DETERRENT - Apply Fic

04

When they head into the farm for dinner, Gale is not disappointed even though there is no soup. The table is long, not new either, but worn in and a deep brown. On one of the plates sits a golden bread cut into square shapes, which none of them have eaten before. There are also two cooked chickens, all quite small, coated in something brown and sweet smelling. The real marvel is the grilled vegetables. At one end of the table, a platter sits with tiers of grilled vegetables resting on each other. There are grilled red peppers, tomatoes, and some vegetables he is familiar with but has never seen. Zucchinis are smaller than he had thought they would be. Lab-grown vegetables aren't good to begin with, and no one would bother spending the money on a dupe like asparagus.

Gale has eaten tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce; cheap produce. On the rare occasion, he's had actual meat that comes from living animals and not clones. He's eaten chicken before. Not much else on the table.

"Sorry," Benji scratches the back of his neck. Between the eleven of them, the two small chickens will almost certainly not stretch enough. "One of my workers went out and got the chickens for us. I should've asked for a third."

To someone like Titus, the spread isn't anything special. He stands at the table, watching the others.

Norbu grabs a plate off the table and hurries around it, pulling off different things from each plate. He scoops up a pile of vegetables haphazardly, bending at his waist to prevent anything from toppling over. He pauses at the chicken, smelling it.

"Is there any mustard on this?" he laughs. "Fucking hate mustard."

Rhiannon Rose looks up at the ceiling above her. She isn't sure what she expects to see. Cobwebs might freak out anyone else from her end of Neo Elysium, but Rhiannon Rose doesn't complain. She watches a spider skitter backwards. She has never seen a web burn.

"What are these?" Faris says, picking up a plate as well and looking over the vegetables.

Benji looks at him, furrowing his brow. He points at the different plates, "we've got cornbread, chicken in a honey glaze, and the vegetables. Right, so tomatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, broccolini, asparagus, brussels sprouts, and sweet potato. All grown here. Course, it's cause of the mods to it. You know, insecticides, weather adaptations, increased nutritional value, slower spoilage. All the stuff so we can send it out to you Southern Marcadians."

Titus looks down at it and his stomach churns. All his life, the food he has been eating if modified, not all that different from the lab-grown things. He's never thought it tasted odd before, but this North Marcadian lives in a place without a biometric lock on his house. Titus had never considered that people like Benji were aware of genetic modification. In fact, it had seemed possible, though unlikely, that they thought thunder was an angry God and not the sound of electrons crackling through the air.

"Any of y'all find anything interesting out there?" Benji asks.

None of them have anything to report, since they all stayed in the area with their quarters. Faris wanted to walk out and explore. He hasn't moved outside of holding in weeks except to attend his own damnation. At the end of the journey, somehow sitting in silence once more after a few days of interviews and medical testing felt more draining than anything he's ever done. No, he didn't end up exploring as he wished.

"It's quaint," Cosmia says, biting down on the word to emphasize its cruelty.

"Fuck quaint, it's disgusting," Eurydice rolls her eyes. "I'd rather be shot dead then live like this."

"There's always the place they would've sent you other than here," Benji says.

No one speaks after that. They eat together in silence.