Drugs in various forms are woven throughout Ghosts of Innocence.
The most frequently recurring example, and important to the plot, is trylex. It removes all voluntary motor control and renders a person powerless to resist external suggestion. This places the victim totally in your power, as far as general physical actions goes. It has a nasty side-effect that any attempt to fight the drug results in mind-splitting pain.
Shayla uses trylex several times to drug victims, including the Emperor, and is hit with it once herself.
Nicadyne is a more everyday drug. A powerful stimulant, commonly used to overcome fatigue, it's a bit-player in the Ghosts pharmacopoeia, and makes several brief appearances.
Two nastier drugs make single, but decisive, entrances. Animastin destroys recent memory. One of Shayla's colleagues takes it to remove any possibility of giving away his actions under interrogation. Nacrolin is a feared poison which Shayla uses at the end of the story. More of that in a later post.
Many more unnamed drugs and poisons crop up throughout the story, illustrating my leaning towards writing about "softer" technologies.
It's not all spaceships and death rays!
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12 comments:
Do you have druggies then and drug circles, or is it stuff that's easily obtainable over the counter?
A chemically controlled world? Hmm...not too far off reality.
And D is also for a Disarmingly Delightful gentleman :).
I love the idea of softer technologies! Such a great phrase and such interesting use of drugs.
But... Spaceships and death-rays are fun!
Actually, I'd be pretty afraid of trylex. The potential for criminal abuse is frightening.
Sounds like quite the world!
--j--
Hi, a very interesting post. As writers of murder mysteries, we need to know those things, don't we? Drug abuse is terrible, too. I find your profile interesting as well. My regards to you, Ruby
Trylex sounds like enough to drive a person mad. Ugh. Talk about the ultimate date rape drug.
Super interesting! Stupid question alert - did you come up with these drugs on your own or are they based on something that really exists? Just wondering, and I'm too lazy to do a Google search. :D
Well, a few interesting questions here :)
Kimberlee, I haven't given much thought to that aspect. Likely there are drug abusers out there, but I think that most of my regimes are more interested in compliance and revenue than the welfare of individuals, so I reckon that most vices will be legal, and therefore regulated ... and taxed.
Of the drugs mentioned in this post, only nicodyne is freely available. The others are not narcotics, they are weapons, and about as readily available to the average citizen as, say, weaponized anthrax.
J and McKenzie, yes, trylex is not nice and has all sorts of potential uses/abuses. Fortunately, it is hard to come by (see above). It is also limited in what you can get people to do. Fine motor control, like speech for example, is out of the question.
Lindsey, not a stupid question at all! These are all my own inventions, and not based on anything in existence.
Hey Ian,
Shayla induced me with Trylex and informed me that it was um 'high' time I came over and commented. And in a rather dazed state, at gone four in the morning, I'm here. At least, I think I'm here :)
All the best, my friend....
Hi Gary, glad to see you, whatever state you may be in :)
And the scary thing is, they all sound so plausible!
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