You're special. I bet you even fart sparkles. [Ivan + Alfred]

Alfred didn't have any official business at the embassy. Rather, he was there for a swanky get-together, which he guessed that there would probably be some good customers attending. He reminded himself that he was not silly Alfred F. Jones, instead he was The Stupendous Zarcolini! The Stupendous Zarcolini, of course, did not exist. However, if asked, he would go on about how he was the world's greatest psychic, he even served the royalty of the Kingdom of the Moon at one point! However- he decided that it was time to spread his talents throughout the lands, for a price. Of course, this was only if Alfred was to be believed.

Either way, at a nice party at the embassy of the Northern Kingdom, there was bound to be some willing customers who could pay. Who was Alfred to deny them his services? With his hair slicked back (well, aside from his rebellious piece of hair that seemed to be mortal enemies with gravity) and a newly washed suit, Alfred certainly looked the part of a well off gentleman. His job was to convince people that he was The Stupendous Zarcolini, however.

Unfortunately for Alfred, finding susceptible customers who were not otherwise distracted was quite the challenge. Then again, his other challenge was moving away from the food table. He just couldn't resist. There were so many delicacies, and they were free! Free! Besides, if they weren't eaten at this party, they'd probably go to waste. So, Alfred took another two (or twelve) pieces of cheese.

This was not turning out to be as useful as he had originally planned. Then again, Alfred's original plans had been something along the lines of bursting into the room, surrounded by sparkles, announcing that he was The Stupendous Zarcolini, and then having people fight over who would pay him the most... What ended up happening was Alfred sneaking into the party, trying to lay low, being unable to find someone who looked gullible enough and spoke his language, and then deciding to sulk by the food. Alfred would not give up hope yet! Maybe someone would approach him, and his night would be salvaged! If not, at least he had gotten a free meal out of it.

A prince should be put together, well mannered, gentle, and graceful, have a flowing vocabulary, know when to start or end conversation, discuss politics to a point, and be interested in all guests of the party. Ivan was about three of those things at the most during the party. He really wasn't all that fond of the talk about the most mundane of things, not at all interested in the stuck up men and women sticking their noses further up into the air about all of the things that they have to stick their noses up about, he didn’t mind hearing it once, but it was all they seemed to talk about, and the only ones that would really gossip with him were the older women, but they we’re all off sleeping at that late hour and he thereby could not sit there chattering with them.

So many interesting looking hats were around though, they were nice to look at, but he couldn’t just walk over and start patting a woman on the head. Ivan was tall enough to, but there was no way that that would not be frown upon and have a mention or two later. Then he would have to sit in a stuffy room with advisors explaining to him that he was childish and rude and should be better behaved at a party. Their voices were rather grating, so it was hard to ignore them. They would already be on his tail for getting out of his robes at some point during that night and was just walking around in the formal wear he had on under them… but the party was warm, and he didn’t want every last person walking over to greet him or wish him well, there was always a line for that sort of crap, and there were simply too many other things to be seen there.

The buffet was a good place to start sightseeing, being that it was the most empty place next to the area for dancing, he wasn’t sure how chefs did it, but they put together the oddest arrangements of foods he’d ever seen, and he normally felt like an ass for taking apart the prettier ones. They were more like art than food, and just didn’t look like they should be eaten… luckily; tonight there was a section that didn’t seem to be over garnished. Near that section was a well-dressed young man, whom he assumed was trying to get away from the stuffy people as well.

With a smile, he cleared his throat, “Dobryi denʹ, eer. Eto interesnaya partiya , da?” he asked, not assuming that the man might not speak his mother language.

Alfred was stuffing yet another piece of food in his mouth when he noticed a tall and rich looking young man approach the buffet table. The other man didn't seem gullible enough for the Zarcolini act, but perhaps he knew some people who would be. Either way, the tall man seemed somehow more amicable than anyone else in the room, but then again, that could be just because the other man seemed to be just as attached to the food as Alfred was. When the man turned to him and smiled, Alfred couldn't help but return an amicable smile. After all, this man was the only person who seemed interested in talking to Alfred, and well, the young American loved talking.

Unfortunately, Alfred's hope was crushed like a grape when the other man began speaking a different language. Alfred couldn't decipher a single word from the pretty sounding gibberish. What if the other man couldn't speak his language? Then Alfred would probably have to look for a new mark, and that hadn't been a particularly successful quest so far.

After gaping like a fish out of water for a while, Alfred managed to gather himself enough to speak. "Um... I'm sorry, sir. I don't speak any Northern languages. I'm just a guy from the Kingdom of the Moon, here on business, o-of course," Alfred wanted to slap himself. He had just screwed over his persona as The Stupendous Zarcolini. It was alright, he could just be polite for a while, and figure out a different way of getting money. After all, he was human and not all of his scams would work.

Alfred reminded himself a good break with food and pleasant conversation wouldn't be bad either. After all, he could rest a bit and then find a perfect mark somewhere else. If he rushed his scams, he would get caught. Besides, he had seen some interesting houses on the way to the party. Breaking in and then "selling" them to interested people would certainly fetch a pretty penny, and he wouldn't have to worry about Zarcolini and his amazing tricks.

