This must have been what sex feels like.
I mean, Sam wouldn’t know, yet deep down, he knows. The primal urge to seek after that indescribable pleasure, the kind of pleasure that kept life coming back for more and more, the chemical reactions in the brain and body that were perfectly tuned for look for it, fight for it, work for it…everything just made sense.
Slouching in the back support of a floating chair cushion an unknown amount of distance from everything he’d known in an unheard-of star system with aliens dozens of meters away in every direction, all Sam cared about was how soon he can slide down the very next slice of roast meat down the shoot and receive that sweet sweet the wave of pleasure.
He didn’t know how it was possible for every dish to taste better than the last, especially when the first dish was already the best thing he’d ever eaten. He wasn’t sure whether the robot chef was playing some trick on him, or the labor that he had endured with Belle to obtain all of the ingredients made everything more delicious, or everything was just a fever dream from Belle slipping something into that disgusting cup of coffee.
There’s only one thing he knew, however, and that it was that he cannot stop, and he will not stop.
The motions of his hands reaching down to the plate, picking up the perfectly cut piece of food off the plate, and delivering it to his mouth were perpetual, and they felt universally and undoubtedly correct. There’s nothing else he’d rather do, nowhere else he’d rather be, and nobody else he’d rather be with.
He looked over at Belle, his eyes blurry and mind overwhelmed, and from what he could tell, she was leaning forward in the chair with her arms dashing back and forth between the plate and the mouth.
“Now, tell me…are your minds not blown?” The holographic chef asked as Sam nodded frantically, his mouth open and tongues out like eager dogs waiting for their treats as yet another round of delicious foods was presented in front of him.
“Blown…all blown…” Sam muttered as he raced forward with his fork while Belle stood up from her seat and headed towards the bathrooms at the back. He thought just now that there was nobody else he'd rather be with, but really...he'd prefer to be alone, just so he can swallow all of the food himself. All while she was gone, the kitchen continued the busy workings with the spatulas chiming and clicking against the hibachi grills.
Glancing at the mirrors with the smiles still lingering on her face, Belle then spotted dropts of dark red juices stuck around her lips. She gave herself a cold hard splash of water to wash everything off before she looked at herself in the mirror as the clarity of her own outlines in the mirror faded in and out.
Just…how many drinks have they downed and plates have they cleared?
Belle glanced down and rubbed her tight stomach as it twitched with light waves of pain. She doubts the quality of the food here would cause her stomach issues, especially with how her stomach operates nowadays…There’s also a little bit of a headache, though she suspected it was from a whole day of labor.
"Come on, Belle."
She’s supposed to be here to relax, recharge, and have a good time. Even if she’s feeling a little under the weather, she shouldn’t ruin the experience for others, especially after he came out all this way for this meal. She stared into the mirror at herself and pressed her fingers into her temples to massage them lightly.
How long have been here for? How much long is there to go? Why is she thinking these thoughts…
It felt like they have been here for ages, and they have already lost count of the dishes that had been served. Yet the cooking was so elegantly done that they were simply offered a variety of flavors without the volume…
“Just get back there and have a good time.” Belle muttered, shaking off the light tingling headache in the background before straightening up and bringing a smile to her face, “This is great. That’s all that matters. We are both having a great time.”
“Everything okay?” Sam asked as Belle returned, “Check out this butter cake!”
“Oh~” Belle joined him at the table again as the first round of the desserts was laid out all in front of them, “That’s the bonus dishes?”
“Indeed, traveler.” The chef answered, “We have now entered the bonus round, where the additional quests you have completed now result in you earning more delicious dishes for free!”
The two dug right in, each picking up a piece of the crumbly cake before swallowing it whole. The robot chef waited for their responses as Sam’s eyes lit up and Belle nodded with an impressed look on her face.
It really was the best cake he’s ever had, and there really are no words to describe it. The flavors were jammed packed all into that single innocent-looking cube, yet the moment Sam’s teeth intruded into that perfect creation, he was punched in the face with that natural and rich sweetness.
The explosions of flavor sent him flopping back, though he was thankfully caught on by the chair that dissipated all of the impacts physically while keeping everything tucked in and contained mentally.
“Woah…steady there!” Belle laughed when Sam sprung back up to life and grabbed yet another slice, “Is it really that good?”
“The best thing ever.” Sam said, his eyes glowing and body shaking with excitement.
Belle looked down at the empty plate in front of him, and her world started going in a spiral again as the pain in her head and stomach returned with a surge of fury. The cake was delicious, and that cannot be disputed, but for some reason, Belle’s body was acting up against it. Sam, on the another hand, seemed to have the best time of his life.
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“Is everything cleaned before preparation?” Belle felt stupid asking that question, and she stood up and followed the chef's arms as he took out the ingredients from the shiny metallic containers stacked neatly on a shelf that then watched those shelves retracted into the wall once the containers were emptied onto the grill.
