[sub][b]Château de Monfort[/b]
[color=505987]P I K E[/COLOR]
[color=808080]Interacting With: [@Congee], [@Silence Sounds]
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The Chateau was bustling with life as Pike walked invisibly back to his room. To the servants, all that mattered to them was overturning sheets, or hot food, or aged wine. A man who appeared a few years prior and gained a phony title was nothing to these busybodies. Sometimes, it was nice to be nothing.

Pike moved with purpose, as he usually did. There were bound to be countless guests now, all kissing the hands of the Queen Regent and King, and he was late to his very important job of watching such things happen. His room was present among other guest rooms often used for nobles coming it from out of the country, pressed into the white-walled halls of the second level of the chateau.

Inside, he had taken the liberty of redecorating the once silky periwinkle walls and satin bedding to fit his usual tastes, leaving in his destructive wake navy blue paint, black sheets, and an array of silks and curtains hanging wherever he could fit them. A low-standing table he had managed to bring in from home was placed at the foot of his bed in lieu of his trunk, which he had pushed to sit next to his closet and was currently overflowing with dirty, lacy shirts. On the table were his cards, a multitude of animal bones, unpolished crystals, and a few gold trinkets he had snatched back in his pickpocket days.

A beautiful outfit, which he had picked out days prior, laid on his messy bed. It was a dusty pink, almost mauve in the right light, and it was so soft that it could have only been ordered by one of noble blood and worth. It had been a gift from the queen. Somehow, Pike despised it, and yet he pulled it on without hesitance. It felt nice. He deserved to feel nice. 

Below his feet was the rumble of voices and footsteps, a reminder of where he was meant to be and what he was missing. With a final peek around his room, Pike crouched by his table and snatched a rough pink stone and a more smooth orange jewel, both of which he slipped easily into one of his breast pockets. He left the room within the next second, and began reciting his story on the way down to the gathering.

[i]’My name is Alexander Pike.
I am the Baron of Monfort.
I am a friend of the Queen Regent.
I am personable and friendly and kind.
I am unassuming.
I am air.
But I am always there.’[/i]

Pike slipped into the party after a pair of Astaria nobles, keeping his head high but his hair calm, cool, neutral. He was snake-like in his weaving of the crowd, and ever shoulder he accidentally brushed against he punctuated with a soft apology and a gentle cup of the elbow. Eventually, he climbed after a line of gift givers, and once present in front of the familiar faces of Theodore and Theresa he bowed low and regal.

[color=505987][b]”My King, a gift of magic.”[/b][/color] He said, and he pulled the orange stone from his breast pocket. He pressed it into Theodore’s hand and rose with a wink, [color=505987][b]”It is sunstone-- good for intuition and vitality. A long life to you, My King.”[/b][/color] He bowed again to Theodore, and then swiftly took the hand of Theresa, on which he pressed a kiss to the ring on her finger.

[color=505987][b]”For the Queen Regent, a gift of loyalty. I am always apart of your court.”[/b][/color] He rose from the bow and gave her his ever professional smile, and then slipped off to the other side and returned to the ballroom floor. His smile remained, though as he picked a glass from one of the passing servants it took on a more sauve air, and he mingled among the party goers as easily as a wolf in sheepskin.
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