[Closed] To the Bottle I Go

[thebalrogslayer]

 Who: Gabriel, Eliot, Teagan and Thorin
When: Evening of the 7th
Where: Gabriel's flat and then a bar crawl
What: The adult Tolkiens go out for drinks
Warnings: Hopefully there won't need to be one for Thorir and Teagan being childish but I'll put a warning for it just in case.

Gabriel's flat is one of the few things that he's sunk his money into for his personal pleasure.  It's a penthouse maisonette in a small block in one of the nicer areas of town, full of gardens and green areas.  Gabriel chose it for the simple reason that the roof was part of the price, and he's been able to turn it into patio garden.  Not that they'll be using it in mid winter.  It's open planned and full of glass, light and airy, not unlike the man himself, and unsurprisingly filled with potted plants.  There's also the lingering scent of athelas in the air, the plant on his kitchen window sill.

His plans for the evening are very loose.  He has wine and glasses set out in the living room to start with, and once they're all assembled and his friends have had a chance to relax from their working days they can head to a bar he knows in town that does particularly good mocktails (and, he's been assured, cocktails.  They're also an expert in fine wine, and are supplied by a local microbrewery, so he hopes that will keep everyone happy).  From there, they can move on if needsbe, stay, or his friends are always welcome back at his house.

Comments

At Gabriel's flat

[thebalrogslayer]

[disdainfully]

Thorir arrives a bit late; between catching up with sleep and actually getting the day's work done, he's been running around quite hectically all day and it just took a bit longer.

But he texted Gabriel and Eliot when he realized that he would be late, and carries a basket with a tupper boxes - there are small amounts of foods from Birgir's last parcel in it, from the area that her and her girlfriend are currently travelling. So yeah, +1 tall ex-model.

[thebalrogslayer]

Gabriel had somewhat expected that after the night before, and for that reason he'd kept his (personal, of course, his professional phone is off in his study) phone on him. "We'll be waiting for you, don't rush." He sends as a reply, and then gets back to the friends that he's already gathered.

Once the doorbell goes, though, he jumps up with an eager smile, buzzing him into the building and waiting by the door to invite him in. Which he does, stepping aside as he holds the door. "Finally! Come on in. We've been waiting for you." His voice is softly teasing, as he glances at his friend, looking to see how tired he is.

[lordofimladris]

Eliot looks up when he hears the knock on the door. He had arrived a little early with a bottle of good wine to start the evening off right. He had been looking forward to an evening of relaxing with his friends with a glass of wine to help shake off the stress of the day.

When he sees Thorir come in, he gets up to pour his friend a glass of wine, making sure it's full before passing it to his friend. "Come in, you look like you could use a drink tonight."

[disdainfully]

Thorir is tired, but not more than he could handle - he would have called otherwise and asked to reschedule, because it's really no use to hang out with friends when all you want to do is sleep, in his opinion. He kind of is at the point still where all that he wants to do is find some menial task to do and just do it into oblivion, until his mind is numb enough so that he can push that between himself and the memory, and then sort it out after - but maybe spending an evening with friends will have the same effect. Hopefully.

And it was scheduled before. He dislikes cancelling appointments, meetings and similar things. Gabriel will get a brief hug before the taller man moves on, wandering over to Eliot to receive his glass of wine with a smile. "Not quite what I need, but it certainly cannot hurt... I assume Gabriel has already told you that he came over this morning?" He doesn't want to go into depth about it, but Eliot deserves at least the hint of an explanation if he hasn't already gotten briefed on it.

[thebalrogslayer]

"I mentioned it." But not how early it was or why. That's Thorir's business after all, and while he doesn't think that Thorir would mind him telling Eliot he's not one to mindlessly talk about such private things. "Just that I was there, though." He shuts the door, and follows Thorir, taking the armchair so Thorir can take the seat on the sofa next to Eliot and the open bottle of wine. Gabriel has a glass of juice on the table which is still within reach.

[lordofimladris]

"He mentioned you visited but didn't tell me the details. Come we have some time before we meet Teagan at the bar," Eliot said as he sat on the sofa again before pouring himself another glass of wine.

