Two dozen boxes of pizzas sat on the kitchen table with Dr. Peter Venkman and the firehouse pet, Slimer, sitting around the massive feast of greasy food. Slimer was anxiously waiting for Peter to give him the cue to begin eating while Peter himself was kicked back and smugly grinning at the troublesome ghost.
"Okay spud, Uncle Petey is going to teach you about the seven deadly sins." Peter flipped open the lid of the first box of pizza and waved Slimer back a little. "Specifically the sin of gluttony, I'll cover the other six later."
Slimer licked at his green lips with intense hunger but stayed back as instructed by Peter.
"Today we're going to focus on why gluttony is a sin and why it can come back to haunt you. No pun intended." Leaning forward Peter took a single slice of pizza from the box and held it out toward Slimer. "There's a concept of 'too much of a good thing', which revolves quite a bit around comfort food. And I'm going to show you how too much food can hurt you in the end. So go ahead spud, dig in!"
"Oh, boy!" Slimer excitedly began picking up the individual slices of pizza and stuffing them wholly into his mouth.
"Yup," Peter began to eat the pizza as well. "knock yourself out. It won't bother me."
The first two boxes of pizza hadn't been too much of a challenge but once the third box had been started Peter began to feel the ill effects of too much food during one meal. Slimer had no difficulty in consuming the pizza at a quick pace while Peter began to slow down a little. Already feeling too full to eat another bite Peter forced himself to keep eating for as long as Slimer was eating.
Six boxes were emptied rather quickly and Peter was getting nauseous. An overstuffed stomach was as uncomfortable as it was unflattering for the psychologist. As he watched Slimer happily indulge on the pizza, his own green stomach stuffed as well, Peter couldn't contain his nausea any longer and slowly got up from the table and promptly marched into the bathroom on the second floor of the firehouse.
Dr. Egon Spengler had been working on the proton packs in the lab of the firehouse while Dr. Ray Stantz and Winston Zeddemore were out on a small bust. The physicist had been unaware of Peter's little experiment while he was in the lab, but as soon as he saw the massive stacks of pizza, a very happy Slimer and an absentee Peter he knew that something unfortunate had just happened right under his nose!
"Uh, Slimer?" Egon addressed the green ghost who was still eating the pizza. "Where's Peter?"
The sound of groaned pain followed by a toilet flushing answered Egon's question.
"Never mind. I know where he is."
Peter was resting on his knees beside the porcelain basin of the toilet bowl. He wiped his mouth on the back of his arm as he moaned with a sick disdain on the bathroom floor. Footsteps thudded into the room as Egon stood in the doorway with his arms crossed disapprovingly over his chest.
"Peter, why is Slimer to happy and why are you so ill?"
Peter wanted to give a sarcastic reply but another bout of vomiting stopped his words before they started.
Egon patiently waited for Peter to finish being sick before making a move. Walking over to the sink he filled a glass with water and handed a clean towel to Peter. Standing beside Peter he handed his ill friend the two items.
"Here. Drink this." Egon instructed. "It'll help with the pain and keep you hydrated."
"...thanks." Peter took the water and sipped it tentatively before wiping off his mouth and chin with the towel. "Did Slimer learn his lesson?"
"Lesson? Is that what was going on?" Egon reached down and pulled on Peter's arm to help him up to his feet. The green hue on Peter's pale face was a sight to behold, but seeing that Peter had an evidently distended stomach poking out from under his white t-shirt was all the more unusual. "Why did you willingly participate in an eating contest with an ethereal glutton?"
"I was trying to teach the spud about overindulgence and the sin of gluttony." Peter admitted as he let Egon guide him out of the bathroom and over to his bed in the bunk room. "I don't think it worked."
"Neither do I." Egon helped Peter to lay down. "But I do think you learned a lesson about the sin of pride."
"Funny Spengz..." Peter lamented as he laid on his back and was immediately nauseous again as his heavy stomach churned at the motion from walking about.
"Lay on your left side." Egon instructed quickly. "It'll aid digestion and stop you from being sick again."
"But shouldn't I want to get sick and get this junk out of my body?" Peter asked as he slowly sat up and put a hand over his mouth.
"Normally yes, but I worry the exorbitant amount of vomiting could do more harm than good. Also you're suffering from overindulgence not food poisoning."
"I think this counts as poison..." Peter quipped as he rolled onto his left side and buried his face into his pillow. "Pride can be pretty toxic..."
"Yes it can." Egon sighed as he watched his ill friend suffering in the bed. "I'll bring you something to ease your stomach. Until then don't try to move and get some rest so your body can focus solely on digestion."
"Hey Spengz?" Peter's voice was a little low like an embarrassed child. "Could you tell Slimer he won and not tell the guys about this?"
"Sure. I'll tell them all of the pizza was an experiment to see how gluttonous Slimer truly is, and that you're sick with a bug. No one will know about your foolish little test."
"Gee Spengz, thanks..." The sarcasm in Peter's voice was a welcomed tone as it meant that Peter was already showing signs of recovery. "you're a real pal!"
-The End