The Majesty of Choice

Edgar

When they enter the grand dining room, Edgar is seated at the table already. The table is long and thin, as opposed to short and wide, and Edgar sits at the head at the end of the table. There is no food yet when the two of them walk in, but there stand a few servants, or at least Gerard hopes they're servants, next to a door on the opposite end of the room which presumably leads into the kitchen, who are awaiting the call to serve food. A few moments after they step in, Edgar stands up, though it looks like it's through some exhaustion that he has to do so.

The man who stands up must be Edgar, and it's the first time Gerard has ever laid eyes on him. He's never even heard tell of what this man looks like. Gerard doesn't know what he had expected. For Sir Edgar to have red eyes and scales? For him to have a forked tongue and venom dripping from pointed teeth? For a dark cloud around him accompanied with thunder and lightning?

Edgar is just... a man. He's just a guy. He's a man with black hair, pampered facial hair that surely, he doesn't cut for himself as Gerard does. He's not exactly attractive, but to be fair, Gerard no longer believes anyone besides Frank is capable of being attractive. His robes are a dark embroidered black, highlighted in deep red. He's wearing his crown, which doesn't seem entirely necessary when he's eating dinner in his own castle with his nephew and Gerard, but he's probably drunk with power, so Gerard isn't exactly stunned. Surprisingly, though Gerard has always thought that he would be accompanied by an evil staff and talking snake, neither are present. He is just a man. Though Gerard knows there must be so much evil inside of him, it's just not in his appearance.

All of this anticipation leading up meeting this man, a man who Gerard had hoped he'd never have to meet, he feels let down that it is just some guy. He would have expected to see a monster. He's always pictured him as such. Maybe he's just let down by it all.

"Ah, my nephew," Edgar says, and his face might not actually be in a sneer, but his stupid mustache makes it look that way. He looks like he spends too much time grooming himself. Gerard would have thought that would make him appear better, grander, but it kind of just makes him look arrogant. Gerard might even say that the shaggy, worn state of himself is better than this man, and so surely is Frank. He looks too put together. The man in charge of this Kingdom shouldn't have so much time to care about every single hair on his head. Frank's hair is always a mess, but he still looks powerful. It's funny, Gerard used to think Frank didn't look royal at all, that he looked too small, too young. But now, Frank is the image of strong. He's so smart, so passionate, he can't be anything but a Prince.

There's no real family resemblance. Gerard couldn't tell you these two people were related if he saw them separately. Frank is too attractive to look like anyone, he thinks. Gerard looks like his mother, not so much his father. He can see almost all of his own face on Mikey, except it's stretched over different bones. Frank looks nothing like this man, and he wonders how much Frank looked like his parents. Gerard wishes he could have met them, met the real King, Frank's mom, who even Frank never knew because she died in childbirth. His mom would absolutely love Frank. Frank, who doesn't order him around. Frank, who loves her son with all of that he has to love. She'd be supportive of whatever Gerard wanted from Frank. She'd probably support Gerard more than he does. A lot of her spirit lives in Ray, so he's sure when Gerard finally gets to introduce Frank to Ray, he'll be just as supportive as she would have been.

"Uncle, this is Gerard," Frank says, and he ushers Gerard over to where Edgar now stands, at the head of the table, not bothering to move closer to greet them. Gerard hesitantly holds out his hand to shake Edgar's hand. Ge hates the guy but Frank did ask him to be cordial. Edgar glances down at his hand very briefly, he might not think Gerard even sees him do it. He doesn't attempt to shake Gerard's hand.

The way that Edgar looks at him definitely lingers disdain, and he wonders how much of it is intentional. He wonders if Edgar is trying to retain his thoughts of Gerard but can't hold it in, or if he simply doesn't care that Gerard can tell. That brings out the question of just why doesn't he like Gerard. He'd expected as much, but he thought he would at least have to open his mouth for Edgar to hate him.