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Yue blinked before shaking his head and chuckling in amusement. "Right. Sounds reasonable." he said. He looked at Allister with a small smirk. "I've never been this comfortable with someone in a short time before." He'll admit, he's starting to like the librarian. Usually it'll take him weeks or even months to open up to someone without suspecting them. He sighed at the thought.

Jasper was able to steady himself in time to dodge a person about to waltz into him. This, unfortunately resulted in the servant bumping into another guest. 'This is why I try to avoid crowds.' He mentally grumbles to himself. 'I can't go two feet without an accident happening. If it wasn't for my magic I would have had to exchange my tray three times! People are going to think I'm clumsy!'

Shaking off the thoughts Jasper turned to the person he bumped into and gave a low sweeping bow, holding his tray of drinks aloft. "My deepest apologies for bumping into you-" He rose to get a good look at the person's face. "-Sir. May I offer you a refreshment?" He put the tray in between them to hide his assessing eyes.

He was handsome all right, and rugged as well. While Jasper wasn't the type to judge, and this was an event open to everyone, it was also very politically sensitive. It was the perfect opportunity to create chaos, thus the servant was a tad more suspicious about strangers he didn't recognize as official guests. Plus, staying still and talking to someone might help his spinning head. 'Seriously, was that person a Ištarazilain or something? I can feel a goosebump forming on my forehead!' Jasper thought before focusing on the guest again.

"I haven't seen you around before, are you a visitor? Possibly from the king of Ventiaus's party?" Jasper asks the man with a polite smile. "If so I hope you enjoy Thalassia. If not, well, I hope at least you enjoy this ball!" He finishes with a small laugh.

Warm. If there was one word to describe Kass at that moment it that. A surprising trait for someone born in Thalassia, though he did mention being a nomad. Perhaps his travels shaped such a thing?

Ouch. Jasper didn't mean to bring up something that would make the nomad feel bad, though he should have known better than to bring up family in times of war. "My apologies if my question brought up painful memories, that was truly not my intentions. I lost my parents in this war." He confesses softly. Now the mood was too dour, so he added "But I still have my uncle."

'Still not good enough.' Jasper thought, tired mind scrambling for another subject. 'Wow he has beautiful eyes.' Also appeared without his permission and Jasper struggled not to blush. So instead of lightening the mood, he instead grasped the thread of conversation Kass left dangling.

"Heading into Thalassian was probably a wise choice, though there's no reason you can't visit the two other kingdoms. The king of Ventiaus in particular tries to keep relation neutral." Something else occurred to Jasper. "Though his opinions on Thalassia may change because of.... Were you here earlier tonight to witness that awful event? When that noble tried to give Prince Byakuya a lioness shapeshifter he enslaved? The prince handled the matter spectacularly but it may sour relations if other countries thought we endorse slavery." Jasper finished, shaking his head. The thought of it made him feel even more stressed but if Kass was worried about diplomatic relations it was probably best to tell him.

Jasper listened to Kass’s views of his country with interest. He had only heard the opinions of other Thalassian’s so the man’s well-traveled ideas were fascinating to him. By the time the nomad was about to tell stories about his travels, Jasper was leaning forward with interest. That’s when an elegant lady walked up to the duo.

Jasper was embarrassed to admit he didn’t recognize Princess Ishtar at first glance. The reclusive Princess was so rarely out of her wolf form around him, and it was very surprising to Jasper that she attended the ball at all. Prince Byakuya must have been trying to convince her for a while. But the moment Jasper recognized Ishtar for who she was he paled, jumped up from his seat, and then gave a deep bow in her direction.

All Jasper could do during the Princess’s speech was stare at the ground and mutter a cringing apology when the situation asked for it. He took a moment to wonder how the princess knew he had been working all day, then realized with embarrassment that his workaholic tendencies reached even her ears. Though she may have misunderstood the other servant’s intention for relieving him (the wink said enough about that). He was also nowhere near the point of exhaustion, it was just that someone slammed their hand into his face, though she also wouldn’t know that and Jasper wasn’t telling. But the princess was entirely correct about his state of attire. But he wasn’t worried about jealousy, since if the other servants had something to gossip about, they were (mostly) happy.

But when she talked about him going to bed alone, Jasper blushed in mortification and was suddenly thankful that Kass was to his back. His… preferences were something of an open secret amongst the staff (keeping a secret around here was pointless), but it was only based on his lack of interest. Jasper at least puts a bit of effort into trying to hide it. After all, when it came to carrying on the Parrox bloodline to serve the royal family, personal interests came second. ‘But Uncle will be furious if I don’t at least deny it!’ Jasper thought in a panic.

When Kass spoke up Jasper was both relieved, thankful, and wanting to shrivel into the ground in mortification even more, though the servant admired the man’s spunk. It was just that Jasper didn’t know how to deal with Princess Ishtar since he was bad with strangers, and to him, the royal treated everyone par Prince Byakuya as a stranger. She was cold and distant, and Jasper didn’t know how to bridge that gap or if it was even his right to. So he merely served her as best as he could. But the last thing anyone needed was for her to get angry at a guest, mostly due to him. It was meatshield time.

“Your highness you have my deepest apologies for any discord I may have caused and my sincere thank you for your concern. If it pleases you, I shall go and change my attire immediately. I did not in any way mean to dishonor you or your family. I assure you that your servants are working hard for the palaces sakes, but not to the point of collapsing. We would never do something to blacken the royal family’s name or overwork ourselves to such a state. Or we would at least remove ourselves first.” Jasper added at the thought of the maid who had a meltdown. “And in regards to my interests, I assure you that I have no such intentions. I merely was enjoying a conversation with such a well-travelled individual; though I once again thank you for your concern. And I once again apologize for my lack of decorum my lady, it will not happen again.” Jasper finished with another low bow. Hopefully, that would diffuse a bit of tension. It would even be better if her wrath focused on him. A noble getting mad at a servant was nothing special or significant.

((OOC: Sorry for taking so long, my first draft was destroyed so I had to rewrite it crying . No big deal, I actually like how things are going. A bit of drama is good for a story and character development. I actually disagree with te work thing. Organizing and running a large, fancy, politically sensitive ball must be hard work with all of the guests and things to do and all. I would be more surprised if the servants weren't exhausted at this point, the next day will probably be a reprieve for them. The thing with Jasper was probably just a few of them panicking, though Ishtar's scolding was well deserved. Remember all of the assumptions are just from Jasper's perspective, but sorry if I assumed a few things too wrong))