Ivan’s smile, for some reason or another, only grew as he waited for some sort of reply to what he had said as he picked up a piece of some sort of fruit to nibble on during the time being. Sure, face stuffing wasn’t the best way to meet someone, it was certainly not the most attractive, but it was one way alright. He forced himself not to laugh, rather than that he just kept up a smile, hands going back to his pockets once he’d finished off the apple slice. Of course he understood the other male looked confused, but he was wondering why, maybe he didn’t expect him to actually say anything? But he must have, that smile was just so welcoming that it would seem odd if he didn’t expect someone to talk with him just for an expression like that.

He should have thought that one though, but it just seemed like most people in the area knew at least one Northern language, so it was an honest mistake… one that he hoped to remember not to make next time he went somewhere. Well, it didn’t really matter, mistake or not, it had been made and now he knew what language the other male spoke.

Clearing his throat, he searched his mind for the proper way to for a sentence for a moment before speaking, “Ah, well, it was silly of me to assume everyone in here spoke languages of the North.” He stood a bit straighter, smile growing a bit wider. “What kind of business, if you do not mind me asking?” he said, keeping himself from making enough eye contact to the point of being rude, even if the fellow did have a lovely set of eyes it would not be very nice to just sit there staring at them like a creep, and would more than likely, in his mind, make the both of them very uncomfortable

"Well, the family business is mostly selling stuff, but we're looking at lands within the Northern Kingdom for expansion," Alfred quickly made up a response. From his experience with selling "elixirs" as well as pretending to sell (someone else's) property, Alfred knew he could at least bullshit his way through a conversation about those two topics. However, that did not mean he wanted to talk about them. He was hoping, no, counting on the other man not wanting to ask for the details of Alfred's "family business".

Alfred tried to keep direct eye contact with the Northern man in order to look like he was telling the truth. He knew the common tactic of liars was to look away. Alfred was relieved to note that the other man was smiling, so it seemed like Alfred had found a very nice man to talk to. Well, at least that's what the first impression said, and if the man made a good first impression, Alfred was more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"If you don't mind me asking, what brings you down here to the Kingdom of the Moon? Oh wait! I should introduce myself. I'm so sorry," Alfred chuckled nervously, still feeling the pressures of the high class party. He should be in his element here, but the young man simply felt self conscious. Now then, he needed a pseudonym that wasn't The Stupendous Zarcolini... "I'm Billiam T. Douglas, esquire," Alfred introduced himself. Shit, he had said Billiam instead of William, hadn't he? This was certainly not Alfred's night.

“Ah? Really?” he asked, though he was never quite interested in business talk, it was better than political talk though, which was twice as boring. Though to the both of them he still had a preference for gossip, and that made him wonder if he could get the other to gossip with him about whatever things might happen in the Kingdom of the Moon. It all interested him; really, even if the gossip would never affect him personally he found people’s lives, dirty little secrets, and dreams very interesting.

The direct eye contact started to seem like a progressing stare down in his mind, after all too much eye contact was rude, and a bit more like a play for territory. There was next to no balance with it in his opinion and he wasn’t going to break the eye contact any time soon because he was the prince after all and did have to defend his man pride.

The name seemed odd, but he didn’t question it, it sounded about as normal as any other foreign name he’d heard in his time. “Biliam Douglas,” he repeated for the sake of memory, a small smile still placed on his face. “It is nice to meet you, I am Ivan Braginsky. Here for diplomatic reasons.” That was about as much as he could or would explain of why he was there without giving too much about it away. He’d already been scolded for gossiping so much, he couldn’t just blabber on about any little thing he felt like… no matter how tempting it was to just blurt out exactly what he was doing there to piss everyone off. It was a social gathering, thereby he did have to remain civil in the way he acted until everyone was too drunk or tried to care.

"Diplomatic reasons? So you're like an ambassador or something? How cool is that! I bet you get to travel all around and see a bunch of different and awesome things, huh? Do you like being a diplomat?" Alfred smiled, trying to keep up the conversation. Though he seemed to resemble an overexcited puppy than a calm young man, but that tended to be the general rule with Alfred.

"I'd never be able to become an ambassador, I don't have the connections and I have responsibilities here in The Kingdom of the Moon, pretty lame huh? Well at least I get to travel around this kingdom for business, yeah? At least there's stuff to do here, but it would be nice to see another Kingdom... I hope you don't mind me asking, but what's it like there? In the Northern Kingdom, I mean," Alfred started to babble a bit, still feeling a bit nervous and out of place at the party. Some part of him thought that the more he talked, the more distracted people would get so they wouldn't notice that Alfred wasn't technically invited to this party. He reminded himself that he would probably be able to outrun the guards... hopefully. Alfred didn't want to imagine the punishment if he was caught.

Alfred ended up breaking eye contact so he could grab more food. He was hungry, so he assumed that Mr. Braginsky would understand. Oh man, Alfred hadn't had food this good in a while. They certainly knew how to feed Northern nobles, that was for sure. Alfred didn't know what half the food was, but he knew it was delicious, and that was enough for the excitable young man.