Joy ride (part1): Stealing

family dinner

Shuri makes her way through the grand dining room hurriedly, winding past grand tables with their full seatings of elaborate guests. She nods curtly again at the Dora Milaje holding the curtain to the side vestibule. The moment Shuri reaches her, the other woman hands the hanging folds to the princess and leaves with a last angry scowl at James. Shuri watches her return to her post, then turns back to James with a nervous smile. "Hey." She greets, eye roving behind him. "You're here early. I sent your friend to get you ready. Did you..?"

James winces internally, but answers her with his most clueless expression. "Mohai? Must have missed her."

Which, honestly, was harder than anticipated. That Dora is persistent. Also, he'd had to take the long way around. There were a lot of Dora Milaje about today, and he didn't trust them not to apprehend him and send him back to Mohai if that was still remotely possible. So James had to stay off every radar until he was actually inside the dining room.

Not easy. But, the Winter Soldier was a ghost, and even the Wakandans have loops in their mesh of guard deployment. James can still fall through even the smallest of such loops with enough incentive, and James had plenty of incentive. He is not planning on speaking to Mohai today, thank you very much. James has more important things to focus on today. "I am ready."

"You are..?" Shuri frowns at him so hard her intricate tiara moves with her eyebrows. James has to stop himself from telling her she'll get wrinkles if she keeps that up. So instead he just looks longingly behind her, at the tables with dining men and women. The Panther tribe in their unworldly fine cloths of intricately worked gold and silver. And their guests, the Jabari: heavy skins and leathers. Their expressions are as different as their attire: where the Panthers still only steal a glance here and there, with an effort to smile his way, the Jabari scowl at him.

James blinks and refocuses on Shuri's hurried words. "Listen.. My brother is against this. He will not go against my request, but." the princess falters, a delicate shake of her head, teardrops and emeralds tinkling. "and he is wrong, of course. Trying is never a mistake. But. You do realize you do not have to?"

"But, I want to." He does. He needs this. James tries to keep his expression pleasant, but some of that steel must have shone through, because Shuri swallows and looks behind herself. "Alright. Okay." She does a double take, then resolves. "Come this way for now and I'll," she blinks, "he is not in the best mood, you realise?"

This time, James might have growled. "I am ready to meet the Mountain King."

"Okay, okay." she cajoles, disarmingly, "keep your shirt on, where's the fire?" and leads him into the room. To the table next to the main one, and gestures to a sudden and suspiciously empty chair. Even more suspiciously, it is located right next to the Dora General. Okoye scowls at him, but James takes the newly vacated seat. Only as he scoots the chair in does he become aware of the sudden eerily quiet about the room.

Worse, every pair of eyes seems to be on him, and James becomes uncharastically selfconscous. He curses his choice of attire as well; too western for this gathering. James would have preferred to blend in with the native dresses, but with all the sensibilities he hasn't dared. So he's opted for the most solemn pair of pants and dress shoes. And a short sleeved shirt that leaves his new arm on perfect display. This is, he is aware, the only viable choice given the circumstances.

Yet he sticks out all the more for it and today those around him are not polite enough to pretend not to notice. A wide, important looking man dressed in the Jabari manner elbows Okoye from her other side and bends over to whispers in her ear in a Wakandan accent James has trouble making out. "This is the one my spies could not find? How did you hide such a big, bright blight of a man?"