[center][img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/383674146426454019/665651481101467679/NicomedeHeader.png[/img][/center]
[center]Mentions/Interactions: [@HereComesTheSnow] [@Sync] [@VitaVitaAR][/center]

Mayon, parties like this didn’t used to be so hard.

It would have been [i]nice[/i] to lay the blame on simple rust, he hadn’t been involved in such a gathering for years. But that wasn’t really right, either. The proper protocol, the understanding of the different forces in play came as easily tonight as they ever had. Or perhaps he could blame his attire, despite a thorough cleaning his mother would have been appalled at the state of him. That hit closer to the mark but the truth was more fundamental; he couldn’t quite decide how to comport himself. This was his first time in such an esteemed venue since his fall from grace, though truthfully he had [i]never[/i] been in one quite [i]so[/i] esteemed. It was difficult and it was uncomfortable.

Hardly a thing a sellsword should admit let alone a knight, now should they?

[i][color=aa0808]Mingle, Nicomede. Mingle.[/color][/i]

So he wove through the crowd, chatting, observing all the proper niceties and wearing a smile much more genuine than it felt. It gave him a little time to think about what to do. Being among the first to greet the princess was thoroughly out of the question, both in terms of seniority and prior reputation. He would not avoid her, that would be rude whether she was the princess or not. But he wouldn’t go out of the way to greet her, either. Not yet. His fellow knights he had met very little, he hadn’t been around long enough to properly introduce himself to any of them yet. Tonight would probably be the best time to get a head start on doing that. Who could say when he would have so many of them in the same place again?

Or perhaps…

It would be rude to intrude on peers already occupied, as many of them were. One-(Sagramore, he thought?) had managed to land himself in some particularly hot water indeed, Nicomede grinned to himself. Court manners were hard learned for someone elevated, but it would do the young ladies he spoke to good to meet a little reality from what he could hear. 

No, no. Fortune favored the bold, and he had a suspicion the princess would not permit the knights in attendance to leave without speaking with them all. And both the Knight-Captain and Sir Balthier were in that direction, though his fellow knight was moving away. But if he moved quickly....

Nicomede navigated the crowd unaccosted with a grace that belied his own discomfort, slipping easily and politely between partygoers to intercept Balthier before he moved too far from the Captain and the Princess for his presence to seem natural and coincidental. There was an art to such things, a little social pretense in the presence of one’s betters. Most importantly, it gave them the chance to dismiss a subordinate without impropriety or conflict. And here he thought he had forgotten how to handle himself at a ball?

[color=aa0808]”Sir Balthier,”[/color] He greeted, standing halfway between the Knight moving to mingle and the Captain and Princess he had just left. It was the latter two to which he aimed a polite nod and smile, an open invitation to his political betters to speak with him or let it stand at nothing more than acknowledgement. But it was to the former that he offered his hand to shake, an easy, casual movement. [color=aa0808]“I don’t believe we’ve had the chance to speak. Nor I with you, ma’am.”[/color]