Fallen celebrity chef Oliver Jatrevo, “the best of the best,” collapses on live TV from a mysterious disease that steals his smell and taste, and attempts suicide by sinking his yacht in a typhoon — only to wash up on a remote island where three tribes with alien-granted tech live alongside monstrous experiments. Nursed back by a kid named Dorgon, Oliver learns the “gods” atop the mountain are extraterrestrials who abduct the chief’s daughter and demand a 10-course banquet of Earth’s most luxurious flavors; unable to taste but forced to cook, Oliver embarks on a horrific quest to recreate global luxury dishes using silk worms, mammoth, cave mold, and predator flesh, using Dorgon as his palate. The banquet succeeds, the girl is freed, and the aliens reveal they need flavor data to repair their ship — taking Oliver aboard as their chef, with stowaway Dorgon becoming his protégé. Years later, Dorgon is “Cosmic Gordon,” screaming in a starship galley while Oliver, now the silent “black apron,” keeps cooking, unaware the island was vaporized behind them — his banquet having taught the aliens how to consume worlds.
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Attributions:
Title: Space ambient music fragment.Wav
Athor: Clacksberg
Source: https://freesound.org/s/491288/
License: Creative Commons 0
Title: Galactic Space Journey
Author: ViraMiller
Source: https://freesound.org/s/748404/
License: Attribution 4.0
#LikeAndSubscribe #SleepStories #foodstories
Attributions:
Title: Space ambient music fragment.Wav
Athor: Clacksberg
Source: https://freesound.org/s/491288/
License: Creative Commons 0
Title: Galactic Space Journey
Author: ViraMiller
Source: https://freesound.org/s/748404/
License: Attribution 4.0
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:15The Black Apron, a 10-episode cosmic Gordon Appetizer.
00:22Warning, depicts suicide ideation, body horror, psychological decay.
00:30If you need help, call or text 988-US and Canada, or search Suicide Helpline, plus your country.
00:42Episode 1, Live Collapse.
00:45Recipe, Reef Roe plus Tobacco Ash Blinny.
00:49The first bite back.
00:51Oliver Giatrivo doesn't miss.
00:55Three Michelin stars before 30.
00:58Prime Cut host.
01:0140 million subscribers.
01:03The man who weaponized flavor.
01:06Tonight, Allmas Caviar, live.
01:10200 million watching.
01:12He lifts the mother-of-pearl spoon.
01:15The camera pushes in.
01:18His hand is wrong.
01:20Not a tremor.
01:22A lag, like his body is buffering.
01:25He says umami is.
01:28And dies on camera.
01:30Not medically.
01:32Not yet.
01:34His face goes into the caviar service.
01:38The sound is a wet cough through a pillow.
01:42Feed cuts.
01:44The internet doesn't.
01:46Diagnosis.
01:47Degenerative gustatory collapse.
01:51Degenerative gustatory collapse.
01:52Idiopathic.
01:53Your olfactory bulb is eating itself.
01:57Then taste.
01:59Then texture.
02:01Then hunger.
02:02You'll forget how to swallow eventually, the specialist says.
02:07But you'll plate beautifully, until the end.
02:12He lasts 213 days.
02:15Day 1, coffee tastes like hot water.
02:19Day 40, steak tastes like warm eraser.
02:24Day 100.
02:26He drinks a bottle of MacAllen's 72.
02:29And feels the burn in his throat.
02:33But not the oak.
02:35Not the sherry.
02:37Just ethanol and shame.
02:40Day 213.
02:43Typhoon Merriam.
02:44Category 5.
02:46He fuels his sunseeker.
02:49No GPS.
02:51No life vest.
02:53Just 18 bottles of Pappy Van Winkle 23.
02:58And a note taped to the wheel.
03:01If you find my body, don't plate it.
03:05I'm already rotten.
03:07He sails into the eye.
03:10Drinks until the horizon tilts vertical.
03:14The last thing he thinks.
03:16At least I can't taste the salt when I drown.
