Tripping (closed)

[jamesoftaversal]

Who: Sir James, Allan, Emmaline
What: Sometimes a man need a little wine to get to sleep
Where: The Trip to Jerusalem Inn
When: 29th September, very late. Or very early 30th September. After a party like this one, it’s hard to tell.

Comments

[allan_of_dale]

There was a growling feeling low in Allan's belly. It wasn't a million miles from hunger, of a sort, except when you were hungry you generally didn't feel like battering your brain in with ten pints of ale. That and the fact that if Allan had been presented with a plate of food right now he'd probably just have thrown up onto it.

It wasn't like he'd never had to cope with the sentiment before; he'd had to do his best to ignore it when poor Tom had over-reached himself as usual and been captured in the name of the outlaw gang. There'd been a hard choice to make that day, too. He'd given up on his brother - his own brother! - all because he'd wanted to do right by the gang and what good had it done him? The same thing had been done to him, barely a year later. And he'd been part of the team, too, not some Johnny-come-lately who just wanted in - a fully paid-up member, as it were

[jamesoftaversal]

“What?” Sir James had been looking in the opposite direction when the man spoke and so was caught unawares. “Ah! You!” he said when he recognized the man. He slowly wagged a finger at him, up and down, struggling to remember. “You…you’re….” Sir James gave up and chuckled a little bit at himself. “I’m sorry, sir, but our paths have crossed so many times lately that I felt sure I knew your name, but now I realize we’ve never actually been introduced! Of course! Here-sit! Sit!” he said, pushing the stool toward the nominal stranger.

“I owe you a drink, friend. Or more than a drink, really. I haven’t thanked you for your help earlier. You really pulled my nuts out of the fire with that Welshman, that’s for sure. Heaven only knows what state I’d be in now if you hadn’t given me an out.” He looked up at the man in the dark doublet with a smile, but saw his guest’s expression was less than happy, though he couldn’t pin it down more than that, and heard a certain moodiness in his tone. Oh, God, please don’t let him be a sullen drunk! Sir

[allan_of_dale]

He was welcomed fairly warmly, so that was a good sign. Sitting down into the seat that had been kicked out for him, a sudden realisation hit him. Earlier. The bloke had said earlier. Shit, had it only been this morning that they'd met? So much had happened in such a short space of time, it almost felt like months had passed since then. Allan was pretty sure he'd known the man's name this morning, but if he had, it was escaping him right now.

"No, it's me that works for Gisborne," he replied. "The french one's Lucatz, he's going home tomorrow. He was only here to...help out with the ball so he'll be back off to his master in the morning. My name's Allan. Allan a Dale. And this place has a lot of barmaids, but the ones working the late shift, well...their table service isn't normally what gets 'em the job, if you know what I'm saying. Late in the evening, blokes tend to get a bit lonely more than thirsty. You might be better off going to the bar yourself."

[jamesoftaversal]

“Eh, I’ll give it a few more minutes. I’d rather wait and tip a girl for bringing our drinks to us than brave carrying them through this crowd myself. These girls are probably better at navigating the obstacle course than me, anyway,” Sir James said.

“Oh, but please tell me this place doesn’t turn into a full-blown brothel after dark!” he added as he tried, without luck, to catch the eye of a buxom lass who was busy entertaining another table with her amble cleavage. “I mean, to each his own and all that, but I was rather hoping to get some sleep tonight, and that’s not likely if the party’s just getting started.” He turned back to Allan, “But don’t let me stop you, if that’s what you’re here for! I can go bugger off easy enough!”

He almost teased, “Though I’m surprised you didn’t get your own offer at the ball in that get up,” but decided he didn’t know the man well enough for that kind of familiarity. That said, the short-short doublet…the two-tight leggings…If I didn’t know better, I’d say Allan a Dale was advertising his wares

[allan_of_dale]

Allan had been wondering if he shouldn't have waited for his drink at the bar, rather than leaving it for a girl to bring over. He'd gone as far as ordering it, but he wasn't quite thinking in straight lines at the moment and it hadn't really occurred to him. Still in the end it might prove for the best. When his drink got brung over, James could make his own order.

