Omega had to admit it was overwhelming, The food did not stop coming.

They were not pressured to eat everything. Pylo even hushed the translation and encouraged them to just rest or sleep when it had gotten overwhelming and grating. The lavatory box found its way into reach.

The approach had taken at least a few days. Now the feast apparently was set to continue with that pattern.

A just a bit too large dose of everything.

Out of sync and not made to accommodate human rhythms.

Or maybe it was intentional? It DID give that larger-than-life feeling of myth, and her own smallness.

The combination of rich, heavy and utterly delicious food and the long hours just piled it on. The comfort of simply floating readily in place and the way that all the noise and hubbub could be brought down to a muffled murmur with a thought to Pylo?

Omega had just been woken up again when apparently a new kind of dish was being presented.

At first she thought it was just a particularly complicated theatrical duel for entertainment. Culturally interesting, but that was not strictly the case.

Figures of the people dressed in that white outfit that was so similar to terra’s own chefs wielding long staffed maces!

Spheres of some kind of rainbow hued metal swinging in swift and sudden arcs and figure eights! The staves that carried them blending along and between the fingers, arms and even toes and legs of their wielders!

It was graceful and powerful, she could practically feel the weight of those masses of metal and the strength and coordination to keep them moving in such controlled and constrained arcs.

A dance delightful on its own.

But no it was actually food preparation as performance!

The air was suddenly filled with shining kernels of some kind of fruit, or vegetable, it was hard to say. And then the sweeping arcs began to intercept. Enormous whirling mallets of solid metal striking together with bone shaking gongs that arrested all momentum.

It took her a few times as the motions turned into a rhythmic pummeling music to realize that they were actually striking the shining pellets between the two ‘performers’ every time.

The little cookie almost fluttering away in the air currents to settle amidst the crowd. Elsewhere she could hear the musical tones of similar preparations. Echoing in the vast spaces.

Apparently they were called anvil flakes.

They honestly mostly reminded her of something between popcorn and potato chips. Which probably meant they were made from seeds or nuts.

A bit more flavorless then either but kinda tasty.

Needed salt she thought. But Aleph seemed to love them.

The striking dance changed then, and the shape and pattern of the anvil flakes did, instead of momentum arresting and nearly deafening gongs the tones shifting to chiming rapid strikes. Sometimes involving six or eight fingers.

The flakes from those had precise little angles to their crisp layers. Puffing out in particular geometries. If you snatched one up quickly enough it was still kind of hot from the energy.

She eat the strange puffy snacks sparsely.

And then that performance was over as suddenly as it had began.

After that woke her up there was another dish, and another. She honestly could not keep track and even with a few rest breaks her stomach was still kinda bloated even focusing on just light snacking.

There was just so much food!

Different kinds of soups with all sorts of smells and flavors.

Some served in little baskets that held the surface tension of the globes together. Others sticking like oversized dew in great round shells! Turtles?!

What were turtles doing here?

But then again what were strange fluffy four eyed frogs with noodly arms doing here?

She did a few sketches for her future self to puzzle over. Taking notes.

Every dish was its own kind of special variant.

Even when it looked the same and another of those incredibly massive compost loaf things showed up the flavors and smells and sauces was very different.

More seared flanks of meat, bones, things with hard shells that resembled brightly colored bugs that were slathered in salty fats!

Some sort of tangled up nest of thin crispy cheesy stuff! She was not even sure what it was, a fried cabbage made of butter? It came and was gone and left her in wonder over what the flavors and content even was.

Not all of it was amazing.

Quarti was served up in particular a soup that turned Omega’s stomach. The oracle herself liked it but the smell left Omega unable to think of it as anything but some kind of pungent slurry drunkard vomit.

Aleph was given a small smorgasbord of things to try chewing/eating that included what she swore was a few wooden sticks glazed in some kind of honey. But the bitterness of even the smell was far too much for Omega.

She’d have to ask if the kid was really enjoying those that much or if it was just politeness later.

But it was the nature of buffets and grand feasts that you weren't going to like everything, and there was more than enough that was utterly amazing.

The really curious thing though was the food that was “not for terrans”.

Pylo was apparently a big fan of fruits. And things that looked disturbingly like internal organs and unshelled eggs. Sometimes weird hybrids of all of the above. With the occasional mashes of things that honestly looked more like the leftover scrap mix of a kitchen dumpster then food.

Squidgie and Elsie had special round ‘bottles’ or bags that were squeezed with nipples on one end provided for all their meals.

Some of those smelled sharp and alcoholic sweet and were very firmly not given to Quarti to sample despite her pleas. As well as curiously enough some of the soups that were ‘safe’ for terrans, just packaged for their own convenience.

According to both they were all very good but did not ‘taste’ in the way that Terrans, the People or Pylo did. She was not sure she really understood what their ‘flavors’ correlated too yet. These were more notes for the books.

That one had actually led to a conversation ending in Elsie cutting what looked like microscope slides of one of the dishes and inserting them into an slot aperture that resembled a disk drive from an old computer.

Omega was actually a bit slow what it was when there was a flash of light (Aleph caught on almost immediately).

Elsie was using something to do several types of microscope and spectrograph. Apparently that was the closest they got to 'taste'. Which was as translated by Pylo intellectually informative and an enjoyable experience of beauty and wonder but apparently not at all ‘satisfying’ the way the rest of their meals worked.

And then there was the people themselves and their food.

Naturally everything the terrans eat they eat themselves but sometimes there were extras to go along.

Even stranger coloured meats. Particular Compost loaves that had even more bizarre layers and sharp smells. Silvery and/or brightly colored sauces kept seperate that reminded her a little bit of turpentine and oil paints in the smell and texture. And some things that looked more like pretty rocks than food.

Flavorful, Nutritious and in some cases utterly vital compounds for any proper meal were in all of these extras. But were also simultaneously quite dangerous or deemed ‘unhealthy’ for human consumption.

Quarti was again the one that made a ruckus by finally licking some kind of candied crystal one of the People was nibbling at. Apparently it was very sweet and deliciously creamy but was decidedly NOT on the accepted menu items for humans.

Because apparently it was full of ‘lead supplement bonded fats’ for the People.

Huh, how about that.

Pylo was annoyed and apparently scolded Quarti over it, which was strange to see.

Nearly ninety percent of the conversation was not actually said by either of them or at least left untranslated but you could still sorta follow it with the gestures and body language. Although it kinda seemed to jump out of order a bit.But after careful examination by Pylo, Elsie and Squidgie it was deemed that Quarti would be more or less alright and finish passing the toxic metal entirely if she got proper medical care at the next station.

Omega was getting bleary eyed on what she guessed was either the third or fourth day of the feast when finally there seemed to be an ending in sight.

She really should have brought a clock or something.

Pylo spoke up.

“People! I thank you for your gift of meal and sup of your labors and loves. I have seen the skill and craft of your Hospitilators and so to have you seen them as well. I declare this feast a satisfactory, Nay a delightful spark to be remembered that I will not soon forget! I look forward to see its equal or greater again on my next visit! Be proud! Your works are joyous and bring me much honor beyond the terror wood’s hollow!”

There was a thunderous cheer that rolled up around them. It was a wall of noise, it was actually almost like an explosion.

Cheering praise, joy, relief, delight, howling exhilaration.

It went on for a while buffeting her from all sides. A force of sound that would have been overwhelming even without feeling the intense emotions mingling and layering within.

Omega was awake now!

It was hard to not have your adrenaline ratchet to the highest point when you heard the cheering praise of billions for their idol.

It was only after she felt her throat start to hurt that Omega realized she had been cheering with them.

And with that the feast was over.