I went to meet this really cute guy at a bar, introduced to me by one of my close friends. We hit it off instantly—he was normal, personable, and we had a blast chatting and getting to know each other. Later, one of his friends, an older gay male, joined us.

We wanted to go out dancing or hit more bars, but everything was closed. So, he invited us to his friend's apartment, where they had drinks and a bar setup. It was a kickback with queer ballroom folks—mostly men, with perhaps one or two non-binary femmes or trans women.

As soon as I entered the building, I felt something in the air. It was as if something was being diffused, smoked, or blown. The best way I can describe it is that it smelled like the color pink or finely ground chalk. In the first 10 minutes, I went around introducing myself, starting with those who appeared most relatable and closest to my age.

However, during each handshake, they looked and felt quite grim, almost grey. I began to see weird "black humanoid faceless demonic ghost creatures" squirming inside the bodies of the young men. Despite their outward appearance lighting up, likely because they thought I was cute, the sight was unnerving.

I later found myself talking to a very handsome guy who seemed DL/Discreet and cruising for casual sex. He kept asking me about my name, job, and what substances I had taken earlier. I started feeling unsafe and stopped talking, stonewalling the younger guys.

By this point, I was six drinks in, high from a few joints, and the shrooms I took earlier were kicking in. Older people began approaching me after noticing the guy failing to flirt with me. The first was possibly a trans woman and owner of the apartment. She seemed to go into "repair mode," asking why there was social tension and if anything was wrong. She tried to spark a normal conversation, but her questions about my career, origins, and family made me suspicious.

Feeling it was getting harder to breathe, I focused on deep tantric nose breathing and grabbed a bottle of water from a 24-pack, assuming it was uncontaminated. My friend disappeared into the restroom for about five minutes, leaving me alone with the woman. When my friend came out, a younger guy close to my age approached.

His handshake made my hand go chillingly cold, shooting a nerve up to my shoulder, and suddenly, I felt numb and weak at the knees. I pulled my hand away in fear, playing it off as a normal handshake. The guy then tried to introduce himself to my friend, who got scared, crossed his arms, and said, "No thanks, I don't do hugs."

While the guy distracted my friend, I called an express ride on Lyft. I told my friend, "Hey, my ride is downstairs. Can you walk me down?" We both escaped that hellhole and left.

On my way home, I felt like I was coming in and out, fighting to stay awake or conscious of my drive. The feeling didn’t quite go away until I got home, FaceTimed, and ate quite a bit. It took roughly 2-4 hours before I felt normal again.

Edit: I want to add a detail I missed which was that after contact in the room for a few minutes, that the feelings of a trance/hypnosis ensued for myself and my friend. We both spoke after this experience and had several of the same body and psychological feelings. One of which being the willingness to converse or comply passively.