chainless DISCONTINUED

15 - Effect

trigger warning // mention of death

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Came the morning of a new start, Ra didn't get the luxury of eating his meals in his room like he has these past few days of being the Prince of Merri. The King made it a personal request to dine with him at the grand table. Ra didn't understand why it had to be named, 'Grand' when it was just a long table. He was familiar with such a thing, in the Institution, they had four of them. What was so grand about it? It just meant that a lot of people could eat all at once in the place?

He didn't dwell much on it, like with most- If Ra voluntarily stuck himself on a certain subject, he will not be able to get rid of the thought of it for hours.

What makes a table 'grand' being one of them. But, Prince Ra carries on and enters the dining area. Where King Merri awaits for him; sitting at the head of the table. He pauses, overwhelmed by the large spread and how much shorter that table was compared to the one he was used to. Was it that the length didn't make it grand? But who dined at it? His head shakes, forcing himself to move on.

King Merri seemed to be in a better mood today, as he waves Ra down to sit by him. A plate of prepared food is waiting. He glances behind him after seeing movement in his peripheral, the guards walking away from his side to post at the doors they came through.

Ra takes a seat and is instantly greeted by King Merri, "Good Morning, Ra. How did you sleep?" He questions as he pops a salted tomato into his mouth. He wore more extravagant robes, displaying his wealth as the King. It was...distracting, to say the least. Glinting in the light with every minuscule movement. Ra had a feeling that he didn't mean to show off, but it was blinding to not believe it to be so.

"Slept, good." He answers, reminding himself of how he slept the night prior. He tossed and turned for a long time, despite sinking into the soft mattress. Something he loved when he first arrived. It wasn't hard ground or a mattress he had to check for bed bugs and mold every night.

Too many thoughts swam through his head, of the near future, and of the past. He had been writing in his journal every night of events that has transpired, including ones after he left the Institution. It arose questions about it, about the people who ran it and what happened to the hybrids, and how they were doing. Techno only gave him so many answers, vague.

"I asked for a wide range of different foods for breakfast, to test and see what you like. The cooks have been looking forward to expanding their palates. They have cooked for us for years." Ra's eyes look over the spread, eggs, toast, salted tomatoes, and something he hadn't seen before. His brows furrow, staring at a ripe fruit purple in color, skin peeling away with small cracks on the surface reminds him of this. He picks it up carefully, softly applying pressure to squeeze it in his hand. Testing how ripe it was.

"What is this?" He questions, King Merri gladly answers him by picking his own up, along with a knife and cutting it in half, "This is what they call, a 'Fig'. It is a fruit." He places down his knife to grab a spoon, scooping out the contents and eating it. The hybrid copies him, slicing it in half and then scooping out the contents. It was red inside, which he didn't quite expect since the exterior was purple.

He hesitantly eats half of a spoonful, chewing on the odd protein inside. Seeds?

"Oh did we get the ones with the wasp inside?" Ra spits the fig out ungracefully onto his plate, his appetite ruined from one sentence of inquiry. King Merri laughs at his reaction, boisterous and amused. Ra covers his mouth with his hand, embarrassed how he reacted but the King nor the person behind him didn't seem to mind.

"W- Wasp?" King Merri clears his throat, doing his best to keep his laughter in to answer his question. "There is no wasp in there anymore, the acid of the fig eats away at its body."