03:20He wakes up to chewing.
03:22A boy.
03:24Maybe nine.
03:25Skin like teak.
03:28Blonde hair.
03:29Teeth too white.
03:31He's eating something that still moves.
03:35He grins, holds it out.
03:38You died, the boy says.
03:40But not good.
03:42Try again.
03:44First meal.
03:46Crushed giant silkworms.
03:48Tobacco ash.
03:50Seawater reduction.
03:52Method.
03:53Silkworms harvested at dawn.
03:56Crushed between two river stones.
03:59While still twitching.
04:01Tobacco leaf from the reef.
04:03Sun dried three days.
04:06Burned to ash.
04:08Kept in a gourd.
04:09Seawater boiled to demiglace.
04:13Ratio 3-1-1.
04:16Served in a clamshell.
04:18Eat while warm.
04:20Eat while warm.
04:21Oliver can't taste it.
04:22But he feels it.
04:25Grit.
04:26Salt.
04:27A faint electric buzz.
04:30Like licking a battery.
04:32He swallows.
04:34The boy nods.
04:36Good.
04:37You keep food down.
04:39You keep life down.
04:41Name.
04:42Oliver croaks.
04:45Oliver croaks.
04:45Dorgan.
04:46Son of chief.
04:48You.
04:49Oliver.
04:51Oliver what?
04:53Jatrevo.
04:54Dorgan frowns.
04:57Jatrevo.
04:59Sounds like you're choking.
05:01I'll call you chef.
05:02The gods used to have a chef.
05:06He died too.
05:08The island is already watching.
05:11Episode 2.
05:13The Three Hungers.
05:15Recipe.
05:16Mammoth tear in with cave mold.
05:18The quiet dish.
05:20The island is a museum of wrong.
05:24Three tribes.
05:26One mountain that hums at night.
05:29Technology that breaks physics.
05:32Water purifiers that sing.
05:35Knives that cut sound.
05:37Fire that burns cold.
05:40Gods gave it, Dorgan says.
05:43So we can fix their boat when it breaks again.
05:47The gods live on top.
05:50Nobody goes up.
05:52Things come down.
05:55Six-eyed tigers.
05:56Snakes that sing in infrasound.
06:00Mammoths with copper veins in their tusks.
06:04Experiments, the chief says.
06:07They practice here.
06:09Food is the real horror.
06:12See people.
06:13Ferment shark in sand.
06:15Until it smells like ammonia and suicide.
06:20Call it delicacy.
06:22Tree people.
06:23Smoke everything.
06:26Mammoth fruit babies.
06:28If it doesn't taste like a campfire.
06:31It's not done.
06:33Cave people.
06:35Eat mold.
06:36Blue mold.
06:38White mold.
06:39Mold that moves.
06:40It whispers recipes, they say.
06:44Oliver can't smell it.
06:47Evolution's last mercy.
06:50But his body is still quitting.
06:53His fingers go numb first.
06:55Then his tongue.
06:57He tests it with a coal.
07:00Nothing.
07:01Dorgan drags him to the tree tribe.
07:05You need flavor, he says.
07:08Or you'll go quiet forever.
07:11Like my brother.
07:13The tree tribe offers him smoked mammoth tongue.
07:17It's the texture of a tire.
07:20He chews for an hour.
07:23Swallows.
07:25Dorgan asks what it tasted like.
07:28Oliver lies.
07:30Smoke.
07:31Good, Dorgan says.
07:33Now make something quiet.
07:36Oliver needs eggs.
07:39The only eggs are 40 meters up.
07:43Guarded by birds with wingspans like small planes.
07:48He climbs.
07:50Falls.
07:51Breaks a rib.
07:53Climbs again.
07:55The bird watches him.
07:57Doesn't attack.
07:58It just tilts its head.
08:01Like why?
08:02He steals one egg.
08:05It's warm.
08:07Heavy as a bowling ball.
08:09He cracks it.
08:11Drinks it raw.
