Oh, yes, it's Ladies' Night. And the feeling's right...

[bossyboiler]

Who: The Ladies (featuring Winter)
When: Tuesday Night
Where: Starting out a bar named TWenty-One and Cup and from there, who knows!?!
Summary: All of the girls have been invited. Now it's time for the Ladies enjoy a much needed night on the town. DRINKING GAME ALERT! Spot Winter, take a shot.
Notes: This is a mix and mingle style log. Post your own top-level, respond to others.
Warnings: N/A at the moment, will update if needed.


There's a new bar in Gloucester and the imported ladies mean to make the most of its first Ladies Night. Twenty-One and Cup promises half-off all pun-inspired drinks and shots are buy two, get one free. There are plenty of pun-inspired drinks such as Cinnamon Toast Punch, Tequila Mockingbird and Sauvignon Private Ryan. The puns don't stop there. Puns adore the various artwork surrounding the bar.

The rest of the bar's décor is casual. There are fairy lights that decorate the ceiling with a large disco ball in the center of the room that's meant to serve as the dance floor. Seating comes mostly in the form of tables but in the various corners there are booths to sit in. There are a smattering of couches here and there.

There's no need to worry about a designated driver. They all had to take the bus.

All signs point towards that it should be a fun evening for all though some may hate themselves in the morning.

Comments

[bossyboiler]

In the beginning...

Kate says the magical word that everyone wants to here as soon as they have all made themselves comfortable at the bar. "First round's on me!" For herself she orders a 'Sangin’ In the Rain' which is a sangria with a funny name. She waits to see what everyone else orders. Will they order something equally as punny or will they be boring?

Normally she doesn't care for puns but when alcohol is involved, she doesn't mind.

She has prepared for this evening. She has drank a bottle of water. There is food in her stomach. Kate does not want a repeat of the bonfire beach and the hangover from hell. Given that she is a bit of a lightweight, she has started off with a lighter drink (in her mind only). There's no way she's going to let history repeat itself!

During the middle...

Halfway through the evening, Kate finds herself in the ladies room. She has just finished washing her hands when she turns to the person next to her. "You're so pretty. Oh my Gods. Do you know how pretty you are?"

At the end....

But you know what they say about the best laid plans. The end of the evening finds Kate drunk. And she's a friendly drunk too. But maybe someone needs to watch her because she's not exactly her coordinated self. No one wants a surprise trip to the ER.

Middle

[failedpromise]

Cortana doesn't need to use the toilet, but bars are sometimes messy places, and after getting someone's overly sugary cocktail spilled all over herself she ends up in the restroom anyway, cleaning herself up at the sink.

She wasn't paying much attention-hard to focus on more than one thing when confined to a singular and limited body-and the words startled her. Water flung in all directions as she whipped around to stare, blinking, at the other woman.

...Pretty, huh?

She smiled with a touch of sadness. Did it really count when her human form was an ADI illusion, and her true form was an avatar of her own design? She'd made herself beautiful. She'd made herself a monster, too.

"Thanks." Still, she knew how to properly respond to a compliment. "You're not so bad looking yourself."

[bossyboiler]

Kate beams a smile back to the woman. "That's so sweet. Thank you." She reaches into her small purse and pulls out a tube of lipstick. It's time to reapply. "I'm Kate by the way. We haven't met yet."

End

[musicdied]

Yelena isn't much more sober than Kate by the time the night ends, but she's a bit more experienced with exiling sobriety, and steadier on her feet as a result. And so as they trudge to the bus stop that will - in theory - allow them to catch the last bus back in time to make curfew, she comes up between Kate and the road, and slings an arm around her shoulders.

"This," she says gravely, "was an excellent idea."

How dry they aren't.

[bossyboiler]

Kate could have stumbled at the extra weight not being pressed around her shoulders but she doesn't. It's a win for Kate and a loss for gravity. She laughs a little at Yelena's antics and in appreciation of her idea being complimented.

"It was..." She doesn't quite slur her words. "We should totes do it again."

end!

[lesbeau]

Kate might not be coordinated when she's drunk, but Beau still very firmly believes she is. To be totally fair, Beau is nimble enough to run straight up a wall when she's sober, so her balance isn't... the worst. But it's certainly not that right now.

That said, this is about the time Beau recognizes Kate as the one who organized this whole thing, and comes over with a beer in hand and a massive grin on her face to put a slightly unsteady arm around her shoulders.

"Hey! This was a great fuckin' plan! Best, best idea, we need to do this more."

[bossyboiler]

Kate is nearly bowled over by Beau's strength and her arm going around her shoulders. It's not Beau's fault. It's all Kate. She recovers, however, without falling down or even tripping.

Kate beams a smile at Beau. She likes being complimented on her ideas. The energy is different. "Thank you. I thought we could all use the distraction and the night off. Next time, we'll have it someplace where we don't have to worry about the curfew." She doesn't slur her words but some of her consonants are a little longer than they need be.

Beginning

[thedoctorsmate]

Donna orders a Love in the Time of Rum & Coca-cola for herself. If someone else is buying... "Cheers!" She raises her cup to Kate when it's handed over. "This place is great! Love the names. Hah! Feels sort of sophisticated with half of them being book title puns, too, yeah?"

[bossyboiler]

"Saluti!" Kate returns Donna's cheer and then takes a sip of her drink. It is strong and she wonders if she maybe overestimated herself. She thinks on it. Nah!

"Yeah! We're a bunch of sophisticated ladies. Well. We are now." Kate laughs because in a couple of hours who knows what will happen to them. Sophistication may go the way of the Dodo.

