Drake/Riv |Mid-evening| complete
Rivalen flashed Drake a grin, “Yeah? How bad were those?” He didn’t mind this line of conversation, it was far more entertaining than a lot of the conversations so far tonight. Besides, it was not often that one met a guy with an opinion on flowers. “I’m not much of a flower expert, but I’d like to think of myself as someone with a semblance of taste.” Or a lot of taste, certainly far above that of most people in this room.
Drake shook his head. “He thought dead flowers belonged in arrangement to accent the life of the other ones. I once tried to fix one that had dead roses, wilted tulips, and browned baby’s breath mixed into gorgeous lilies. It was horrible.” Sometimes, he wondered if maybe Marc didn’t do that to annoy him and his father. It was a possibility.
Taste, of course, was subjective, but they could agree that whoever had arranged these had none. “Don’t have to be,” he replied sadly. “It’s just a really unfortunate arrangement. I thought I saw weeds in one of the one’s further down. Made me want to weep for hume-kind.” Weeds were food. And they killed other plants. Why there were in arrangements at an event hosted by the king was beyond him. He could have done better for far less than he was sure the event planner paid for these atrocities.
“How much trouble do you think I’d be in if I made one arrangement in the center?” He could do it. He’d be seen, but it was almost worth the risk to have at least one proper arrangement in the area.
“It sounds like a funeral arrangement rather than… well, anything with taste.” He was actually going to avoid picturing it very far because he preferred to have other things in mind. Like how Drake was amusing him and what connections he could offer Rivalen in the long term. “Minimal, people would be too awe by the better taste that you could make a quick escape.” He flashed an open grin.
“Mind you, I like weeds - not in arrangements, of course - but they are resilient.” In some cases they were inconspicuous until they had advanced and entangled themselves thoroughly within a garden.
“Weeds make it harder for certain things to live,” he pointed out, eyeing an arrangement a few feet away. There were some flowers in there that would work for what he had in mind. Drake grinned. “Cover me.”
Hoping that Rivalen would do just that, Drake darted forward, hiding beside the pillar until the coast was clear. He grabbed a handful of flowers - tulips, some daffodils, a stargazer - and hurried back to Riv. He pulled a bunch of the filler from the display they had been looking at and started getting to work.
A moment later, he stepped back and eyed the arrangement critically. “What do you think? Does it need more?”