A variety of fresh ingredients sprawled across the tabletop, offering countless combinations of different recipes.
Clasping their hands Gabriel asked, "So… what's going to be the special 'Experiment 100'?"
There was minor discussion until a loud thud was heard. The sound pulled away from their ears and drew the attention of the group's eyes. A book seemingly appeared from nowhere… it was unknown who dropped it.
"Where did that come from?" Elijah asked whilst looking up towards the ceiling, the ceiling as pristine as normal.
There was some slight hesitation until Ruth brazenly went to grab the book. "It's a religious book, look at the cross on the cover."
The group of friends slightly leaned in to get a better look at the book's cover. Besides seemingly coming from nowhere, there wasn't anything superstitious about the book. 'Strange' was the collective thought of the group.
Amar scratched behind his ear in puzzlement but soon shrugged it off, he wasn't particularly paying attention to that general area anyways. 'Somebody here may've tossed it there without us looking - like a prank.'
While Ruth was fiddling with the book, a slip of paper fell out. "Is that our next recipe?" Miriam said in a slightly teased manner.
"U-uhm, yes actually…" Ruth replied in a confused tone after reading the slip, confusing Miriam, and everyone else.
"What does that mean?" Levi asked, speaking the group's mind. Amar and the rest stared at Ruth in puzzlement.
'Well, this is definitely a prank being played by Ruth now.' Amar thought secretly to himself.
"It's a recipe, it's strangely specific in the order and way it's done… but it requires the exact ingredients we currently have!" Ruth said somewhat restlessly.
"Okay, there's no way that wasn't planted by somebody here." Amar stated as if it was an obvious fact. The group of friends went silent, waiting for somebody to come out and own the prank.
A long silent moment passed but nobody said anything. 'Why isn't anyone saying anything? Normally they would by now?' Amar and others silently thought.
"Who cares who did it! At least we have a recipe, no matter how strange it is! We most definitely have to make it!" Elijah said excitedly- breaking the silence. The group could only nod in agreement.
Ruth laid the recipe bare for the group to see on the table alongside the ingredients. What Ruth stated was true, the recipe perfectly matched the ingredients on the table. Cucumber, tomatoes, blood… wait blood?
"Why the hell is blood involved with the recipe!?" Both Miriam and Elijah shouted at the same time. The recipe needed a drop of blood from each cook at the scene, that was simply absurd!
"I don't want to eat anything that involves your blood mixed in…" Gabriel was slightly disgusted with the idea of consuming blood, even if it's his good friends.
"Well… it's not like we need to follow the recipe exactly right? We can just… skip that part." Levi offered his own solution.
"I agree." Amar nodded in agreement, and soon followed along with everyone else. "I guess that works." Gabriel relented.
Ignoring the blood sacrifice, which was likely a joke from the author of the recipe, the group decided to follow the recipe in the end.
The first instruction involved prepping, like preparing a large cauldron of boiling water… they downsized to fit what they currently can hold.
Next, they had to cut the cucumber into squid-like shapes while humming a song written in the recipe. "Su Su Su, Great One of the Abyss, Su Su Su, Cut me up like squid, Su Su Su…" The song was different, to say the least.
Next, they had to 'violently' mash the tomatoes into a fine paste, the violent part was bolded in red. Elijah and Ruth had some fun with that part of the recipe.
Skinning and dicing potatoes were next, there wasn't anything abnormal about that. They also had to save the skin for later and add it to the tomato paste when done.
Beansprouts were also added to the paste, then the skin of the potatoes. They had to be quickly mixed.
The recipe followed many oddity's in how to prep the now-apparent stew.
The recipe was eventually finished, and the second, to last step was to add blood. They skipped that part for obvious reasons; however, the recipe ended oddly… it wanted the chef to dump the stew into a flat cup pan and freeze it into burger patties, then wait a week.
"How peculiar, you reckon this is even safe to eat?" Amar questioned, he felt that what he and his group did was more accustomed to a ritual.
Gabriel shrugged, "At least there isn't any blood in it." The group of friends laughed at that comment.
'Oh right… it wanted us to pray for good measure.' Amar beckoned everyone to pray for the meal to be successful.
"Well… I guess we'll be back in a week to eat!" The group of friends beckoned each other goodbye for the evening and dispersed back home.
'What an odd recipe… it's a funny joke, to say the least.' Amar then closed the cooler that was storing the patties and stood up to leave.
The sun was beginning to set.