Rebecca and Julie, psychonauts

Julie rolled her eyes when she saw what Becca had brought home. Becca, for her part, was busy trying to get the thing through the front door on a dolly. "Whatever that is, it's going in your study."

Becca gingerly set it down, grinning. "Wait till you see what it does."

Julie sighed in exasperation. She loved her girlfriend but sometimes she wanted to strangle her. Together they sought out every strange and intense experience they could find. It started with ****, then really obscure ****. They'd been on vision quests, they'd subjected themselves to all sorts of mystical and technical processes. They had bonded on a spiritual and neurological level.

All of that didn't keep her from being exasperated by this kind of shit. Julie tended towards the technical sort of experience; she wanted to try ECT, designer ****, transcranial magnetic stimulation, even a cingulotomy. Becca, on the other hand, sought out the woo-woo stuff. She was always coming back from junk sales with every spooky item she could lay her hands on. They weren't usually this big, though.

Becca went around and closed the door, leaving the weird piece of furniture in the middle of the living room. "We'll figure out where to put it later, we need to try it out now. It's called the Mentality Pedestal. You just write someone's name on it, toss something in, and it changes them to reflect the object. It's the real deal!"

"That sounds like a load of bullshit. How much did you pay for this thing?"

Becca was undeterred by her cynicism. "The woman at the store gave me a demo. It's for real. Watch, let's try it out."