[IC] The dark ball- who will be successor?

[Bright_Ops]

Nos had a few things going for him off the bat as far as securing the succession was concerned. Unlike a number of his siblings, he was actually in a proper position of power as the Kingdom's Steward. A vital pillar of the throne in that his job was to make sure that the King (or Queen) could ensure the loyalty of the other pillars by being able to buy it.

And so he enjoyed a rather pleasant conversation with those appointed by his majesty to the highest positions of law enforcement in the land. They were natural allies after all; Without those that enforced the kings laws, the population would try to avoid paying their taxes and without the tax collector collecting that wealth and ensuring it reached those enforcers they would be forced to farm or tend to the land in order to provide for themselves and their families. Problems with one of them caused problems for the other and as such it was always a good idea to keep an eye out for the others well being.

Of course, it by itself wouldn't be enough to just have their father declare them the heir. Tradition couldn't exactly be debunked so easily after all... but Nos knew that his father wasn't foolish enough to risk the future of the kingdom to mere chance. He got to select the challenges after all...

Through that did rise the question of where his Majesty currently was.

[themadhatter420]

Rose and Dimitri begin walking into the ball together, one behind the other. Dimitri always in the rear since he was the tallest of the twins and wanted to keep a close eye on his sister. You could say it was almost instinct to them even if they were both after the same goal....to get the throne by being chosen, or by marriage.

Rose looks back at her brother before point out everyone they recognize looking to see what they are getting themselves into. This party is all about the best impressions after all. Who would they choose to talk to first. They figured if anything, Victor would be decent conversation while Rose went to find other girls to talk to or check out for other people outside of the royal family on what they plan to do when the next heir is announced. Some are happy some are livid with the choice.

Dimitri takes this chance waking over to Victor placing a hand on his shoulder. "Sorry I'm late. Rose was hard to convince to come tonight. You know how she is at parties." He says gesturing over to her walking around the room not speaking to anyone.

[Minvix]

"Ah, good evening Dimitri, you look as sharp as always. I do believe you're still on time. Father isn't down yet but he should be announced every moment now. But I'm happy you made this tonight. We were just talking about a friendly sparring match if it works with fathers plans, tomorrow. Would you Join us? I'm sparring with our sister Beatrix as I challenged her. So I'm expecting a good fight." He said with a smile.

Victor was happy to know that Rose and Dimitri made it. He respected Dimitri and looked up to him with Dimitri's great fighting skills. He always had liked Rosealeaha a lot. He wasn't sure why, but maybe tonight he would figure that one out. At least he would ask here to dance later this evening. He had hoped do dance with his sisters at leased one in peace tonight before the chaos would start.

With a grin he whispered to Dimitri: "Already made your plans for tonight? Who to backstab, who to support?"

[themadhatter420]

@Minvix

Dimitri smiled bowing his head as he complimented him on his appearance. He did take pride in how he carried himself so to be complimented by someone like him means he must have dressed up nicer then normal. Must have been the jitters from the night ahead. He knew he would only have one shot in order to prove he could handle whatever his father may offer any of them. He knew he would not be very high on the list of being chosen even from his age but he knew this was going to be a fight to the end. "Sure, a friendly spar will sure liven up this gathering for sure." He said laughing before his brother began to whisper to him. "I have a fairly good idea but it will depend on how it ends up landing. Hard to plan an unexpected and unknown outcome. But my plans are already in place." He says nodding his head to gesture over to his twin who is still looking over every single person in the room.

[Vampiretwilight]

@themadhatter420@Minvix@Bright_Ops@aia2022@Marmalised Junk
Prince Eric entered the room. He had not entirely been late, but he had not exactly been roaming about either. He could not believe, to this very moment, that he has to attend an event such as this. He did not think 'parties' were all that important, unlike his father and his siblings, or 'half-siblings' as he would prefer to call them.

"This is ridiculous."

He spoke his main thought, at the moment, out loud. His eyes scanned the room. He sought out someone powerful to talk to, someone he could try to win over. He was determined to become the successor and would do anything to do so. There was no one within those castle walls who would be able to get in his way, not if he had anything to say about it, or so he thought.

