Episode 14: Hot Drinks

***Hot Drinks*** is the fourteenth episode of *Glass Paradise*. **Content warning** **for depictions of abuse, psychedelia, and usage of marijuana.**

## Summary

The date is April of 2020. After weeks of self-isolating, Mulholland Merritt invites Jonah Johansson and Oliver Roswell to the local grocery chain to do some shopping. They meet at two AM and spend an hour messing around and catching up at the store, much to Jonah's chagrin. Not wanting the fun to end, Mud invites the two next door to eat at McSpanky's, to which Oliver happily agrees. Jonah is dragged along.

While ordering at the counter, a pair in their late teens/early twenties exits the restroom, smelling strongly of marijuana. The much friendlier one of the two greets the boys and introduces herself as Ursula Nawara. Her comparatively sober brother, Daniel Nawara, keeps quiet as she rambles about how he's transferring to a state school on a sports scholarship. This jogs Oliver's memory, who recognizes Ursula as a former baseball star at Paradise City High School, and Daniel as a player for the local baseball team, the Paradise City Loungers.

Taken by Ursula, Oliver offers the siblings a chance to eat in Jonah's limousine. Mud stays behind in the restaurant while Jonah argues with Oliver in the parking lot. Ursula offers both of them a hit from her dab pen to calm them down, but they refuse. She gives them a demonstration in attempt to goad them on, and suddenly, she, Jonah, Oliver and Daniel are transported to a psychedelic dreamscape.

Daniel angrily explains that the three conditions of her Stand, Down at McDonnelzzz, have been met. They have to win a game of kickball against her before her high wears off or they'll suffer the same fate as her friends and turn into the tentacles populating her team. Ursula conjures a goopy, misshapen ball, but Daniel quickly hits her with his own, insisting they use his.

As they’re playing, a young man emerges from a car sitting in the outfield. He introduces himself as Matthew "Hop" Hopkins, a local skater boy who was having a nap, and his stand, BIG BEAST. He joins the visiting team.

Daniel begins punting the ball instead of underhanding. Ursula, who volunteered to do a run for the opposite team, gets pummeled by all three of his strikes. Oliver reads her mind and finds himself in a world of pink static. Upon missing a kick, Hop finds himself in the static as well; his only point of reference is a white outline of Daniel and the ball.

Oliver, Jonah, and Hop manage to win the game. Jonah begins to interrogate Ursula about the tentacles. He tries to bring one back to life, but all he’s able to do is free its soul. Daniel interrupts with a challenge to a rematch. Jonah, suspicious, tries to bait Daniel into attacking him. Ursula interrupts by offering Daniel her pen. He angrily declines, so she takes a puff to encourage him, and they’re transported to another stage where the teams have switched sides. She begins telling Oliver about how good of a slugger she was in her time, but gets hit in the face by Daniel again.

Jonah frees the last four tentacles. Daniel takes notice and gets angry all over again. Jonah ignores him again as he deduces that the dreamscape is a projection of light, and since they won the game, they can escape and not die. Oliver makes his own deduction: he asks if Daniel is jealous of his sister, which baits Daniel into throwing the ball. Hop takes the ball and places it in his beanie using his primary ability, then tells Daniel he’ll have to comply with their demands to get his Stand back. Daniel smugly explains that his stand, Feed My Fuckin' Habit is not an object; he can bind it to circular objects and control them with it. Its primary ability, 「I’m Surprised You Still Walk Upright」, blinds anyone hit by it to everything except the Stand and its user.

Jonah, hoping for another explanation, accosts Ursula as soon as she’s up to no avail. He resorts to simply stealing the dreamscape with Fireflies. They return to the parking lot where Jonah rejects another rematch. Daniel responds by trying to fling a tire at the main crew, but Oliver grabs it out of the air and traps him in it. Jonah and Hop descend on him, but Oliver, reflecting on how violent they were with Miles, interrupts. He combs through Daniel’s mind to get to the bottom of Daniel’s rage towards his sister and discovers that he sabotaged Ursula’s high school baseball career.

Alien Boy develops the ability to reframe someone’s memories, which he uses to make Daniel more appreciative of his sister. Daniel leaves, but a sobered Ursula stays behind. She seems to have forgotten all about the events of the night. Oliver tries to explain and gives her his number, which she takes to avoid trouble and quickly leaves.

Mud steps out of the McSpanky’s and asks the guys if they had fun “kicking around in an empty parking lot”. The boys decide that they’ve had enough and head home.

In the post credits sequence, four human brains sit in the parking lot as Kameron Khalifa tries and fails to get the police to the McSpanky’s. Daniel sits in the car with Ursula, lamenting how she lost the opportunity to go to a state college due to her "mysterious" off-streak. She explains that the offers hadn't been retracted, and she chose to stay in Paradise City out of fear he’d continue to live in her shadow. They part ways as the sun rises with her congratulating him on finally making a name for himself.