“All dishes are prepared according to the highest hygienic standards of the traveler's species and biology.” The chef responded, “We may also alter the preparation procedure to make you feel comfortable, though that may lead to reduced enjoyment of the dishes.”
“Reduced enjoyment?!” Sam yelled, “We don’t want that?! Unless...unless you need to...”
Belle looked at his joyous face, looked forward at the chef again before silently shaking her head, and the chef returned to preparing the next dish.
Perhaps she just needed to drink more. Belle wrapped her fingers around the glass filled with juice, and she forced herself to raise the glass before the pain returned to her stomach again, and every one of that twitches was accompanied by the more and more severe ringing headaches as she closed her eyes and forced the drink into her.
“Belle.” Sam’s regular voice came from the side, and Belle noticed how much lower and slower it sounded compared to the excited chatter ever since the beginning of their dining experience, “Are...you...all...right?”
Belle turned over, and she saw Sam with his brain floating in the midst of his cracked open skull with dark branching roots made of an unknown reflective oily material growing along the surface of and digging into the depths of his brain tissue. His entire face was inflamed, and his eyeballs were nearly pushed out of the socket by the pooling of the fluids as dark strands from those same roots rose up and extended each individual strand to plug into the back support of his chair cushion.
“AH!” Belle screamed, rocketing herself up to standing as Sam suddenly looked like his usual self, and he watched her with a mix of confusion and worry as she rubbed her eyes as the twitching pain in her stomach got worse again.
“What's wrong? What do you need?” Sam hurried to her side with his hands out as the skin at the back of his head was peeled off, and half of his brain was yanked out by the dark strands that were still connected to the chair.
“No no no no! Just…sit down! Go back to your chair!” Belle shouted and waved her hand back as Sam froze, and the halves of his brain remained in place right on the verge of tippinng out.
“I am worried…” Sam slouched slightly and rubbed his chin as he appeared normal again, “Is…everything okay? Are you seeing things?”
“What the...Do you feel okay?” Belle asked, keeping her eyes wide open as Sam stood peacefully by his chair, his appearance utterly normal. Then, as she blinked, the horrid version of him appeared again.
“I feel great!” Sam said, “You are acting a little…”
“My…bad…” Belle kept her eyes fixated on Sam, with one eye open, and the other eye closed, a split image of Sam’s regular and horrid form shown right in front of her eyes, and her brain struggled to reconciliate the two, “I…need to go to the bathroom.”
“Are you sure? You seem a little…”
“I am just going to take a poop! You sit down!” Belle commanded, stumbling to the bathroom and slamming the door shut. She pressed her back against the door and closed her eyes as she ran her fingers along her hair. At the very minimum, her brain appeared to be perfectly in place with her skull intact and her hair still smooth and soft. If that's the case, what the hell is going on here...
A surge of disgust rose up within her, and she launched herself at the toilet bowl before unleashing all of the food that she had eaten. The colorful dishes, the sweet sour drinks, the perfectly cooked meals…everything came flooding out…
Or so she thought. As she glanced down, only water came out, yet she felt something crawling within her, waves of movement all within the inches of her body as countless tiny hooks latched onto her digestive tracks, bronchioles, blood vessels, and every possible fluid flow system.
“Scan.” She instructed, a holographic window glowing over her eyes as a massive jolt of pain from her stomach knocked her down onto the ground. With her head propped upright against the toilet door and her body paralyzed by the pain, she spotted the branching dark lines within her body too. The majority of it was already lined up in the interior of her stomach, with a few thin strands growing out and making progress into the rest of her body.
“Enlarge.” She grunted, keeping a steady breath and maintaining a grip with her will before she focused inward, and a projection of her interior image floated up along her wrist. With her eyebrows crunched together, she continued enlarging that image more and more, upping the resolution as those branching darkness revealed themselves to be clusters of tiny nano-sized robots crawling in the interior of her body.
Even with thos disgusting little things filling up her stomach, her suit was able to keep all of those nanobots contained as pieces of that armor wrapped around that particular failing organ. However, at least a handful of them had already made their way to her brain at some point, particularly in the areas of the mid-brain, the part most linked to and governed by dopamine, and the part that imprisoned both her and Sam through the waves of pleasure.
She needed to get rid of those bots from her body, and she needed to do it fast.
For now, the nanobots were well contained, and more and more pieces of her armor materialized along the outer lining of her stomach to seal up any potential leakages that the nanobots were trying to sneak through.
In contrast, those in her brain were already also contained and isolated, though she knew that their job was not to spread, bur rather to keep her pinned down in a single state of mind, had her suit of armor not have a mind of its own and plunge her into the depths of pain just to snap out of it.
However, the deed's nowhere close to being done.
“Shit…” Belle cursed, slamming her head back before a small compartment opened in her forearm, and a sharp blade slipped down into her hands as she wrapped her finger tightly around the handle, “This is going to fucking hurt.”