[Minvix]

The herald of the king moved quickly, It took him 5 minutes to get the the throne room were the ball was taking place. The king would move in a few minutes behind him to make it on time. The herald knew that his king loved te be on time and he expected everybody to follow that rule. He moved towards the door for the servants and gripped his staff as he moved to his spot to announce the expected arrival of the king.
He tapped his heavy wooden staff on the ground and the taps echoed trough the room. Lords, lady's and guest stopped talking. The sound of talking died down and all eyes turned towards the heralds platform. "Princes and Princesses, Lords and lady's, guests of King Theodore Goldfort the second, Lord of the mountains of the North, Conquer of the deserts to the south, Protector of the people of the West and Master of the fortresses of the east. His Majesty the king will arrive in five minutes." The Herald tapped again and made a slight bow. The rumors of talking started again and people started to move quickly. This was the moment to activated plans and to set things in motion.

Large doors opened as the honor guard marched in. Those knights were the finest of them all. Those man and women would be in the thickest of the fighting to protect and die for their king. The metal of their pristine armor shined in the light of the fires and candles. They walked with their pikes trough the room and took their places. It was a beautiful and intimidating play knew Victor. With those man and woman in place anyone foolish enough to approach the king with ill intentions would find him of herself at the end of a pike without notice. Having a good standing with the captain of the guard was important as she is in charge of the safety of the king. She the captain had a legendary status as one of the best fencers ever lived. Victor had fenced a few times against her but never was able to breach her defense enough to take advantage. She was simply too quick. Victor knew that it would take a lot of practice to finally beat her. But tomorrow would be a good moment to see how much better he had become. Happy with the idea that he would face Beatrix the next day Victor smiled.

Victor looked around to see the chaos ensuing around him. In the chaos he saw a lovely young lady. He did not know her, but he recognized the family weapon. She looked around in disstress and Victor suspected her looking for someone. Most likely for her family. "If you gentleman will excuse me, I think lady Galanodel needs some assistace, she looks somewhat in disstress. I hope to meet you again on the danse floor. Or at whatever the King has prepared to throw at us." He made a small friendly bow and took his leave towards lady Galanodel. With a few steps he was near her. "Lady Galanodel can I be of assistance?" Victor asked her. She turned and gave him a small thankful smile. "Prince Victor, I have lost my father and in all this movement I can't find him. Me being alone will make him worried and people will talk. Have you any idea were my father is? Her eyes pleaded for help. "Don't worry my lady, I have seen him a few minutes ago walking by towards the buffet. I'm pretty sure he still will be there. May I offer my arm so we can find him together? He offer his arm and she complied. She let him lead her towards the tables. Victor couldn't see the small smile she couldn't keep from her lips. Her plan already succeeding.

[aia2022]

So much happening, but alas, so much was the bare minimum expected to be when it comes to an event as large and major as is. When he was off making connections, his father’s honor guard just entered the ballroom. Lovely parade of glistening armour, wouldn’t quite be up to his taste if he were king though.

Victor was now assisting some young lady. A waste of time, Artemis thought, but Victor does what he does, he supposed.

Ah, and Prince Eric joins the party. Delightfully so he wasn’t the last to arrive of the royal children, but he’d have to make up more excuses nonetheless so his reputation wouldn’t take too much of hit, maybe spread a little more rumours about why his siblings were early. Well placed gossip went a long way among the common people, that was something Artemis knew, especially if the gossip was so wide spread that it couldn’t be traced to him at all.

Rose and Dimitri, that pair of twins he never got to know all that well, had also made their appearance. Artemis didn’t see them much of an obstacle, perhaps maybe a small ally to pick up along the journey. They would be formidable opponents though, so the prince thought better than to do anything to anger this particular night.

Artemis didn’t manage to see where the rest of his siblings were through all the chaos, but he didn’t really care where they were nonetheless. ‘Fingers crossed’ as the common folk said that they didn’t get in the way of his plans for the night.

