It's a calm evening in Serenity. Folks are finishing their work days and settling in at home. Several of them pick up food on their way, while others decide to cook once they're at a place where they're able to do so.
One individual in the latter category works on dinner in his kitchen in Apartment 709 – A tall, muscular fruit bat who's come home from a day of jamming and rehearsal with his bandmates. Radar hums to himself as he gives a steak a nice sear before serving it on a plate with cheesy scalloped potatoes. He carries it to his living room and sits down, ready to dig in, until…
"Aw, heck, I forgot to season the damn thing…"
With a groan and a sigh, the bat heads back to his kitchen to fetch some salt and pepper.
As he leaves, though, something falls from his ceiling vent. A yelp escapes the striped feline as he slips from his perch and drops into Radar's living room, falling squarely onto the plated steak!
Lysergia had accidentally shrunken himself to the size of a tiny flea earlier in the morning, and it's taken him the better part of all day to make his way here, hoping Radar could be of some help to him. While it's far from ideal, he figures the bat has the best chance of returning him to normal.
Sure enough, Radar soon returns to the living room, grumbling to himself as he carries the condiment shakers with him.
Ly does his best to stand tall, waving up at the bat, trying to get his attention. "Radar! It's me!"
The bat, though, doesn't react in the slightest as he sets down the pepper shaker before holding the salt over the slab of meat. Grains of salt, the relative size of boulders when compared to the tiny cat, fall from the shaker as he sprinkles it onto the steak.
Lysergia yelps again, his feline reflexes true as he scrambles from side to side, doing his best to avoid being pelted with the granules nearly as big as he is! "Hey! Radar, careful! I'm here!"
Again, there's no reply from the bat as he then sprinkles some pepper flakes on the steak. Each one looms over the feline like a mountain, and there are several dozen such flakes falling onto the meat with every shake of the dispenser! The cat's tail gets pinned by a pepper flake, and he grunts as he works to yank it free, lest he end up properly crushed by another flake!
Finally, Radar seems to have enough seasoning on his food, and he sets the shakers down, earning a relieved sigh from the feline. But the cat's reprieve is short-lived as the bat picks up a sharp steak knife and a fork, beginning to cut into the meat!
"Wait, be careful!"
Ly jumps to the side as Radar cuts into the meat directly in front of where he was just standing. The bat makes long strips, then turns his knife to the side to slice the meat into cubes. Once his steak is properly diced, Radar picks up a piece with his fork, scoops a slice of potato on it, then pops the forkful in his mouth to munch on it all!
"Mmm-mm!" he hums.
Atop the meat, Lysergia finally realizes how dangerous it is for him to be here, and he stumbles over himself as he tries to make it to the edge of the slab of meat, figuring he can try to get Radar's attention another way. It'd be better than being eaten, after all!
But before he can get too far, the ground beneath him shakes as the bat stabs his fork into the piece of meat he's on!
"No, Radar, wait!"
Lysergia falls onto his front as Radar lifts his cube from the plate, and his continued calls are soon muffled as the bat again scoops some potatoes onto his fork, smothering the feline in cheese sauce! He sputters, struggling to pull himself to a surface, but once he manages to get himself free and wipe his face off, he finds himself staring directly into the bat's huge, blood-red maw.
Beyond those sharp teeth, Radar's tongue quivers eagerly in anticipation of another bite of food, and his throat flexes as well, ready to gulp another mouthful. His uvula sways back and forth with every breath he takes, dangling directly over that gullet. Copious amounts of saliva coat every surface – It's clear the bat is quite enjoying his meal so far!
The cat's final attempt to get Radar's attention once again goes unacknowledged as he's brought into his mouth and placed squarely on the center of his tongue. The fork withdraws, leaving Ly alone with the food inside the wet cavern.
Then, the tongue presses upward, tasting this mouthful.
It takes all of Lysergia's effort not to end up between the teeth as they chomp on the meat and potatoes, mashing everything into a fine mush. He struggles, trying to make his way to the front of Radar's mouth, hoping he can hop out the next time it opens.
But he loses his grip as the bat tilts his head back, and Ly yelps as he slides backward along the bumpy surface of that tongue, slipping all the way along the muscle and off into the gullet, where he lands in the chewed-up mush of food.
Glllp!
The muscles tighten, pulling this bolus of food (and the feline atop it) down the bat's esophagus as he swallows. Ly squirms, powerless to do anything to stop it – He's brought deeper and deeper into Radar's body as the peristalsis works him down the fleshy tunnel. He can hear the bat's heartbeat and breathing as he descends, before he suddenly finds himself freefalling for a second as he enters the stomach!
Lysergia splashes into the pool of stomach fluids, which sizzle softly as they begin digesting the food inside the chamber. Thanks to his feline night vision, he's still able to see, and he quickly makes his way to a slice of potato that wasn't chewed up, pulling himself onto it almost like a raft as it floats in the green liquid.
He watches as the stomach walls shift and squeeze, idly churning everything inside the organ with slow contractions of the muscles. It keeps everything moving, ensuring the digestive fluids will be able to get to everything in here so they can break down the stomach's contents in order to fuel the bat.
The cardia squishes open, dropping another mouthful of food into the chamber. A few moments later, another bolus plops into the stomach fluids. Bit by bit, Radar's belly fills with the tasty steak and potatoes, making the organ stretch out as it contains everything he eats.
Ly, meanwhile, struggles to keep at the top of everything, not wanting to be buried in swallowed food! He does his best to avoid it, even as the space fills up more and more. It doesn't help that the stomach walls keep trying to push him into the mush, too; they see him as nothing more than additional food, and that means he's supposed to be digested as well!
The cat keeps trying to avoid it, but he can feel his strength beginning to wear out, unlike the muscular stomach walls that continue to squeeze against everything within. He knows it's only a matter of time before he won't be able to fight any further. But Radar's belly shows no signs of slowing down. It wants to churn him up, and it's becoming evident that there's nothing Ly can do to stop it.
As he grows weaker, the feline decides to give up his fight, and he closes his eyes as he sinks into the partially digested food. Already, he feels a tingling that spreads through his entire body – At his size, it doesn't take long for the fluids to work on him! The tingling quickly turns into a numbness, and Ly lets out a quiet sigh as he surrenders himself completely, melting fully away into the mush around him.
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Outside, Radar checks his phone as he cleans his dishes. He frowns – He texted his feline friend Lysergia, but he has not received a reply yet.
"Odd," he thinks. "He should still be up…"
The bat shrugs. "I wonder where he could be – I hope he's alright…"