"No, no, it's not that bad," he replied, feeling a grin begin to start up. "I mean, they're not out-and-out whores, or anything, but if times get hard a lot of the girls'll take on a roll or two to boost their wages. It's just that those ones tend to blag the late shift cos business is a bit better later on for that sort of thing. But no, you're alright. I'm not here for that sort of company." Not twice in one day in the same tavern. That's just asking for trouble.With memories of his earlier...exchange...with Archer coming back to the fore, the less pleasant and more recent thoughts of his part in the events at the castle were beginning to fade into the background of

[jamesoftaversal]

Sir James picked up on a bitter tone when Allan spoke of Hood, and wondered about it, but thought he’d wait to address it until they both had a few drinks under their belts. It was easy enough for now to keep to the topics already at hand. “No, I got off without a scratch, so to speak. But then, I took some elementary precautions to keep my goods out of sight. I wasn’t thinking in terms of robber gangs at the time-more like not wanting to put temptation in the way of the servants-but even that didn’t seem to occur to the rest of the people on my corridor. They almost deserved to be robbed! I hope those twits aren’t representative of what’s become of the aristocracy since I’ve been away. If they are…well, I despair for my country, that’s all I can say

[jamesoftaversal]

OOC: Meant to add: Godmodded with permission.

[allan_of_dale]

Allan snorted. "There's a lot of people as don't think past putting their stuff where they won't forget about it. You'd be amazed how much stuff some'll leave in an unguarded place out in full view." Sometimes you could see purses and jewellery through the bloody window of manor houses for Christ's sake! James was on the right track, but people like that didn't just deserve to get robbed; they were bloody asking for it.

Violet had spotted them and was making her way over with her best grin on. Almost automatically he grinned devilishly back at her, raising an eyebrow and sucking in his cheeks. She looked a little bit pleased with herself, and after a few moments Allan realised why. James was asking after his drink so he nodded back briefly in agreement before addressing their new companion. "Alright, girl?" he asked, cheering up a bit more now he had someone to charm; "treated yourself to a new dress for Michaelmas, is it? I would caution you against splashing out, but it can't have cost you much. Barely a quarter bolt in it,

[jamesoftaversal]

Sir James couldn’t help but snort out a laugh at that. “You know, I realized I had misspoken as soon as the words were out my mouth!” he said once he had recovered sufficiently.

After catching his breath, he continued. “What I mean is…sex is like music. Technique’s not enough; you need heart to make it good.” He had a feeling he still wasn’t making himself clear, so he started over.

“Look. It’s a long ride from Palestine to England, and I had a lot of time to think about things like this, and how to best live my life now that I’m away from the wars. And one of the conclusions I came to is that you only get quality from someone you really know, and trust, and who knows and trusts you. It doesn’t have to be true love, necessarily, but….You wanna know about the best I ever had? There was this girl… woman, really, a widow and all. I’d do everything I could just to make time to talk with her, if you can imagine that. But of course we did more than talk. We spent whole days in bed together. Days! We’d get positively lost in it! But if you

[allan_of_dale]

Allan could think of a few other ways sex was like music.

Stick to the rhythm no matter what and it'll all turn out ok...Don't rush to the finish because you're both supposed to be done at the same time...some people like it exotic and some people like it folky, but keep it somewhere in the middle and you've got a chance of satisfying either preference...that was the good thing about these sorts of comparisons. Lent you the opportunity for some pretty good lines.

He couldn't deny that you tended to get better sex off of girls that knew you and trusted you...for a start they'd let you get away with some of the fruitier stuff if they thought you could keep your gob shut about it. But that was exactly when they started getting clingy, and jealous, and despite the fact that they'd recieved your tales of former daring conquests with giggling and plenty of wide-eyed encouragement before, suddenly it became all 'and did she have better tits than me, then?' and 'so do you usually go round constantly looking for the next lay

[jamesoftaversal]

“Yeah, well, you can’t count on those tricks always working. And that pennyroyal stuff…you’re right about it doing a number on your insides-I learned that in my hospital work. And I even knew it to be the death of a girl once. So I can’t blame ‘em if they’re reluctant to use it.”