[henchgal]

Meredith's been head down into her work most of the month so far. A little withdrawn, a little short with people. Jeff did a number on her while everyone was snowed in, and her recovery has been...

...not as fast as she'd like. But that's Mere, putting pressure on herself again. That's Mere, expecting herself to be normal, when she's clearly not.

She comes out to Ladies' night, though, to have a couple glasses of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sangria and try to feel like herself again. She's even dressed up, a sequinned dress and a pair of boots that make her calves look amazing.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm knows Mere has been under the weather, but when she gets home from work, she gets dressed up and heads out and, call him curious, call him a little bit overprotective, but he pulls on his own coat and heads out as well, staying well back through the streets, but when she goes into a bar, he has to know what's going on. He doesn't want her to get hurt by doing something rash. She hasn't been herself. So he goes inside and sidled up next to her at the bar.

"Come here often?"

[henchgal]

"First time. Kate called for a ladies' night, so I thought I'd...I thought I'd..." She gestures at the drink instead of ending the sentence, and gives Malcolm a faintly almost guilty look. "Sorry, did you need me back at home or something?"

[musicdied]

Between one round and the next, a new drink appears by Meredith's hand as if by magic. Or at least by sleight-of-hand, because the woman who drops into the seat beside her a moment later is decidedly non-magical, though the gleam in her hazel eyes is perhaps a little impish.

"You looked like you could use a refill," Yelena says by way of greeting.

[henchgal]

"I owe you one. Hey, Yelena." And between Kate and Yelena both being here, the Winter sightings she's had make even more sense. She lifts the new drink in a toast, managing a smile.

"Here's to one night off?"

[lesbeau]

For some reason, Beau doesn't actually expect to see Meredith here. Maybe it's because she has this perception of seeing her primarily in offices, or maybe it's just been that she wasn't keeping incredible tabs on people after last month. It's... it's all a thing, and not one she's going to get into now.

What she will do is saddle up with a Cinnamon Toast Punch and give her a gentle elbow as she takes the seat next to her.

"Hey. You're looking fancy for an evening of drinking and hopefully some dumb stuff later."

[henchgal]

"Hard for me to feel good if I don't look good." Which is an admission of being really superficial, but also a coping strategy for everything going on with her medical shit.

"What sort of dumb stuff are we thinking tonight, though?"

[thedoctorsmate]

Donna's sporting a glass of Huckleberry Gin when she pulls up next to Meredith. Donna's dressed in a purple, slightly glittery club dress she'd picked out when she'd gone shopping with Katrina. "Good to see you out of the office." She hasn't actually spoken a lot to a number of her coworkers, but Donna's nosey and has spied on all of her admin coworkers at least a little bit.

"Feel like I've been grinding away at work since I got here. Always thought about going on holiday in America, but it wasn't like this."

[henchgal]

"I swear I don't actually live in my cubicle." Meredith lets out a bright laugh, looking Donna up and down (that purple is a good color for her!) before lifting her glass in a bit of a toast.

"But yeah, it's been chaotic the whole time I've been here. Lots of rise-and-grind. I mean I'm used to that, that's how it is back home."

Malcolm Bright | Prodigal Son | OTA

[abrightboy]

In attempting to keep an eye on Meredith, Malcolm has accidentally ended up at Ladies' Night. He's not sure what all that entails, but he'll nurse his drink for a few hours and he'll gamely participate in any activity that's not a drinking game.

[bossyboiler]

"What are you doing here?" Kate asks after sliding up to the bar next to him. So far, she's only had the one drink and one shot. She's starting to accrue a nice buzz but isn't drunk or even tipsy yet. (Give it time though!)

Here But Not

[worthallthis]

Winter is not part of ladies night. But Winter is at ladies night. Kind of. He perches on the roof of the neighboring building for each bar they visit, and watches them through the bar windows. He climbs down and walks by the front of the bar maybe once an hour to get a better look.

When the ladies leave for the night or go to another bar, he tails them at approximately ten meters.

He does nothing to really hide that he's doing this. He's protecting his people, because like three quarters of his remaining people are at this ladies night, and he can't let anything happen to them.

If anyone wants to approach him about being a creepy stalker, or to bring him a drink or a snack, he won't chase them away.

[musicdied]

When Yelena exits the second bar about three quarters of an hour after they arrive, she only waggles her fingers in a small wave in the direction of Winter's perch before vanishing into the building across the street, which hosts a small café - less touristy than some of Gloucester's offerings, perhaps, but still good.

When she exits that building, however, it's to duck into the narrow alleyway between the bar and the tattoo parlor that's hopefully not going to need to serve as a sniper's nest tonight, cardboard cup and a small café bag in hand.

So, choosing option B, then.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm doesn't jog outside until the second time he sees him, which is probably, like, the fourth time he's passed. He hasn't been actively looking for him.

"Oh, hey, here you are. Kate said you were around. Glad to see someone else who isn't an active participant. How are you doing?"

[musicdied]

Yelena's strategy for the night seems to be to order things that seem entertaining, based on criteria that at no point have been disclosed. In practice, that means that over the course of the evening, she goes through a small rainbow of drinks. It's fine. She has water, and she's already ensured she has a late start tomorrow.

She makes intermittent use of the dance floor, and will occasionally pause during idle conversation to cock her head, listen for a moment, and remark of the music, "This is a good one. Come on."

A few times during the night, she slips outside - never abandoning a dance or conversational partner, but otherwise without warning or explanation.

[abrightboy]

"Um, I'm not much of a dancer," he protests weakly, going with her anyway. "I mean, I know how to dance..." His mother would have been remiss in his upper class upbringing if he didn't. "I just don't do it a lot."