Enough dilly dallying. He had work to do and nobles to deceive. Artemis also had to set up a certain scheme, but he was unsure whether the plan would work. All the more reason to continue working his way through each person of power in the ballroom. Artemis quickly glanced around to find Duke Marguon, known as a bit of a traitor in the lower alleys of the kingdom but someone he’d need to pull off the scheme that was vital for the easy path to the throne. Plus he needed the scheme to happen soon, before the ball ended, if not he’d be stuck as a lowly prince for much longer than he wanted to.

[Vampiretwilight]

@Minvix@aia2022@themadhatter420@Bright_Ops@Marmalised Junk

@Marmalised Junk@Minvix@Bright_Ops
Elizabeth continued the search for her father.

"Where is that man?!"

She was almost rather loud. Her eyes continued to scan around the room. The princess blinked, and almost stopped in her tracks, when she thought that she heard her name being called. But when she looked behind her... she saw no one there. With a sigh, she turned and continued on her way. Elizabeth was not in the mood for games.

"...................................."

@Vampiretwilight

Prince Eric glanced around. He wondered who was currently powerful enough to warrant his attention. So far, he saw no one of the sort. There were many people there, and so one would hope to find someone like that soon enough. However, he would soon feel eyes upon him. A frown would soon appear upon his face. Those eyes of his showed how unhappy he was being stared at.

"Who dares stare at a prince like they were meat on a cutting board?"

He narrowed his eyes as he glanced around. The prince would not stop until he confronted the one who acted with such rudeness. The look in his eyes that followed would reflect that, and quickly enough. The culprit would be found soon enough. However, during this time, the daughter of a marquis who had been invited was staring at Eric. She was smirking. The young lady had her eye on him, and was hoping he would be the chosen heir. She was actually the SECOND pair of eyes to be staring at the prince. The prince was looking for the FIRST pair of eyes, and so he would be very distracted at the moment. Soon... the prince Artemis.

"So my half brother is up to something...."

He walked over.......

[Bright_Ops]

It was honestly rather sad really. Watching how some of his half siblings scurried like rodents as they tried to secure support for whatever schemes or plays they intended to try. But Nos kept a lazy eye on them anyway; Even if their efforts were doomed to failure, the self destructive tended to try and take down everything around them as well.

@themadhatter420

Still, there was a spare moment as the arrival of the King was foretold and in that moment of free time the half kobold deemed to offer some attention to another half elf as he calmly walked over to her. "Rosealeaha! It's been far too long. How are you finding the festivities so far?"

[aia2022]

@Vampiretwilight

And Prince Eric approaches. Artemis spread his arms in a gesture of (feigned) warm welcome. “Ah, brother! Good evening.” He flashed a smile at him, completely ignoring his expression. “First day of the ball, how are you feeling about this lovely occasion?” The prince easily attempted to engage in friendly conversation, lacing his hands together in front of his chest. It seemed like the gossiping and schemes would have to wait until his half-brother was safely out of the way.

He glanced around the ballroom, checking that all was still in order and anything unexpected was happening somewhere that would ruin his plans for the night. Satisfied that no noble had been angered yet, he returned his attention to his ‘dear’ half brother and awaited his answer.

A small part of him hoped he hadn’t heard what he was planning from some traitor in his slowly increasing social circle, but nonetheless he had already thought about a vague outline of a plan if that happened.

[Vampiretwilight]

@aia2022
Prince Eric blinked. He narrowed his eyes at him.

"...It is... alright."

He wanted to get away from his half 'brother' as soon as possible. He had more important matters to focus on. Such an example of that would be socializing with aristocrats and such, winning them over. He wanted to focus more on being a potential suitor, or rather, THE suitor, than talking with this young man in front of him.

"................."

He was not much of a talker at the moment, for obvious reasons.

[aia2022]

@Vampiretwilight

Artemis relaxed slightly. It seemed Prince Eric didn’t want to talk either. “Hmm. I suppose you’re obviously busy. Very well then, I apologise for keeping you.” He said simply. With a slight and quick bow, he gave a (mocking) farewell wave and was off before he could say anything.