08:13Nothing.
08:14But that night, he cooks.
08:17Recipe.
08:18Mammoth tahiyaran with cave mold.
08:21Ingredients.
08:23One sky egg.
08:24200 grams tree, nut, flower, rainwater.
08:29Filling none.
08:31Sauce.
08:32100 grams rendered predator lard.
08:3550 grams cave mold.
08:3880 grams smoked wild mushrooms.
08:42No heat after mold.
08:45Method.
08:46Mix egg plus flour plus water.
08:49Rest one hour.
08:51Roll with stone pin until you see through it.
08:55Cut into ribbons.
08:57Boil 90 seconds in seawater.
09:01Toss in lard off heat.
09:04Crumble mold plus mushrooms on top.
09:08Serve immediately.
09:10Serves one god or two dying chefs.
09:14He makes Dorgan eat first.
09:17The kid closes his eyes.
09:20Choose once.
09:22Twice.
09:23Then it's quiet.
09:25Like before my father yells.
09:28Like the forest after the tiger leaves.
09:33Oliver plates nothing for himself.
09:35But he watches Dorgan's face.
09:39The micro flinch of a real flavor.
09:43The way his nostrils dilate.
09:46That's taste.
09:48Borrowed.
09:49Secondhand.
09:51It's enough to keep him breathing.
09:54That night, he dreams of the yacht.
09:57It's still sinking.
09:59But the water is pasta.
10:02Episode 3.
10:03The Note.
10:05Recipe.
10:06Seared megafauna belly nigiri.
10:09The sea remembers.
10:11Mayari vanishes.
10:13Chief's daughter.
10:15Seventeen.
10:17Spearfisher.
10:18Dorgan's sister.
10:20Dorgan's sister.
10:21They find a device.
10:22On her mat.
10:24It's the size of a rice grain.
10:27It floats.
10:29It unfolds into light.
10:32A voice with no throat.
10:34Deliver flavor.
10:36Ten courses.
10:38Three days.
10:39The girl becomes signal degradation.
10:43The chief doesn't beg.
10:46Chiefs don't.
10:48He just puts his hand on Oliver's shoulder.
10:51The hand weighs eighty kilos.
10:55It says you were sent.
10:58By drowning.
10:59By gods.
11:01By me.
11:03Don't care which.
11:05Oliver hasn't felt hunger.
11:07In eight months.
11:09Now he feels something worse.
11:12Obligation.
11:14He takes Dorgan to the reef.
11:17We need fat.
11:18He says.
11:19The kind that melts.
11:21The water is black at noon.
11:24Something brushes his leg.
11:27It's ten meters long.
11:29Not fish.
11:31Reptile.
11:33Sleek.
11:34Old.
11:35Dorgan doesn't hesitate.
11:38He dives with a bone spear.
11:41The water blooms red.
11:44They haul it up with rope and faith.
11:47It's got a belly like a snowdrift.
11:51Recipe.
11:52Seared megafauna belly nigeri.
11:56Ingredients.
11:57300 grams belly cut from apex sea reptile.
12:02200 grams silkworm garam.
12:06Aged six moons.
12:08100 grams jungle fruit vinegar.
12:12150 grams roasted root mash.
12:16Method.
12:17Cure belly 48 hours.
12:20In garam plus vinegar.
12:23Rinse.
12:24Slice eight millimeter.
12:26Root mash.
12:28Roast root in ash pound.
12:31Season with vinegar.
12:33Form into warm rice.
12:35Torch belly.
12:37With concentrated sun.
12:39Fire alien lens.
12:41Three seconds.
12:43Press onto root.
12:44No soy.
12:47No wasabi.
12:49No wasabi.
12:49Just fat acid heat.
12:51Serves the gods or the void.
12:55He plates it on basalt.
12:58The fat is translucent.
13:00It jiggles when the mountain hums.
13:04Dorgan eats.
13:06His eyes water.
13:08It's like my mother.
13:10Singing.
13:11But she died when I was born.
