"What's a Fairy Floss machine? Is it some kind of weapon of mass destruction?
"You probably call it Cotton Candy."
"Nope! Never heard of it."
"Look I'll show you how it works."
10 minutes and 300plus small children later.
"You know, it just might be a weapon of mass destruction." -- Anon Guest
There are phrases of doom. "Hey watch this," coming from a human, is a sure sign that something impressively dangerous is about to happen. Shayde has hundreds of them, but the most dangerous one is this:
"Aw ripper!"
Which meant that the bargain barge of junk she had purchased at mass credit rates now contained something she deemed to be a treasure. Which meant that some horrible thing from history that should have been forgotten was about to be revived.
She was holding something that looked like a washtub, with a separate spinarette in the middle, and a motorised cabinet underneath.
"Ah got a fairy floss machine," she crowed. "Sure it needs a wee bit o' love, but I reckon I can get this one runnin' again."
"Fairy. Floss."
"Awright. Cotton candy. Whatever. I reckon fairy floss is a cuter term."
"This is another ancient terran weapon, isn't it?"
"Nooooo," she sang. "I'll show ye. When I get it runnin'. It's a treat."
It took her two weeks to make her threat come to life, and she ran a small booth to one side of Nik's enormous kitchen in Unsuitable Food.
It was, technically speaking, food on a stick. If you had such wide and varied definitions of 'food' as Nik did. Pure sucrose, sometimes with added colours and flavourings, heated to melting point and spun out in fine threads by centripetal force. And from there, gathered onto the aforementioned stick.
Galactic Society had their own phrase for it. Sugar clouds. And they brought a new generation ingenious ways to get sticky and sick at the same time.
Rael had to try a sample. Too much air, and the sugar melted on contact with any kind of moisture. For him, that was something of a sensory disappointment. For children, he could imagine the appeal. Something bigger than their head that they could plausibly ingest with little ill effect. And for anyone who still had room, they could also ingest the sorghum-millet stick[1]. Rael certainly devoured his as he surveyed the crowds of happily sticky children who would come to regret their decisions later.
"I was right," he told her. "It is a weapon."
[1] Edible utensils/containers is a fantastic idea and deserves more research. Currently, only edible spoons exist.
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