Sir James spoke, somewhat mechanically, as he watched Violet flounce around. Good Lord, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a woman jiggle so! he thought. And yet, it had no effect on him whatsoever; he noted, with some melancholy, that his was an almost academic interest. He had meant what he said about wanting to steer clear of cheap encounters, but still…. Maybe I’m just getting old, he inwardly sighed.

Or maybe I’ve just raised my standards. Lady Marian had pretty much the same materials to work with as Violet here, but she presented them better-much more genteelly-and she certainly had an effect!Out loud he said, “You know, I always used to laugh when they talked about men the age I am now being ‘in the prime of life.’ But now I know what they mean. It

[allan_of_dale]

Allan looked sidelong at James, a little nervously. "Really? It dunt always work?" Oh dear, a little voice inside his head murmured. Why on Earth its language was so mild at such a worrying prospect he had no idea, but it kept chasing itself round his head: Oh dear; oh dear; oh dear. Probably no need to get so worked up about it now though; after all, the remedy had saved his forced ejection from town enough times in the past...or delayed it for a month or so until the next one fell in trouble, at any rate. It might not work all the time; not like every single time, but it had to be fairly reliable else no-one would of ever heard about it in the first place, he soothed himself. Sounded a bit worrying that some girl had died of it, but he knew of more than one woman who'd died on account of birthing too, so it had probably saved more lives than it had taken, his own most likely included

[jamesoftaversal]

“I have no interest in wooing, winning, or wedding Lady Marian!” Sir James said, emphatically. “Or anything else along those lines!” He leaned forward towards Allan to further stress his point. “I’ll leave it to your discretion as to how best to inform Gisborne of that, but I hope you do inform him, if need be. Your description of Gisborne pretty much matches my impression of him, and the last thing I need is him calling me out from misplaced jealousy. I can hold my own in a fight, but he’s younger and angrier than I am, which would put me at a double disadvantage, so I’d rather the thought didn’t even enter his head.”

Sir James relaxed a bit more. “That’s not to say I’m not interested in wooing and wedding at all. I’m more and more inclined that way the longer I’m in England. But that gets back to what I was saying about not being led around by my dick any more. A lot of men my age want a fresh young bride, forgetting she’s not going to be fresh and young for long and that no girl like that is going to marry a coot like them without

[allan_of_dale]

Allan grinned. "Yeah, no worries. If I hear anything about suspicions in your direction, I won't hesitate to put him straight." And if he actually listens to me and believes it, so much the better. Allan didn't see any point in unduly worrying James by hinting exactly how little influence he had over Guy so he let the matter stand at that. He'd cross that bridge when he came to it

[jamesoftaversal]

Sir James shot his companion a baleful look. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t imply what you actually did just imply about the future Lady Teversal. God, just when I was beginning to think you had some manners….” He buried his face in his tankard, taking a good slurp of the wine. He noticed the slight tingling and numbness in his toes (and a certain disability with language) that indicated the liquor was beginning to have an effect Now the trick would be to increase this state ever so slightly, and then maintain it, without out tipping over from a pleasant tipsiness to outright drunkenness, if for no other reason than he didn’t want to ride back to Teversal on the morrow with a ripping hangover

[allan_of_dale]

Allan raised his hands, palm outwards, towards the older knight, completely failing to keep a straight face. "Hey, I weren't implying nothing. I was just wondering if all Turk women are good in the sack. Any assumptions you make about what I meant aren't my fault. It's your dirty mind that's the problem. I dunno, maybe if you didn't frequent fallen women so often you wouldn't have jumped to that conclusion." He'd started speaking with just a little smirk, but it got stronger the longer he went on and by the time he was finished it was a full-blown grin. Despite James' social rank, he seemed to be a pretty ok kind of guy; more the Lucatz class of knight, rather than a Gisborne. Allan was pretty certain he wouldn't take it the wrong way. "And why is everyone suddenly so obsessed with my manners, anyway? I ain't talked of nothing that you didn't bring up