Seventeenth Bell, 55th of Spring, 515AV
Orin was exhausted. It had been a long day and showed no signs of ending anytime soon. He'd gotten up even before the crack of dawn to get an early start on his job for today. And it had probably been the biggest challenge for his culinary talents that Orin had ever faced. He'd had to cook and cater for not one, but two birthday parties. Only one had really been called for as work. Alexander Ross, whom Orin had met a few times at various events, had hired out The Rearing Stallion for an evening, and the cooks who worked there along with it. The twenty golden mizas the man had paid definitely didn't cover the costs of the evening. Still, there were obvious perks to being a member of the Syliran Order and Alexander, as a squire, apparently had access to them. When that thought struck Orin he wondered idly if this was Alexander's idea in the first place. The Alexander Orin had met was a pretty awkward fellow. More so than Orin himself if such a thing were possible. Takes one to know one. Orin wouldn't have put it past Alexander's patron knight to have quietly suggested this celebration. Especially if the knight was as shrewd as Alexander had described. It was honestly shocking how many squires had issues communicating with people in one way or another. So the Order must do something to make them acclimated to associating with others, and perhaps subtly throwing them into situations where they were forced to socialize was part of it.
This however, was the second party of the day and Orin had no one to blame but himself for the first one. It just so happened that Orin’s good friend Sayana and Alexander shared the same birthday. Orin had already been thinking and planning out a party for Sayana. It seemed too good an opportunity to pass up, having both parties on the same day, in the same place, and with Orin in charge of the preparations for both. Of course, Orin hadn’t realized how thinly he’d be stretched by the end of the day. People were supposed to relax at parties and have fun. Orin just got more stressed. Partly that was because even though these events were for other people, Orin had a hand in the preparations and organizing them, so he felt responsible. Nothing could go wrong or Orin would’ve felt terrible about it. So he’d set out at Sayana’s celebration to do everything in his power to make it as perfect as possible. Being a good host took a lot of energy but Orin hadn’t wanted to burden Sayana with the pressure of something she herself hadn’t expected. It was the least he could do. And Orin didn’t regret a single chime of it.
Mostly, though, Orin felt drained because, even though he was getting much better with individuals and those few brave souls who had befriended him, Orin still didn’t do well with crowds. They made him anxious and brought back terrible memories of being ridiculed by his peers, his elders, and his community. Almost any public outing or dance with many people involved ended in Orin either humiliating himself or with people deliberately seeking to make him the butt of every joke. Orin knew he wasn’t the brightest individual and that he had some major personality flaws and that people didn’t like his quirks. So Orin mostly avoided everyone he didn’t know very well, or situations where he might embarrass himself in front of a crowd. Still, he needed to get over these weird anxieties, especially if people were going to continue to ask him to cater events.
Orin had informed everyone at Sayana’s party that they needed to clear out, but he couldn’t tell how successful his order had been. There were still people milling about. The issue was that Orin couldn’t exactly tell who was staying from Sayana’s surprise birthday party and who had actually already shown up for Alexander’s celebration, if anyone had yet. Orin though, wasn’t going to worry much about it. Even though Alexander has specifically asked for Orin to cater, renting The Rearing Stallion meant that overseeing this party fell squarely on the shoulder of Ser Kevith and Remi. If they were choosing not to shoo everyone out then Orin figured they knew what they were doing. Besides, Orin vaguely remembered Alexander basically issuing an open invitation to anyone even remotely connected to him. Or maybe it was the Knighthood. Of course, seeing as the vast majority of the guests at Sayana’s party were affiliated with the Order in some form or another, they could easily be attending Alexander’s as well, and cover the guests who weren’t as their dates for the evening if they had to. It probably wouldn’t come to that, though. All Orin really had to think about though was guarding the food and handing it out to people who asked. The fish curry was on his left, the apple cider roast pork with vegetables on the side was on his right and the strawberry tarts that were dessert were behind him. He sagged against the table, feeling the weight of exhaustion pressing down on him. He was almost done though, and Orin knew that he could fade into the background if it got too bad for him.
