ARI/KIERNAN | LATER IN THE EVENING
Kiernan was still picking at the buffet table, enjoying half the things he tasted and having to keep himself from spitting out the rest, when he noticed Ari being accosted by a drunk, fat, and noble fan, or so he could only assume. He plucked one last mini quiche from the plate and sauntered over, slinging an arm around the bard's shoulder in a manner that he hoped came across as possessive enough. To top it off, he simply gave the man a warning Look and waited for him to slink away.
"Oh, the skill you have to put up with the likes of them," he said dramatically as he pulled his arm back. "He even smelled kind of drunk."
“You mean,” Ari said with artificially wide eyes, “you are not fond of eau de rich-and-pompous-and-utterly-disgusting? I am told that it is quite well-received in certain circles.” She sighed dramatically and leaned into him a moment before pulling back. “I think you and I may be too common to fully appreciate the… refined aroma.” Fortunately, she had had one person or another keeping her safe from unwanted company for most of the night. It paid to know so many Fighters’ Guild members.
“Hey, now, being common is grossly underrated.” He winked. “We know how to have the most fun. Hell, we’re the only ones who can truly appreciate the meaning of ‘fun,’ and we don’t have to get all high-and-mighty to do it.”
He didn’t mean it as a criticism of the party, of course; he really was having fun, though he’d had to refrain from dancing when asked; if it’d been for some of the simpler dances, like the waltz, he might have accepted the invitation (or, rather, the not-so-subtle hints that he was supposed to ask the lady in question to dance), but it was always for the ones he only ever learned when drunk, and unfortunately, he hadn’t had nearly quite that much to drink yet. In truth, he was a little afraid of making poor judgments like he had last night, and he was just happy that he hadn’t needed to show up here in the get-up his friends expected him to.
Still, he couldn’t help but to wonder: just how scandalized could he have made Vivi’s neighbors if he’d done so?
“Good party though,” he said, in case anyone overheard him.
“You will hear no argument from me; the best nobles I know do not behave very noble at all,” Ari said. “But there is something to be said for the food and the live music, though I suppose I can get the latter at The Spoony Bard, if not quith quite the same size of dance floor.”
And with him, there was no need to be careful of the topic, so she said, “Vivi, I think, is barely refraining from matricide this evening. What a disaster.”
“Can’t say I blame her,” said Kiernan, shaking his head. “If it was me--” He stopped himself there; just the thought, even in jest, was enough to dig up things he’d spent all day burying, so he quickly dropped it. “I mean, shit. Vivi’s a smart woman, though. She’ll figure a way out of this. What is it with nobles anyway?”
“I have stood pretty much exactly where Vivi stands this evening,” Ari said with a sigh, “though my mother, anticipating my poor behavior -- I am ever so much less gracious than the Countess -- did not announce the engagement so much as sprung an entire wedding on me -- complete with three hundred of her closest friends -- when I thought we were bound for a garden party. I ran away, of course,” she said. “Absconded from the altar, as it were. I didn’t go home for nearly a year after, and even then, it still gets brought up pointedly to me every once in awhile; it was quite a scandal. I do not think,” she said, “that this will get to the altar, however.”