USF Progenitor & Crew: Adventures in Cosmos 01

[#17] Nectarine's V.I.P.s

Christopher, Ka'eo, and the rest of the Progenitor crew were still having a blast in the V.I.P. room of the Nectarine Bar & Club, dining on the asteroid's unique cuisines.
They had ordered a mix of entrees, including shrimp scampi, sushi, salads, buttered potatoes, sauced up chicken strips and tenders, sliced and diced and full cuts of steak meats, and some very unique, strange, alien food platters.
One of the alien foods looked like purple and brown ogo, a seaweed, condensed into the center of a mashed up meat. Another alien dish was similar to a coconut with a tough, sharply spined shell on the outside with green molasses-like liquid on the inside containing a new set of vitamins that vamped up human health. Another platter was decorated with kale and parsley garnish squashed beneath twenty individual, miniature creatures resembling lobsters with large eyes and antennas and a multitude of curled rear legs resembling mycelium. The name of the creatures on the menu was Lingiaimo, pronounced Lin-guy-mo. All of the sauces and seasonings in addition to the food was to die for, all of it adding a mouthful of flavor to each dish.
Peter, Stavros, and Ka'eo used their PCDs to capture images of the food and the drinks, saving them to SitRep with their own unique captions.
After that, the group gulped down the food, half-way engaged in a discussion that Ka'eo had sparked. Ka'eo shared with Christopher and his crew some intel on a new technology in development. This was mentioned by Ka'eo a few times while the technology was still in research phase, headed by Ascof & Professionals (A&P) BioCorp., and their dedicated team of scientists and researchers.
Mana chortled and said, "It's heresy!"
"They already did cell-regeneration, we basically can live forever so long as we don't get shot, pretty much. And so long as we don't die in an explosion. We can travel and see each other so many years later and catch up on everything we missed. So, why not add more to human accomplishment?" Ka'eo warmly pitched.
"It's heresy!" Mana roughed, trying to stomp out his excitement to the idea. "Nobody wants to live! NooooooOOOH!"
Christopher couldn't stop laughing, enjoying Mana's unhinged personality. A few drinks in, and he felt it was all worth it.
"So, wait," Stavros chuckled. "You're saying that..."
"Heresy!!" Mana intervened.
Christopher was rolling over laughing, holding onto his belly, trying to breathe. Peter laughed along with him.
"Yes, they basically rip your epidermis off and replace it with technological f$ckin' uhhh-cybernetic scales, and they can be altered to swap back and forth between your so-called human form and... basically the angelic form," Ka'eo explained, wildly entertaining them.
Mana yelled, "No, I don't want them to rip my epidermis off! I want it!" He fake screamed, "I waaaant iiiiiiiit!"
"Yeah! And then you can become the chess dragon!" Peter said, referencing an old inside joke.
Stavros and Mana laughed loudly. Peter was thinking to himself, that sounds f$cking expensive, I'm not gonna lie to myself.
"What is the chess dragon?" Asked Christopher.
Mana was calming himself, answering in a chuckle, "No, it's-it's stupid, it's this thing... from..."
Peter charaded the movement of the aforementioned chess dragon, clenching an invisible chess piece, unclenching it, then clenching it again, making the ktkrk sounds each time he would interact with the "chess piece." He finished his charade making a dragon's scream like EEEEAAARRGGH!!
Christopher leaned away from Stavros, giggling. He situated himself in his chair and asked, "What is this... chess dragon? What's the chess dragon?!"
"It's from Aqua Teen," Stavros informed. "It's called Chess Dragon 2000... 3000, or something. Peter."
Ka'eo mimicked it doing the same EEEAAARRGH!! He pretended like he flipped a chessboard over making the dddurrrsch sound.
Stavros chuckled and explained, "Peter. No, I'll explain it. Okay, it's this dragon that was alive inside of some kind of arcade machine chess thing, and it knew how to play chess, and when it was losing against Frylock, the floating french fries box, it got pissed off and went EEEEAAAARRRGGGH and flipped the chessboard over." Peter, Mana, Stavros and Christopher were cackling, laughing at the absurd imagining. Stavros continued, "And then when it lost, it stomped around their room, and then it flew out of their window... or their ceiling and then it started destroying everything outside."
