[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ONd4lpK.png[/img][/center]
[color=00F8FE]Time: 11:00 am
Location: Ballroom
Interactions: Ariella[@Tpartywithzombi][/color]

[color=9FA1A4]Callum honestly expected the public interest in talking with him now to have dropped off. He certainly wasn’t expecting any interest in him from anyone perched at the top of the Caesonian hierarchy. So to find Ariella Edward’s violet eyes on him was a surprise. 

Salvation walked towards his table, not in the form of the red-haired noblewoman, but in the glasses of wine held in her hand. He imagined quite a few mothers out there had advised their hopeful daughters that winning over Prince Callum was as easy as keeping a filled wine glass in his hand. Not bad advice either, but why anyone would view capturing his hand as a prize was beyond him. He wasn’t going to be a king, he wasn’t even liked by the current king or the crowned prince, whatever small gain they thought he could provide was already long gone. 

[color=slateblue] " Forgive my intrusion, Prince Callum." [/color] She spoke, curtsied, and offered him not only a glass of wine but a cloth of cold water as well. It was a kind gesture. And it was so hard to tell whether people were being nice to Prince Callum or to just Callum. Either way, he still reached for the glass of wine as soon as it was placed on the table. The wine also tasted more like onion than wine but he didn’t hold it against the drink.

[color=00F8FE]“Thank you, and you’re not intruding, anyone who brings a drink is always welcomed around me.”[/color] Callum replied flippantly but he’d still risen from his chair to bow to her before sitting back down. Cal leaned his head back and put the cloth on his eyes. It really did help. So he relaxed a bit and found it easier to just listen to Ariella this way; when he couldn’t see the extravagant efforts put into appearances and he could just think of her as a person and not one of the Edwards. She asked if she could sit as she made her introduction. 

[color=00F8FE]“You may, and I know who you are,”[/color] Callum added but he realized that wasn’t entirely true. [color=00F8FE]“Well I guess I mean, I know your name and who your parents are, but that’s really not the same thing is it?”[/color] He’d hated being thought of as being like his parents, he wasn’t going to do that to other people, even if he had seen enough glimpses of Dutchess Edwards to know she was awful. 

[color=00F8FE]“I think I should let you know that if you're looking to talk officially with a proper prince who enjoys all of this,”[/color] Callum gestured with one hand to the entirety of the ballroom, [color=00F8FE]“and is looking to end this summer with a wedding, then you’ve picked the wrong table.”[/color] He took the cloth off his eyes and sat it down next to the onion and the worm pot. Ariella came from the same sort of family as him, illusions surrounded both their lives, and if she wanted someone to feed into all that there were plenty of nobles around who would. [color=00F8FE]“But if you still want to talk to the idiot who ate an onion off the floor a few minutes ago, he’s more than happy to share a drink. As long as you’re fine with dropping the titles, I’d rather just be a person right now than a prince.”[/color] Callum made his offer and waited, fully expecting her to leave to speak with one of his brothers. [/color]