the selection | semi-advanced discussion

Callan rode into the stables on his black horse, Blizzard. She placed her in the stables. He pet her nose a bit as he fed her her carrot. As he pet her, he shushed her quietly as she let out a small neigh. despite how he was, cal always had been great with animals and he seemed to enjoy their presence a great deal more than any human. "don't tell anyone about tonight. don't think I don't know what you did last time." He huffed, which earned a loud neigh from Blizzard. He rolled his eyes and took the saddle off of her, placing it down and taking the reins off of her as well.

Aera landed on the ground with both feet a brief puff of dust when she hit it, carefully taking the saddle off of Lexie's back and placing more water and his very fancy food in the trough. She pet his face and planted a kiss on his head to a noise made to show her that she was annoying him and must go to sleep or he'd ram her out of his area. She laughed and stepped out, ready to sneak back through the window of her chambers, only to jump like 2 solid feet when she saw her brother standing there. Were the neighs of Blizzard quiet? No. But as they were in the stables, she hadn't thought that anything was out of the ordinary even after the added sounds... she really wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed was she? Anywho, she let out a "FUCK" in a whisper-yell when she saw the shadowy figure in the dark of midnight, taking her hand off of the dagger in her pocket once she realized that it was her brother.

Callan glanced toward Aera, calmly. He had his hand on his sword, though, he didn't seem too bothered by the fact that she was resting for a weapon. He continued petting Blizzard as he looked at her. "You snuck out?" He guessed. It wasn't hard to guess, seeing as she often did it. Cal wasn't an idiot, it was natural he noticed, even if he didn't really talk to the lot of them. He took off his gloves, which were full of horsehair. It seemed as though Blizzard was shedding her winter coat already. He stopped petting her and the horse laid down.

"Obviously." She huffed, smoothing her raven-wing-black hair down after getting over her surprise. "And you? I don't normally see you after mother forces us to the dining hall for dinner." She commented, not an accusation... but not not an accusation. It was a very hypocritical one anyways. As anti-social as Cal was, Aera was just as bad, staying away from her family as much as possible. She kicked her pointed black leather boot against a rock on the ground, fidgeting as she kept an eye out for guards or anyone in general. She was borderline obsessed with it honestly, black leather accessories and green things too. Well, you're not a rich kid until you spend outrageous amount of money on addictions, at least her main ones were fashion-related instead of drugs or things like that.

Cal glanced toward older woman before him and nodded. "Blizzard and I went for a ride into town. It's been a bit suffocating with the preparation for the selection, so we went out." He said calmly. He didn't seem too hesitant to admit he snuck out. Maybe he's done it before? If he has, then he likely hasn't been caught before now. "If you don't tell anyone about this, I won't." He added. Meaning he wouldn't tell anyone she snuck out if she didn't tell anyone he did. He held a bag by his side, a light blue one. It seemed as though he went out for something. Around his hilt was a new sword too.

Adara's gaze flickered towards the pale bag in his hand, shifting her body slightly to hide the bottle sticking out of her crossbody bag though there was no point. They both knew what it was. "Don't worry Callie, this never happened." She teased, raising an eyebrow with a smirk. "So, just 'cause it's like midnight and sneaking past guards has now become boring and it's not like I have anything better to do right now, what's in the bag little bro?" she asked, the taunting tone present as always. Her knuckles were wrapped by white bandages and as her makeup wore off, you could see the ghosts of bruises and scratches scattered across her skin.