Ka'eo couldn't contain himself, keeling over laughing with Mana while Peter and Stavros were struggling, cracking up.
Christopher calmed down. "And this chess dragon, it was a real dragon? Or it was uh..." He scrutinized.
"Here, I think... if they have Elektra on this thing, I can show you. Let's see," Stavros offered.
"Chris, you're going to laugh your a$$ off watching this," Ka'eo said.
Christopher wondered, will I be laughing at this?
Ka'eo took another shot of a drink called Datura's 198 Inclusive, washing it down with another half a shot of the same drink that he accidentally spilled on the table. He pinched both of the shot glasses between two fingers and slid them closer to the center of the table. He watched the hologram turn into a Duke Nukem 3D sprite-like illusion, where everyone could see the visual facing them from their own angles.
Stavros scrolled through a list of Aqua Teen Hunger Force videos in the Elektra media platform and found the one he was looking for. He exclaimed, "This is it! This is the video! Watch!"
Christopher pushed a button on his sunglasses, making the sunglasses flip up onto his forehead.
Everyone stared at the video playing in the middle of their table. It was basically what Stavros had explained about the chess dragon.
Christopher chuckled airily and said, "Wow, you weren't lying, there really is a f$cking chess dragon." He leaned in toward the visual keeping one eye shut out of a personal habit.
"That's the chess dragon," Ka'eo confirmed.
"This show is something else," Christopher said. He smiled and nodded. "I remember this show. Circa A.D., 2000, 2001? Doesn't a guy, like... die, and he's immortal, like he keeps coming back every time?" Christopher inquired.
"Oh, Carl?" Mana suggested, chuckling.
"Carl. He's a character who keeps dying and coming back every episode, because yeah, basically he's immortal," Stavros said.
"There! EEEEEAAARGGH!!" Peter loudly mimicked as the chess dragon did in the video.
Christopher giggled. He narrated, "Ope, there it goes!"
"Yeah, there he goes to destroy everything!" Stavros affirmed, as they watched the chess dragon run around inside of the house angrily screeching. The rest of the video clip showcased the Chess Dragon picking up the character Ezekiel and flying off with him into the distance of the ATHF's home.
"F$ck," Christopher said, loosening up from the video.
"What would you do if that actually happened to you, Chris?" Ka'eo wondered, imagining Christopher being picked up from outside of the bar to be taken back to a nest somewhere in the distance. Same thing he used to imagine about Peter, him being picked up and carried off into the old sunsets by a giant bird.
"Yeah!" Peter agreed, cackling.
"F$ck... I dunno," Chris answered, grinning. He rolled his eyes to the side and leaned back, letting out an amused hiss. He grinned then jolted himself forward into a hunched position onto the table and said, "I think I would just go along with it and see where it takes me. I mean." Christopher rubbed his calves with his hands, his face impressed. "It wouldn't have to be a bad thing, right?"
Ka'eo resumed, "Yeah, and then it takes you to the edge of the facility and drops you so your trajectory is out into space. What would you do?"
The crew chortled.
"I guess I would have no choice but to just-run or..." Christopher answered, entertaining them. "Go with it."
"Fall with it!" Ka'eo and Christopher said together. They both laughed. Mana, Peter, and Stavros following suit.
Ka'eo and Christopher both took a swig of their own drinks with Christopher gesturing for Ka'eo to come over and sit on their side of the table. Ka'eo feigned a frown.
"Mana, what the f$ck are you doing?" Peter called out.
"What do you mean?" Mana asked. "I'm eating my food."
"Yeah, but I can hear you going kllk-kllsch-bllrrsch," Peter pointed out. He added, "He's like eating the f$cking shell of whatever that is." Stavros cackled.
"Shut up you b$tch," Mana said, chomping into his food again. He chewed while Peter chuckled. "Eat your own d$mn food! And mind your own God damn business! Okay?! Peter?!"
Peter and Stavros snickered then returned to eating.
Christopher looked calm and satisfied. He sat like he was resting, his hands behind his head, leaning back in his chair. He nodded up at Mana and asked, "Mana, did you ever find out what it is that you're eating? The menu should say."
Mana coughed, looking up from his food at Christopher with an intense look in his eyes. He chomped another bite, making Christopher laugh. Mana informed him, "Uhh... yeah! It's this alien sh$t that they found on some planet named Cheshire." Mana swallowed his food and took another bite, green liquid and mashed meat oozing from the side. "It's actually pretty good." He chewed. "It's better than I thought it would be."
