Free One Billion Drops of Happiness by Olivia Joy Page B

alongside him.
    ‘Let’s not talk business today.’ Henry replied shortly.
    Xandria found herself questioning mentally why she was going ahead with this injection to such a surly man. Alas, it did not take her long to remember that she too would benefit from this, and that millions of other citizens would drastically shorten their lifespan for the opportunity to be affiliated with the Excelsior brand.
    They took the elevator in silence, disembarking together on the hundred and eighth floor. A representative was there to meet them.
    ‘Mr Excelsior, welcome to LovePotion Incorporated. It is a pleasure to have you here.’ The voice came from a small man with a reedy voice. He was dressed homogeneously in linens the same colour as the building. ‘If you’d like to come this way, and you too, Ms Reinhardt…’
    He took them a short distance down the bare corridor. Soft furnishings were too superfluous for a place like this. Everything on a tight schedule with no time to pause and notice the extra touches. There were doors on both sides of the corridor with numbers, increasing in correlation to the floor number. The man stopped at door number 10823 and motioned them inside.
    A woman dressed identically to the man glanced over at the new entrants. The room was cold, consisting of only one resin table and three resin seats all bound to the floor without a visible join. Two vials of clear love potion sat on the table waiting to be titrated into the waiting couple.
    Henry and Xandria sat beside each other, still without a word. Both felt their Suppressitors gently wash them with a fresh dose of serenity.
    The woman sat beside them and began drawing up the potion into two syringes.
    ‘The potion will not take effect until tomorrow,’ she said, injecting Henry first. His face did not change. ‘The initial dose will work for six months. After that you are advised to return for once-yearly boosters. Have either of you ever had this potion before?’
    ‘No.’ Xandria said.
    Henry shook his head.
    ‘I did not think they were necessary until the recent spate of Suppressitor glitches.’ He answered finally. ‘I am a strong person. This potion was formerly best for the bourgeoisie who do not possess my fortitude.’
    The woman said nothing at first. She had heard many sentiments along this vein recently. There had been much panic buying of the potion since Harvey Ebb’s public spectacle. The country was beginning to fear any weakness in their emotional armour.
    ‘Very well,’ she replied, dabbing Henry’s arm and starting on Xandria. ‘As you may know, the batch of potion I have just administered is unique to the two of you. You will be largely protected from the threat of the more virulent form.’
    ‘So what is the risk of contracting this?’ Xandria asked.
    ‘Clinical studies over the past thirty years have put the figure at 0.5%.’ The woman said. ‘We think this is a negligible risk, given the ugly alternative. Our potion has developed enormously since the early days; we are better equipped to predict the effects of the drug than ever before. For instance, if this is the first time that you have taken the drug, the initial first four months will be an experience. Nothing that a Suppressitor can’t deal with, so don’t worry. It will be nevertheless a strange period of acclimatization. The body will never have experienced anything like it, so you will feel short bursts of something unusual. Some people barely notice a difference bar a light feeling of affection, some people experience more. Their behaviours towards each other may briefly mimic those of the Old World. This is where your inbuilt constitution will help you. You will see just how strong you really are. In time, your Suppressitor will learn to anticipate the emotion before it occurs. Soon you will be oblivious to its workings.’
    ‘But if Suppressitors can help to flatten out the changes, what happens if one of us gets a glitch?’ Xandria