13:15How do I know that?
13:17Oliver writes on bark with charcoal.
13:20Course one.
13:22The sea remembers.
13:23That night, he sleepwalks.
13:27Dorgan finds him on the beach.
13:29Carving I'm sorry into the sand with a spoon.
13:34The tide takes it.
13:37Episode four.
13:38The lacquer.
13:39Recipe.
13:40Lacquered jungle bird.
13:43The sky breaks.
13:44You can't, Dorgan says.
13:47Birds carry messages.
13:49Kill one.
13:50Then, the gods stop listening.
13:53I'm not killing it, Oliver says.
13:56I'm waiting.
13:58Third day of the deadline.
14:00Lightning hits a tree.
14:03A bird falls.
14:05Feathers like oil slicks.
14:08Blue to red to nothing.
14:10It's still warm.
14:12The tree tribe calls it the messenger.
14:15They want to bury it.
14:18Oliver wants to hang it.
14:20He wins.
14:22He always wins.
14:24When he doesn't care if he lives.
14:27Seven days in the canopy.
14:30No rot.
14:31No flies.
14:33The meat tightens.
14:35The skin becomes glass.
14:38Recipe.
14:39Lacquered jungle bird.
14:42Ingredients.
14:43One whole messenger bird.
14:45Two hundred milliliters tree sap.
14:49One hundred milliliters fermented fruit reduction.
14:53Thirty grams cave spice.
14:56Twenty grams mineral salt.
14:59Pancakes.
15:00One hundred fifty grams root flower.
15:03Rainwater.
15:05Method.
15:06Air dry bird.
15:07Seven days.
15:08Glace every twelve hours.
15:11With sap.
15:12Plus fruit.
15:13Plus spice.
15:14Plus salt.
15:16Roast over coal-less smoke.
15:18Six hours.
15:20Temp.
15:21Ninety degrees Celsius.
15:23Skin must sound like breaking glass.
15:27Pancakes.
15:28Flour plus water.
15:30Steam on flat rock.
15:32Serve with wild allium.
15:35No hoisin.
15:37The bird is the hoisin.
15:39He carves table side.
15:42With a sonic knife.
15:44The crack makes everyone flinch.
15:47The chief eats skin first.
15:51Chews.
15:52Then his face collapses.
15:54Not from flavor.
15:56From grief.
15:58My wife.
15:59He whispers.
16:00She made that sound.
16:03When the fever took her.
16:05That exact sound.
16:07Course two.
16:09The sky breaks.
16:10Oliver starts carrying the sonic knife.
16:14Not for cooking.
16:16For the weight.
16:18Episode five.
16:19The ham.
16:21Recipe.
16:22Mammoth ham on.
16:23Tree smoked.
16:24The mountain's thigh.
16:26Where do you get salt?
16:28Oliver asks.
16:30Dorkin points to the cave.
16:33Where the gods piss.
16:35It's a pool.
16:36It bubbles.
16:38It smells like lightning.
16:41The salt forms crystals the size of fists.
16:45It's blue.
16:46The mammoth is in the ice.
16:49Last winter's kill.
16:52The tribe buried it to keep the tigers off.
16:56Oliver digs.
16:57The leg is bigger than him.
17:01The fur is still soft.
17:03He butchers in silence.
17:06He butchers in silence.
17:09Plus bat guano ash into the flesh.
17:13He hangs it in the smoke tree.
17:15The tree is always burning.
17:18The tree is always burning.
17:18But never consumed.
17:21Time breaks here.
17:23He checks it daily.
17:25Sometimes the sun rises twice between checks.
17:30Sometimes it doesn't rise at all.
17:34When he cuts it, the fat is gold.
17:37The meat is violet.
17:41Mammoth ham on.
17:42Tree smoked.
17:44Ingredients.
17:45One mammoth hind leg.
17:48Two kilograms blue mineral salt.
17:51300 grams cave spice.
17:54100 grams guano ash.
17:58Method rub cure all over.
