"C'mooooon, do we gotta go? You know you hate going to those stupid noble parties. It's not like they'd care if you weren't there, and I don't think I can stand another night of people openly mocking you. Shit, I'd probably get thrown out within an hour. Let's just stay home and actually enjoy ourselves instead."
Azelle’s head falls to one side in consideration. Lex isn’t wrong at all – they’ve both been to too many parties to know how it goes, and now they’re both old enough to think for themselves. That means they’re old enough to try and weasel their ways out of it, but there are still reasons and complications why they can’t.
❝ Arvis will drag me to Belhalla anyway, because he can’t get out of it no matter what, ❞ he tries explaining, even without looking Lex in the eye.
❝ And then it’s a weird political thing… They’ll say shit whether or not I’m there. We both know that. ❞
Azelle knows the parties that Velthomers don’t get invited to also have no end of gossip around the orphaned brothers. Even if Lex hadn’t told him, it was the talk of Dozel that he got in a fist fight with another guest for a good while over it. Azelle always appreciated it.
❝ I know you don’t care about it all, but… We don’t have anything to fall back on. Arvis can’t mess up, because the duchy is just… him. Anything I do poorly reflects poorly on him, and we can’t deal with anymore gossip or scandal. Right now, anything they talk about is at least a decade old, so they always look like some petty troublemaker. In comparison, I have to look like I deserve to be here. ❞
❝ Which is why, partner in crime, I need you to help me if we’ve got any plans to make it actually interesting. ❞