Christopher swung his arm around and patted Stavros on the back lightly. He asked, "Did you get some of whatever he's eating?"
"I'm good. I think I'll just stick to the chicken and steak, thanks," Stavros answered.
"Yeah. I'm not eating that," Peter declared, laughing.
"They cooked the chicken and the steak perfectly," Stavros said, taking another bite.
Christopher was slightly surprised that they weren't venturing into new cuisine territories. He asked, "What, you guys don't want to try it? Mana tried it!"
"No," Peter abrupted. He burst out a laugh.
"Yeah, you do!" Mana taunted.
Stavros jabbed sarcastically, "No, but Mana will eat anything. Even if it walks on two d$cks and has a human face on it. Right, Mana?"
"No, f$ck you b$tch," Mana groaned, finishing up his plate.
Ka'eo smiled, still chewing on and digesting some of the alien cuisine. Stavros and Peter snickered at Mana's retort.
"Alright, you guys," Christopher murmured, grinning. He was stretching his arm above his head as though calling on a teacher. He breathed out a sigh and scooted himself into the table again, placing his hands together as though he had another offer. "Do you guys want to check out the bar out front or maybe go for a walk around the facility or something? You know. After we're all done eating? We can always come back here later if you guys want," he offered. He figured that once they leave the bar, they probably wouldn't care to return to it in the same outing. "I don't have to be back at work for another twenty four ticks from..." Christopher checked a digital clock that appeared in his sunglasses, pressing another button on the frames. "Now."
Ka'eo quickly dipped into his memories, thinking of a video he had created a while back when he lived in Hawaii, USA, Earth. It wasn't a particularly good thing he was thinking about, since the video was violent, artistic elements aside. The music came to mind. He was curious as to what this meant for himself and the group.
Peter pushed his plate from himself and suggested, "Yeah, we should go walk around, but b$tcho over there wants to keep stuffing his face with food." He quickly cackled, attempting to escape with a good hit-and-run taunt.
Mana picked up one of the small processed what Peter said, then told him, "You know what?! I'm going to throw this f$cking Lingiaimo at you! Come here! You like it!"
Peter replied, "No thanks." He taunted, "You can go throw it in your beak."
"Come here!" Mana demanded jokingly, holding up the Lingiaimo in closed fist. Peter burst out cackling with Stavros, shaking his head no. Mana bantered, "No! Ay! Sh! Shut it! Peter! You want to talk sh$t?! Huh?! I'll force feed the whole thing into your beak for you! Until you choke on it!"
Peter didn't hold back from laughing at all.
Stavros cautioned, "No, Peter, staaawp, he's going to throw it over here at us and it's going to get all over my f$cking clothes, and I don't want to change."
"No. He's not gonna do anything," Peter teased at Mana, grinning. He got intense, still in humor. "He's gonna sit there and eat his little b$tch ling-f$ck-o." He cackled.
Mana snorted and nearly choked on his food. He looked at Peter and kept on, "Oh yeah?! Yeah!? Try me, b$tch! Come on!" Mana grabbed another lingiaimo and drew his arm back like he was going to throw it. "Huh?! Huh?!?"
Peter was recoiling, exclaiming, "Mana! Don't! Don't! Please don't."
"Yeeaaah!!" Mana harshed.
"Mana, don't," Stavros whined. He warned playfully, "If you do it, I'm going to flip this table over!"
Ka'eo chipped in, "Yeah! Throw it! F$cking chess dragon!" Everyone laughed. "Mana, throw the f$cking-."
"Nooo, you're not going to do that!" Peter interrupted, chuckling facetiously.
"Mana, throw it so it smacks him in the face and throws him backwards in his chair," Ka'eo continued.
Mana laughed, then took a bite of the lingiaimo he was holding, eyes wide in expectancy.
Christopher was leaning back, enjoying the show. He gulped down the rest of his classic whiskey when things calmed down for a moment. He exhaled a deep sigh, feeling warm and comfortable with the group.
Ka'eo suggested, "You know what we need? We need... some f$cking music, alright?!" He was already turning on the juke box in the room, blotting out the sound of the muffled club music outside.