18:00Hang in perpetual smoke tree 90 plus days.
18:05The tree decides when it's done.
18:08Slice paper thin against the grain.
18:11Serve 37 degrees Celsius.
18:15Body temperature.
18:17No accompaniment.
18:20The smoke is the bread.
18:22Mayari's mother takes a slice.
18:26Holds it to the light.
18:28It's translucent.
18:30She eats.
18:31Closes her eyes.
18:34This is what the gods taste like, she says.
18:38Cold.
18:39And very, very old.
18:42Like they've been watching us for a long time.
18:46Course three.
18:47The mountain's thigh.
18:49Oliver starts tasting things that aren't there.
18:53Copper.
18:55Ash.
18:56His own blood.
18:58He doesn't tell Dorgan.
19:01Episode six.
19:02The dumb.
19:03Recipe.
19:05Volcano pot biryani.
19:07The earth's breath.
19:09The spice is alive.
19:11Dorgan says.
19:13He holds a bowl.
19:14It moves.
19:16Not from wind.
19:18From inside.
19:20It's mold.
19:22Oliver says.
19:23It's good mold.
19:25Dorgan says.
19:26It eats the bad dreams.
19:29Oliver needs grain.
19:30There's no rice.
19:33There's haku.
19:35A grass that grows near the vents.
19:38It's hot to touch.
19:40Harvesting.
19:41It burns his hands.
19:43He doesn't feel it.
19:46Recipe.
19:46Volcano pot biryani.
19:49Ingredients.
19:50400 grams haku grain.
19:54500 grams snake plus mammoth meat.
19:58100 grams predator fat.
20:0130 grams orange cave pollen.
20:0520 grams dried crickets.
20:08200 grams mold spice.
20:11Method parboil grain.
20:14Layer and clay.
20:15Grain, meat, fat, pollen, cricket, mold.
20:20Repeat.
20:21Seal with clay.
20:23Bury in geothermal vent.
20:2612 hours.
20:28The earth cooks it.
20:30You just pray.
20:32Crack open at table.
20:34The steam should scream.
20:37He buries it.
20:38The ground hums.
20:40He sits on the clay pot.
20:43Waits.
20:45He can feel the heat through his pants.
20:47But not on his skin.
20:50When he cracks it, the steam does scream.
20:54Like a kettle.
20:56Like a person.
20:58Dorkin eats with his hands.
21:01Face goes red.
21:03Sweats.
21:04My tongue is on fire.
21:06He gasps.
21:08But my stomach is ice.
21:10Is that right?
21:12Yes, Oliver says.
21:15That's biryani.
21:17That's home.
21:19For someone.
21:20Course four.
21:22The earth's breath.
21:23That night, Oliver dreams in full color.
21:27He tastes the dream.
21:29It's mango and gasoline.
21:32He wakes up screaming with flavor.
21:35Episode seven.
21:37The raw.
21:38Recipe.
21:40Charred predator loin wagyu.
21:42The night's eye.
21:44The six-eyed tiger hunts sound.
21:47So Oliver stops making it.
21:50He digs a pet.
21:52Lines it with spikes of mammoth bone.
21:56Covers it with leaves.
21:58Then he waits.
22:00No fire.
22:02No heartbeat.
22:03He can control.
22:05Three days.
22:07It comes on the third night.
22:09He hears it before he sees it.
22:13A hum.
22:14Then six lights floating.
22:17Then the wait.
22:18The trap works.
22:20The sound is a melon.
22:23Dropped from orbit.
22:25He butchers it in the dark.
22:28Hangs it in the salt cave.
22:3021 days.
22:32The meat turns the color of a deep bruise.
22:36The eyes he keeps.
22:39They don't rot.
22:40They watch.
22:43Recipe.
22:44Charred predator loin wagyu.
22:47Ingredients.
22:48600 grams tiger loin.
22:51Aged 21 days.
22:54100 grams hot fat from same animal.
22:5950 grams cave spice plus mineral salt crust.
