OUR FOREST OF THORNS | tbosas ✔️

014 || Dinner and Diatribes

CHAPTER FOURTEEN -    Dinner and Diatribes ..

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          Part of him had always unfortunately believed that Daphne has been exaggerating at the very least about her father's nature. Seeing how much of a brute Albert was couldn't change Coriolanus' perception of President Ravinstill, whom he met at Arachne's funeral for the first time, but has seen on the news broadcast since forever, and especially during the war when the occasional signal they received was a true highlight to his day, a blissful distraction from the war outside.

That part of Coriolanus faced an undeniable disappointment when, once seated at the table, they were joined by Daphne's family. They all proved to be exactly as ignorant to their presence as she had warned him they would be. It was as if they weren't even there. As if they had turned, without their knowledge, into some piece of the decor, fading into the background, despite however being seated in a central place on the left side of the table's length, right across the vase from the president.

Coriolanus had hoped in vain to being recognized for having sat next to the president at that funeral, before and after he sang the anthem, because he was as close as one could get to invisible to everyone of importance gathered there, save for Daphne and unfortunately her brother too. The latter was throwing a troubling amount of glares his way.

President Ravinstill had kept his son to his right and Albert had kept his fiancée besides him too. Coriolanus had to admit that Electra looked, for the lack of a better word, exactly how Daphne had described her - like a whore. There was an abundant lack of self respect radiating off of that woman whom, at her age, should have known better than to choose such revealing garments that do nothing but challenge the line of distinction between what can count as clothing and what would by default be seen as lingerie.

Coriolanus made a note, as food was being brought to them by two Avox, to avoid looking at Electra in order to have a chance at actually keeping down what he would eat. He hoped it wasn't obvious just how hungry he actually was, but simply to be certain, he started observing the rest of the family and their arrangements at the table, a distraction that wouldn't allow his stomach to growl.

To the president's left was Daphne's uncle.

Daphne leant over, knowing that if they kept their conversation down quiet in comparison to the loud chatter from the rest of the family that went on around them, they could still go unnoticed without also growing mad from listening to the endless war stories her father and her uncle had a true passion for telling. She had always found their gleeful drunk talks of war distasteful and since Coriolanus had ealier made a point out of reminding her she wasn't alone there this time around, Daphne had to take advantage of perhaps the only time she would not be forced to listen for hours on end to the lack of class her family displayed behind closed door.

"Our family fortune is managed and maintained by my uncle," she explained to Coriolanus. "The oil production industry. He's got refineries in almost every District with able hands and thanks to the advancements in drone technology from 3, he's been visiting old oil drill sites that have been sealed off out in the ocean."

Coriolanus imagined a family business quite like hers was simply synonymous to immortality - there will never not be a time in which what they do won't be needed.

"Is he Felix's grandfather?" Coriolanus inquired, nodding to the right. He had had no issue recognizing that the three seated to Daphne's right were Felix, his father and his mother, exactly in that order. It was irritating to know Felix seated besides her, but since their colleague had made no effort in acknowledging them, Coriolanus wasn't going to waste his energy on it either.