Are you there, scotch? It's me, Gideon

[belowcastle]

Afternoons off required careful planning. He had his schedule to maintain, so many buttons to button (bottom to top) so much silver to polish (smallest to large) so many swipes of the cloth (widdershins always then with the grain) and so much tea he would not be allowed to prepare, so many meals he would not deliver. Most importantly, he had to be careful to leave milk for the pixies lest they cause further trouble.

He'd forgotten once and buildings had started to appear out of nowhere. And he'd lost his queen.

But let it not be said Gideon Pryce is not a man of habit. The afternoon finds him sitting on a log sketching songbirds for the Young Miss and exploring what suspiciously appears to be the beginnings of a beach to take to her. Evenings, now evenings after a long day out require the camaraderie of a pub, a pasty or two, good scotch chased with Old Peculiar.

Not too much. He doesn't want to stumble into a fairy mound.

"Make mine a double, good barkeep."

Comments

[mightbedrunk]

Leona was holding up the bar at Mackinnon's more because Ben gave her hurt looks than anything else. But unlike some, the guys at Mooseknuckle would forgive her a little.

So it was with a bright, charming smile and a pleasantly amused light in her eyes, Leona snuck up behind Gideon and leaned in to brightly say, "Boo!" before settling back down on her heels and grinning at him from ear to ear.

[belowcastle]

He selects pubs away from the Club district in order to avoid Suit mates.He'd hit Spades before coming to Diamonds, so it's with exaggerated dignity that Gideon stands and attempts a bow. "Miss Six."

He enunciates the words with the care only the already inebriated possess. Perhaps she missed his near fall from his stool.

[mightbedrunk]

"Oh don't be so prim and proper like, babe. We're here for a drink, and numbers just get in the way." She said with a grin.

"Oy! Scotland, get us some drinks, mate. Couple of black and tans for me and my friend." She said with a grin, turning back to Gideon. "Try to relax a little."

[belowcastle]

If he relaxes much more, he'll slide from his chair. It takes a moment or two for him to process what she said. Then he grins and tosses a wad of cash on the bar. "My treat."

[mightbedrunk]

"Ooh, now look at you." She said with a bright grin. "Enjoying yourself then, Mr. Gideon? Because I have to say, nothing is as fun as a night out with me." Even if it was unplanned. She had officially decided that Gideon was her partner in crime tonight.

Especially after Ben so graciously dropped off the two black and tans.

[belowcastle]

"What about a night spent with hippos in tutus and crocs in capes? We need to establish the pr-proper parameters here if we're to measure."

He thanks Ben and raises his pint. The uptight, obsessive him protests. He's had too much already. Time to call it a night. Gideon barely notices his good angel through the alcoholic haze. It's good to see a friendly face and not be worrying about disappearing Queens and imprisoned Princesses and angry fairies. He smiles at Leona. She has a mischievous glint in her eye that fair hints she's part pixie herself.

"Pysk, Cober ha Sten." He prefers Old Peculiar, but he'll settle for the Black and Tan.

[mightbedrunk]

"A night spent like that is a bad acid trip, doll face. Don't be lured in by that fantasy, it's no fun when it all goes a rye." She promised with a grin before lifting her glass in a cheers with the butler man.

"Bottoms, Lads!" She called out to the rest of the bar, before nodding at Ben too. And then she took some mighty gulps of her pint before setting it down again.

"You never said if you were having fun yet."

[belowcastle]

"I suppose I'll have to scotch th' idea." His own glass thumps down shortly after hers. "Though I'm not certain I can beer it."

He leans forward to peer at her more closely. "Are you?"

[mightbedrunk]

"Of course." Leona nearly purred before laughing softly, "but you keep dodging my question. That's awful rude, sir." Though she also supposed it was all in the same of good fun at the moment.

[belowcastle]

He taps his chin thoughtfully. "I have na--not sporting to use a butler trick on 'ee." He sits up straighter. "What if I say more'n I was having before?"

He signals Ben for another round.

[mightbedrunk]

"Then I would say that that is good and right, as I expect people to be full to the brim with fun when I am about." She said, giving Ben a wink as he brought over another round of drinks. There was a brief moment of banter between the two, though, before the blonde's attention was full returned to the Butler.

Leaning in she eyed him carefully for a moment, before standing up right and announcing- "You should ask me to dance." It was part of having fun, as Cadogan could tell anyone.

[belowcastle]

Banter's fine. Banter's lovely. It gives him that much more time to attend to his drink.

"Should I?" He smiles angelically. "Are you knowing how then?"

[mightbedrunk]

"I am knowing how to dance, why thank you for asking." She said smartly, with a bright twinkle in her eye.

"Are you knowing how?"

[belowcastle]

"Madame," he declaims with great dignity (ruined by the twinkle in his eye. "I will have you know I'm winner of the Annual Below Stairs Pole Sit and Dance Off." His stand's relatively stable as he offers his hand.

[mightbedrunk]

Leona took Gideon's hand when he offered it, and bounced a little away from the bar to a small open space that was probably not meant for dancing. Needless to say, however, she was going to use it as such anyway.

"Well, good sir, what shall we dance tonight?" Never mind the lack of music. It never stopped her before.

[belowcastle]

He has just enough booze in his system to treat the entire experience as a lark rather than an embarrassment. So he bows formally from the waist.

"Whatever my lady desires." He knows all the ballroom dances, naturally, and a fair number of more modern partner dances. She'll need to deal with a spastic chicken if she wants anything more recent.