articles, videos, and books as a loyal Vi fan. She even had a poster of him in her room.
One way or another, she was going to get the information she needed.