Human, that fluid is caustic enough to strip paint from metal! And you're drinking it?? How are you not dead yet??
"It tastes good, it's fizzy, and it helps me stay awake. Besides, its just a soda." -- Anon Guest
Companion Laus could barely contain hir anxiety. "But.. the gasses will cause intense digestive pain. Colic is a fatal--"
Human Tam belched, causing Companion Laus to boggle at him.
"You can just do that?"
"Yeah, we can reject stuff that's bad for us. Through either orifice." Tam grinned. "You don't wanna know the gross details about that."
"You are correct," said Laus. "I am still concerned that fluid contains enough caffeine to kill many cogniscents."
"Well I'm not sharing, so it's technically safe?" Tam shrugged as he took another sip. "What's the issue?"
It took Laus a moment to re-set hir normalcy acceptance criteria. "Ah. Yes. Right. Deathworlders can ingest acids and poisons with little in the way of lingering harm."
"Say it with more of a sneer," laughed Tam, pausing to belch again. "It's my Deathworlder nonsense that keeps y'all safe from other nonsense. Well. Most of the nonsense."
"Like the multitude of predators you attempt to pet, ride, or tame," offered Laus. "Or the toxic plant matter you attempted to eat because it 'looked tasty'."
"I learned to eat after scanning after the first couple of times," Tam finished the fluid in the container and set it into the shipboard recycling system. "Just think about this... you have a very handy means of disposing with certain troublesome chemical compounds. Terrans like me think they're tasty."
Laus considered this. "Is that the origin of the Human phrase, 'garbage guts'?"
[Photo by Mohammed Katib on Unsplash]
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