He glanced toward her bag as well, spotting what she was attempting to hide. Despite clearly having noticed, he didn't really seem to care. It's not like he had a right to judge her for what she did in her free time. He rolled his eyes at the nickname though. Without saying anything, he pulled out two teddy bears from his bag. One was light blue and the other was (i guess whatever color his godchild likes?) Both had large stars in the middle. It was a matching set, likely for him and his vassal. His vassal was pretty young at the time after all. And well, he liked stuffed animals. He placed them back in the bag and kind of just glanced behind them to make sure no one was near the entrance of the stables. He didn't seem to have any intentions on asking Aera what was in her bag, though he did glance back toward it curiously. Despite the warm night air, as per usual, the male wore long sleeves. However, this time it wasn't really all to formal. When was the last time anyone saw him in anything that wasn't formal wear? Today, he wore a light blue sweater and jeans. It was clear that he had a color scheme, and while it wasn't his intention for it all to be matching, he still had the tendency to lean toward his favorite color like when he was little. It was a surprise that his entire room wasn't blue, like how it had been when he was a child and baby. Other than that, there was definitely something new. He had piercings. His ears were a bit red around the earings, so it seemed as though they were new. Even though it was clear it was an act of rebellion and his actions being quite childish if you looked at it in the right light, his face was as unexpressive and emotionless as ever. He looked at his gloves and shook them off a bit before putting them back on, covering the old scar on his hand. He was still as pale as ever, even with the warm weather.
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(( clothes he's wearing as well as the location of the piercings

She looked down at the two stuffed animals in silence, feeling a pull of an emotion she'd much rather keep shoved down beneath the anger she decided to show instead of any other real emotion. For it was much easier to explain anger than it was an altogether absence of feeling. She had had an inkling of suspicion concerning Callan's relationship with his vassal, but as she kept reminding herself, her siblings' personal lives did not concern her. She looked back up at his earrings and tilted her head slightly. "Good choice, I like them." She found it amusing that the two of them shared a tendency of basing most of their possessions on their respective favorite colors, but not in a condescending way for once. More of a fond feeling. She wore a loose dark green tee and ripped black jeans, distinctly more plain than her usual edgy and showy clothing. Like most things concerning self-expression, she tended to go all-in, but apparently not today. The dark circles under her eyes were starting to show and she rubbed the back of her neck, wanting to say something but not knowing what.

He nodded at her words once he realized what she meant. "Thanks," he said briefly. It was rare to get such words out of him, but it seemed he said them quite easily when it came to Aera, his twin, and vassal. He watched her quietly, seemingly observing her try to make sense of her action. There was a small pause before he decided to speak. "Should we head back in? We can hang out for a bit if you want. I have tea that's good for sleep." He offered. He rubbed his ears gently, due to the pain it was causing him. Maybe piercing them himself wasn't a great idea. But, if he had paid someone to do it, then it'd become an issue and they'd probably get in trouble. "If you don't want to, that's fine. It just seems like you have something you wanted to say." he added soon after. He didn't really know how to talk to Aera, but he was definitely trying. Maybe he should talk about the prince that'd be arriving soon for her? He was curious about how she felt about the situation, but he wasn't even sure if she knew that a prince was traveling to their country for the engagement. It was common for these things to happen amongst royalty, however, from what he had heard about the prince and from what he knew about his sister, neither had any prior intentions of marriage. It was kind of hard not to notice that it was arranged.

Aera felt a slight relief at Cal's words, glad that she wouldn't have to continue very intelligently stumbling through words. She answered with a short nod and adjusted her hold on the bottle, reminded again of her lack of exposure to her family retained by avoiding the like the plague. She had her reasons of course and there was still a bottomless well of anger flowing under her skin alongside her blood, but less so towards Callan, and because of the loss of the one emotion she had focused on whatever concerned her family, she didn't know how to react to or even understand the other things she felt towards them. She started to walk towards where their chambers were on the other side of the palace, avoiding the lamps that lit up patches of the main paths to and around the castle. To be honest, she had been blocking out all things concerning the suitor arriving for her hand in marriage. Like the last time, she planned to do her best to scare him off and be on her way, not expecting it to be hard as the last poor guy could only take Lexie and satanic symbols all over her room before fleeing back. She had never really wanted to get married at all, especially to another prince as she preferred to reject everything her parents wanted her to be or to do, but also because it was against her beliefs to be with someone because people wanted to use her as a pawn. A tool to get something they wanted, and she was so tired of people trying and succeeding to do that to her.

((I'm so sorry, that was so bad!!!

I really wanted to reply though so I just typed whatever and posted it))

(( i'll post in callan's room

(Kk)