Bucket- VIP Intro

One hundred VIPs flew out from the clouds and began to swarm above the cylinder in a tight circle which began to come closer to the ground. As they slowed down it became possible to see them individually. They were shrieking and filling the air with high-pitched loud screechscrotches.

They were birds, but not like any bird Chili had ever seen or read about. They were as tall as Mr. Bucket with wings twice as long as half his height. They had white rings around their long necks and shiny black feathers. They had long antennae on their foreheads and two small pincers coming out of their chests and giant ears and long ugly beaks and teeth as sharp as teeth-shaped knives.

"What does VIP stand for?" asked Keerthi.

"Very Intelligent Pheasant," said Mr. Bucket. "I made them myself. Each VIP is sixty percent pheasant, twenty percent vulture, five percent bat, and five percent prawn."

"What about the other ten percent?" asked Keerthi. "That only adds up to ninety."

"I can't tell you," said Mr. Bucket.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because," said Mr. Bucket. "If I said that the other ten percent came from the most poisonous snake in the world, one of you would say something very anno-"

"Venomous," said Lim. "Not poisonous. Snakes are venomous, not poisonous, since they bite."

"No!" said Mr. Bucket. "Not the Crying Mamba, which cries tears of pure poison."

"But why would you use DNA from a poisonous animal if you are going to use them to make coffee?" asked Keerthi.

"Because," said Mr. Bucket. "They are emotionally intelligent, and that is the section of their DNA that I used, not the poison tears. Emotional intelligence is rare in reptiles. All other snakes are corrupted by a horrible snake culture that forces them to hide their sadness behind false bravado. It's the same with sharks."

- Chapter 11: The VIP Room