An Introduction to Blue Cheese

((I need to start goosing people instead of being goosed...))

Shikkanuka was not nearly well-known enough to be picky about how he was paid. He liked to know ahead of time when he wasn't going to be paid in literal dollars, but he wouldn't turn a gig down over it.

He was currently thinking that he should have turned this one down. His set had gone just fine, and he'd had some decent applause from the little restaurant, but now he was being treated to dinner. And he was looking at the menu.

When the least terrifying thing was a blue cheese meat fondue, well, you got a decent idea of the menu. And the clientele, since the restaurant was definitely not out of business. It was definitely a literal hole in the wall: there wasn't even a proper door, but then that had made it easer for Shikkanuka to get in.

He gave up and ordered the fondue, along with some drink that was so strongly recommended that he couldn't help but weakly agree. He'd survive this. Probably.

Hopefully.

The mystery recommended drink arrived before the fondue. It came in an enormous, clouded mug that somehow managed to convey a sense of intelligence, and the top - the only part of the drink itself he could see - oozed orange fog almost as bright as his spider parts. Only more... uh.

He had no idea how to describe it. The restaurant owner themself put a straw and a little purple umbrella in the drink, hugged Shikk way too tightly, and then pattered back into the kitchen.

Shikk stared at the drink, and then hesitantly stretched up to tuck the tip of the straw into his mouth. The drink immediately climbed into his mouth.

And tasted sour. And spicy. And eerily sweet. And also very much mobile IT WAS CRAWLING AROUND IN HIS MOUTH

at least until he chewed it to death. Then it sort of fizzled, tingling against his flesh like some bubbly drink in fog form, and faded away.

Okay, that was honestly kinda cool, and his second sip was much the same as the first. Huh.

The blue cheese meat fondue was next, and looked about as normal as the drink had looked terrifying. A pot of melted cheese, streaked with blue and grey in places but mostly white, and a platter of small pieces of (cooked; Shikkanuka had definitely gone with cooked) meat.

He wasn't sure what the meat had looked like when it was alive, but since he wasn't in the underground it probably hadn't been anything sapient. Probably. It was a hole in the wall.

The spiderling poke one of the pieces with his provided tine-thing, and cautiously dipped it in the cheese. There was no strange reaction, no eerie bubbling or frantic screaming as the meat turned out to be a live thing that literally looked like cooked meat. All seemed normal.

He took a sip of the weird drink to steel his nerves, and then hesitantly put the cheesy meat in his mouth.

He had heard a lot of horrible things about blue cheese, but he'd never actually had it before. He'd been too freaked out to dare. This, though.

This was....... really good! Even on mystery meat!

He finished the fondue before the spooky drink - or the meat.

And then he ordered another, much to the owner's amusement.