Now, to find that duke. Amongst the crowd he couldn’t spot him but he supposed he could make himself more likeable among the public during his own search.

[themadhatter420]

@Bright_Ops

Rose is watching over all the different people in the room, trying to get some sort of clue or any hint of anyone who might give away who would be picked to lead. Suddenly she hears a familiar voice and giving a small curtsy. "Hello! I am so sorry you are right. I have been knee deep in my studies lately. I have been trying to learn everything I can to always be able to hold a conversation...But Still having trouble starting them." She says slowly starting to look around again to make sure she wasnt making a fool out of herself.

Dimitri looks up and around seeing the two of the "brothers" start to talk. As a server walks by, he reaches up grabbing a drink while still watching what is going on the ball room. He could not help but watch as they try to show which one is better then the other. He knew this was about who would be in charge, but there was only so much he could do with as many siblings as he had. Especially brothers before him and after him with more skill. Him being born a twin meant he had to work twice as hard along side her to show their skill...not his alone.

[aia2022]

Two cloaked figures entered the ballroom, drawing little to no attention among the assortment of creatures attending the ball (or so they hope). Expertly, they avoided all which were standing in the path they were taking, blending into the shadows so that the guards and knights present did not see them, but a slight mistake, too big of a swift swing of an arm, allowed any observant onlooker who was paying close attention to see the glint of the metal of a dagger beneath one of the two’s cloak.

The suspicious duo ducked behind the throne, now hiding themselves behind a variety of large objects before any more could catch a glimpse of them.

[aia2022]

@themadhatter420@Vampiretwilight@Bright_Ops@Minvix

(I forgot to tag all of you..)

[Bright_Ops]

@themadhatter420

While it was a tragically normal circumstance that Nos was always forced to look up at most others at court due to his smaller size (alas, the one thing from his mother that he lamented), as he gazed up at Rose he couldn't help but lift his shoulders a little and feel himself stand taller than normal."Don't apologize for seeking to better yourself and your mind, Rose." Nos answered with a small, but earnest grin. "Never apologize for that. Far too many people are content with staying in their comfort zone when they could be learning more."

"As for starting conversations... I admit it's a talent that I didn't have naturally either. But like any talent, practice will refine it in time." While he would have much rather continued the conversation about trivial things, the circumstances of the ball demanded that a certain topic be broached at some point. "If you don't mind me asking, any personal favorites you're betting on in regards to the race for the throne?"

[themadhatter420]

@Bright_Ops @aia2022

Rose smiles at her brother thinking over what his question really entailed. He wanted to see where her alliance lied with the family as a hole. She knew she would say her twin in a heart beat but she also knows that he would be took....overwhelmed because she would be away from him for too long. He would be better off as a royal guard then in charge. She looked into his eyes again placing a hand on his shoulder. "To be honest. I only think there are a few of us who could even handle the title and responsibility, but I know who ever is picked will do whatever they can to keep everyone happy and the kingdom prosperous. " She said trying to sound very proper but its clear she didn't interact with other people very much in close quarters from all her time studying.

Dimitri would be the first to see the two figures walking around tapping the shoulders of a guard telling him to follow him as he tried to walk up to them as calmly and as naturally as they could, his hand on his sword under his cloak on his shoulder. "I think something terrible is about to unfold." he said to the guard as calmly as he could.

[aia2022]

@themadhatter420 @Vampiretwilight @Bright_Ops

It wasn’t long before the two figures reappeared, still sticking close to the wall. This time the second one wasn’t nearly as careful, having their dagger exposed for the world to see, as if making a bold statement.

The first one cast a furtive glance around, and if one were to carefully observe their movements one would see that they seemed to be scolding their companion.

Figure No. 2 paid no heed, and instead quickened their pace, cutting across the ballroom, dagger shown. Heads turned as they passed, some worried and backing away, others narrowing their eyes in suspicion at the obvious show of their weapon. Some, however, realised that they were making a beeline straight for Nos and Rose.

Prince Artemis allowed himself a small discreet smile as he held a conversation with the aforementioned Duke Marguon.