23:04Method.
23:05Inject loin with hot fat.
23:08Crust with spice plus salt.
23:11Sear 60 seconds.
23:13Each side.
23:14On volcanic stone.
23:16Rest on warm stone.
23:19Slice thick.
23:21Serve blue.
23:23Blood must pool.
23:25No sauce.
23:27The fear is the sauce.
23:29He serves it.
23:31The chief cuts a piece.
23:34Blood runs across the basalt.
23:37Like the island is bleeding.
23:40It's still alive.
23:41The chief says.
23:43He eats anyway.
23:45Course 5.
23:47The night's eye.
23:48Oliver keeps the tiger's eyes in his pocket.
23:52At night they glow.
23:54He's not sure if it's the eyes.
23:57Or his brain.
23:59Episode 8.
24:01The Jiggle.
24:02Recipe.
24:03Sky Egg Souffle the before.
24:06He takes the egg.
24:08The biggest nest.
24:10The mother bird.
24:12Watches from the sky.
24:14She doesn't scream.
24:16She doesn't dive.
24:18She just sees.
24:20That's worse.
24:22The egg is blue.
24:23It takes 4 men to move it.
24:27It's warm.
24:28It hums.
24:30Recipe.
24:31Sky Egg Souffle.
24:33Ingredients.
24:351 sky egg approximately 12 kilograms.
24:39200 milliliters tree sap syrup.
24:4350 grams fruit acid.
24:46Iron-rich cave mineral.
24:49Method.
24:49Separate white and yolk.
24:51Beat white plus acid to stiff peaks.
24:55Fold in yolk plus sap.
24:59Steam in bamboo 40 minutes.
25:02No oven.
25:04Dust with mineral gold.
25:06It must jiggle.
25:08If it doesn't jiggle.
25:10The gods don't laugh.
25:12It jiggles.
25:14He serves it in the shell.
25:17Mayari's little brother.
25:19Maybe six.
25:20Eats first.
25:22He giggles.
25:24Then stops.
25:26Eyes go distant.
25:27I remember.
25:29I remember.
25:29He says.
25:31The sky.
25:32Before I was.
25:34Here.
25:34It was quiet.
25:36And purple.
25:38Core 6.
25:40The before.
25:41Oliver understands now.
25:44He's not cooking food.
25:46He's cooking memory.
25:48The gods don't want taste.
25:52They want data.
25:54And memory.
25:55Is the densest data there is.
25:58He throws up.
25:59After service.
26:01It's black.
26:02It tastes like nothing.
26:05Episode 9.
26:07The layers.
26:08Recipe.
26:09Three tribe baklava.
26:11The offering.
26:12One day left.
26:14One dish left.
26:16He needs layers.
26:18There's no flour.
26:21There's root.
26:22There's fat.
26:24There's rage.
26:26He pounds the root.
26:28Until his knuckles split.
26:30Mixes with pretter fat.
26:33The dough fights him.
26:35It tears.
26:37He starts over.
26:38Forty times.
26:40His blood is in the dough now.
26:43Good.
26:45Recipe.
26:46Three tribe baklava.
26:48Ingredients.
26:50500 grams root flour.
26:53300 grams predator fat.
26:56200 grams candied jungle nuts.
27:00100 grams cave mushrooms.
27:03300 milliliters tree sap plus.
27:06Fermented fruit syrup.
27:09Cave spice.
27:11Method fat plus flour.
27:13Roll until transparent.
27:1640 layers.
27:18Between each.
27:19Nuts plus mushrooms.
27:22Bake in stone oven.
27:24Until the scent makes you dizzy.
27:27Pour hot syrup.
27:29Overwhel screaming.
27:31Cool.
27:32Cut only with sonic knife.
27:35If it doesn't sound like paper tearing.
27:38You failed.
27:40You failed.
27:41He cuts it.
27:42The sound is a page torn from a book.
27:45He places it on the altar stone.
27:49The mountain goes silent.
27:52The hum stops.
