Board Thread:Roleplay/@comment-30559258-20170527152204/@comment-30622263-20170531205051

It was, perhaps, not the way he had expected to participate in a paegeant of royal bearings... but Garen Norwitch supposed that much was his own fault for failing to pay attention to exactly which sign-up sheet he'd put his name under.

Nevertheless, a guy was only as good as his word-- and, as the future Good Witch Glinda, Garen intended to be the best kind of good he could possibly be. A royal pageant was still a traditional royal function, and backing out simply because he'd signed the 'Contestants' sheet instead of the 'Judges' sheet would be an offense to the very tradition itself.

(That had been an immensely awkward phone call back home, but at least his mother had approved of the sentiment, if not the method.)

At the very least, he thought, it would give him the opportunity to show Ever After what he truly believed lay at the heart of nobility and beauty alike. Whether he did so as a judge or a contestant was of no matter to him, and thus, he carefully checked that the laces of either shoe were on straight, that the dagger-clasps at his shins were securely fastened, the various dangling strings and hanging cloth appropriately draped.

Last but not least, he took his magic staff in hand, its familiar weight ever a comfort, and got in line amongst the others. He'd been groomed for the public eye from childhood, smiling supportively from a chair off to the side as his parents spoke welcomes to the Ozian High Court or new-approved regulations.

Still, it was an altogether different thing when you would be expected to speak for yourself, and though Garen had given speeches aplenty, the low buzz of nervousness had never quite gone away. It was a constant-- the pressure to commandeer an auditorium's attention, to say the right words.

(He wondered if his boyfriend and their friends would be out in the audience this time. He wondered if he could spot them.)

And then-- when his name was called, he strode in even steps onto the stage-- shoulders back and chin leveled, facing ever-forward.