Noodle, dissatisfied with the compendium DPIP had sent their colony about the effects of the local flora, had decided to take matters into zir own hands. Nova and Splash had been - unwillingly - roped into this scheme, but when Noodle promised that ze wouldn't send them out for basaraytz fruit anymore, the two readily agreed.

How bad could sampling some unknown flora be, anyways?

Noodle wasn't stupid, and had asked the natives that lived in the area which plants were toxic, and which ones had documentable effects. They had been all too gleeful to tell zem of some, but had refused to elaborate on the effects. They would figure out the effects shortly.

They met in one of Noodle's exam rooms, with the walls smooth stone with vaguely calming posters of various environmental scenes, warm lighting, and a desk and some chairs. The glowing bones of Rekes shot through some of the walls, lighting the posters from behind, and the computers whirred softly in the background. Noodle got Nova and Splash hooked up to some monitoring devices, plugged them in, and then settled down to start.

Nova and Splash stared suspiciously at Noodle as ze presented each of them with a small purple flower.

"Are you sure this is edible?"

"Freezerburn said it wouldn't kill you."

"'Won't kill me' doesn't mean it's edible. I would like not to throw up today, thanks."

"So you're telling me you want to go get me some more basaraytz fruit?"

Nova sighed in resignation and reluctantly took the fruit, munching on it and making a face. Both Splash and Noodle watched with interest, Noodle jotting notes down.

"Tastes like shit."

"Can you describe it more?"

While Nova gave a resoundingly unappealing description of the flavor, Splash munched on their flower and made a similarly unhappy face. Noodle diligently wrote down what the taste was like, then cocked zir head.

"Feel any different?"

"Noooo…."

"Should we be?"

"I don't know."

"What do you MEAN you don't know."

"I told you this was an experiment, that we'd be figuring it out."

Splash looked about ready to argue, but Nova nudged them. "Ze did say that."

Splash huffed in irritation, then let it drop. For the moment. Noodle got the feeling ze'd be having an earful later.

"Sooooo… what now?"

"You let me know if you feel weird. I don't want to be mixing things if they take longer to take effect. Even with normally innocuous stuff, that can be bad."

"Well, at least you're making the right choice there," Splash snorted.

"How long is long enough… oooh."

"Oh?" Both Noodle and Splash turned to regard Nova with interest and trepidation respectively.

Nova blinked, wide, eyed, and Noodle began recording vitals and jotting down how his pupils had dilated, and he appeared to be staring at things in the middle distance.

"The room didn't used to be purple, did it?"

"No…"

"Or green?"

Nova and Noodle stared at Splash who was showing the same change in vitals that Nova was.

"Well," Noodle said slowly, "Safe to assume it does something, huh?"

"I don't like this," Splash moaned, hunkering down and covering their head with their hands. "Tell the world to stop spinning, I want to get off."

"Can we trade? I want the colors to stop talking."

Noodle jotted down notes and tried to get coherence out of Nova and Splash, but they were caught up in their - seemingly somewhat unpleasant - sensory experiences. It wore off after an hour, and while Noodle wanted to keep them in the medical wing for observation, it took some convincing.

"What, so you can offer us more strange plants?"

"No, so I can monitor you for any side effects," Noodle huffed, all but shoving Nova into a private room. "You'll be free to go tomorrow, as long as you don't start throwing up or changing colors."

"What?" Nova squawked, but Noodle closed the door on him while Splashed eyed zem suspiciously.

"Is that a hint."

"No, now go to bed."

Splash made a rude gesture but dragged themself into their room and settled down, closing the door and making themself comfortable.

Noodle sighed with some small relief and headed back to zir office to review zir notes and data. It seemed that was a plant to stay away from…