Gift-Giving & Discovery
At the edge of the Solar System...
Alvin and the others' Small Spaceship drifted aimlessly through a vast stretch of empty space!
Wearing an apron with Big White's face printed on it, Alvin stood in front of the stove, busying himself with the cooking...
Over the past week, Alvin had completely taken over the stove.
He had no interest in piloting the ship. His personal Artificial Intelligence, Angel, only had to briefly connect to the ship's control system to "learn" how to fly it far better than Alvin ever could...
Aside from that, only cooking could help him pass the time...
"Hey, Groot, how are my matsutake coming along?"
Alvin held a frying pan and called to Groot without turning around...
Groot raised an arm, plucked a fully grown matsutake from his chest, and popped it into his mouth. After chewing a few times, he exclaimed admiringly, "I'm Groot!"
Alvin turned around and saw Groot sneaking a bite. He called out unhappily, "Hey, you can't sneak a taste!
These need to be fried in animal fat to bring out their most incredible aroma...
I saw it on a Chinese TV show!
Once we've eaten, if you really like them, you can keep some of the mycelium..."
Groot seemed to have gone deaf and pretended not to understand Alvin. He plucked another matsutake and popped it into his mouth, chewing as he sighed contentedly...
Peter Quill, who had already been getting impatient, nudged Drax beside him and said, "Oh, hold him back, hold him back...
That bastard Groot's going to eat all our lunch!"
As he spoke, Peter Quill and Drax each grabbed one of Groot's arms, while Rocket Raccoon nimbly scrambled onto Groot...
The agile raccoon quickly picked the ripe matsutake and tossed them to Alvin as