27:54For the first time, the island is quiet.
27:58The grain-sized device appears.
28:02Hovers.
28:02Takes the baklava.
28:05No voice.
28:07No light.
28:09Just gone.
28:10Then the light comes back.
28:13It spits out Mayari.
28:15She's alive.
28:17She's shaking.
28:19She's three years older.
28:22Time is.
28:23Different in there, she says.
28:26Course seven to ten.
28:27The offering.
28:29Oliver sits down.
28:31His legs stop working.
28:34He tastes something.
28:36It's salt.
28:38His own tears.
28:40It's the first thing he's tasted in eleven months.
28:45He laughs.
28:46It sounds like the tiger dying.
28:50Episode ten.
28:51The Black Apron.
28:53Recipe none.
28:55The kitchen is closed.
28:57They come down the next dawn.
29:00Not gods.
29:02Not men.
29:04Tall.
29:05Thin.
29:06Skin like spilled oil.
29:09Eyes like the space.
29:11Between stars.
29:13They don't walk.
29:15They displace.
29:17One looks at Oliver.
29:19No mouth moves.
29:21But he hears it in his bones.
29:23You.
29:25You.
29:26Flavor architect.
29:28Inefficient.
29:29Redundant.
29:31But resonant.
29:33You come.
29:34Why?
29:36Oliver asks.
29:38His voice is raw from disuse.
29:41We required sensory data.
29:44For long-haul hibernation.
29:47Your species cuisine.
29:49Was deemed non-essential.
29:51Your offering.
29:54Recalibrated.
29:55We will collect more.
29:57Oliver looks at Dorgan.
29:59You're in charge of the fire.
30:01He says.
30:03He takes off his white apron.
30:06It's brown now.
30:08With blood.
30:10With smoke.
30:11With everything.
30:13He puts on a black one.
30:15From the ship.
30:17It was left for him.
30:20Dorgan doesn't say goodbye.
30:22He just climbs into the ship's landing gear.
30:26While no one's looking.
30:28The ship leaves.
30:30From the window.
30:31The island is green.
30:34Then there's a flash.
30:36Then it's black.
30:38A perfect circle of nothing.
30:40No one tells Oliver.
30:44He wouldn't taste the difference anyway.
30:48Years later.
30:49Starship galley.
30:51The infinity.
30:53A cadet plates a dish.
30:55The protein is gray.
30:58It's raw in the center.
31:00The room goes cold.
31:02It's fucking raw.
31:04The voice is young.
31:07Twenty-five.
31:09But it's got one hundred years of grief in it.
31:13Dorgan.
31:14Chef de cuisine.
31:16Black apron.
31:18Six scars on his forearms.
31:21One for each eye of the tiger.
31:24The cadet shakes.
31:26Yes, chef.
31:28Do you think the gods eat raw?
31:30Do you think Oliver Jatrivo fed them raw?
31:35He fed them his fucking life.
31:38In the corner.
31:40An old man plates silently.
31:43Black apron.
31:44Hands steady.
31:46He's plating the same dish he made before.
31:50Mammoth Tahirin.
31:52For the nine thousandth time.
31:55He doesn't look up.
31:57He doesn't need to.
31:59The crew calls him the Black Apron.
32:03Legend says he taught flavor to gods.
32:07Legend says he can't taste anything.
32:11Both are true.
32:13He plates.
32:14He pushes it to the pass.
32:17Dorgan grabs it.
32:19Tastes it.
32:21Nods.
32:22Oliver doesn't smile.
32:24But his hand stops shaking for three seconds.
32:29That's enough.
32:31He still can't taste the food.
32:34But sometimes, when Dorgan screams,
32:38he tastes the ash.
32:40And the ash tastes like home.
32:43End.
32:44He's a friend.
32:47He's a friend.
32:47He's a friend.
32:58He's a friend.
32:59He's a friend.
32:59He's a friend.
32:59He's a friend.
33:00He's a friend.
33:00He's a friend.
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