He glanced at Gabriel, a little concerned for their friend before turning his attention back on Thorir. "What happened?" he asked, if there was any way he could help even if just by listening, he would.

[disdainfully]

Thorir frowns and throws a sharp glance at Gabriel at the mention of Teagan. There was nothing about him in the talks about this evening, and especially after last night he is not sure if he would have said yes otherwise, or said that he would still be coming. He understands that Gabriel would like them to become friends, but really - he's not interested. Business partners, yes. Reception small talk even, maybe. Sharing friends, it's just something that happens, so even sometimes less formal meetings. And sure, they are all on the network now. But... couldn't Gabriel have at least warned him after last night?

He leans against the wall next to the sofa and considers the wine in his hand, not drinking any of it yet. "An echo." Two, actually, if he thinks about it, but the second seems rather irrelevant here. "A very lively memory of what seems to have been the death of my former self's father, when he was still a child." He skirts around a clearer description, mostly because he doesn't want to bring up fire and death again around Gabriel.

[thebalrogslayer]

Whoops. Gabriel barely hides a wince. But at least this way they can deal with Thorir and then Teagan separately. Maybe that way they won't clash as much. (And yes, he probably should have warned both of them, but he'd thought that if he did neither would come).

Still, he crosses his legs and relaxes back into his chair. "Which in turn triggered one for me, although not of the same incident." To have his friend on the network and from the same world originally would just be too much of a coincident. "Although now all three of us have remembered something with fire or heat."

At the bar

[thebalrogslayer]

[thebalrogslayer]

Once Thorir is suitably relaxed, Gabriel bundles his two friends into his car and sets off on the ten minute drive to the centre of town. There's a car park not too far from the bar he arranged to meet Teagan in, so once he's parked up he leads the others there. Fortunately it's too up market to be packed, even on a friday night, and in any case Gabriel called ahead and pulled a few favours to reserve a table for them. It's set a little way back from the bar, but having a space of their own on friday night is good enough.

As they arrive he checks his phone and then glances around, unsure if Teagan is there already or not.

[unelven]

As they arrive, Teagan is nursing a glass of wine at the bar and reading the news on his phone. He's been there quite a while but not long enough to get particularly impatient.

[lordofimladris]

"Over here," Eliot spots Teagan at the bar, heading over to him. "I hope you weren't waiting too long," he said once they reached him, glad that the other had decided to come out with them tonight.

[disdainfully]

Thorir hangs back a bit. He's not in a mood to spend time with anyone but people around whom he feels like he can just be himself and be comfortable, and he is quite sour about having been set up with this, but in the end he has come anyway. He'll follow after the other two men and just give Teagan a short nod as a greeting.

[thebalrogslayer]

Gabriel still feels rather guilty about setting his friends up like this, but not as guilty as he probably should be. He had to get them to agree to come somehow! He lets Eliot go ahead for a moment, hanging back at Thorir's side and offering him an apologetic smile. "Sorry." He wants them to get along, though. It may be needed, now that they're all on the network.

But then they're at Teagan's side and his smile for his other friend is brighter in greeting, although there's still a touch of something apologetic about it. "We set off later than I thought we would." No word of why - Thorir might want to share his echo with Eliot but he doubts he does with Teagan. "We have a table set aside for us - but let me get a round first. What does everyone want?"

[unelven]

Well, this just goes from bad to worse, doesn't it? He frowns when Eliot joins him, in a mixture of surprise and general displeasure at being around his doctor he can't quite account for. But then, oh then there is Thorir too, and he meets Gabriel's look of half-hearted apology with full-hearted disapproval. You officially owe him for this hell.

"I wasn't waiting long, but I also wasn't aware I was waiting for a crowd. Wine will be fine for me."

[lordofimladris]

Eliot is confused at the look of displeasure Teagan looks at him but he smiled nonetheless. It's not forgotten though but now isn't the time to bring that up.

Tonight is for the others most of all though, for them to at least be able to relax a bit. "I'll have whiskey, and I can get the second round," he offered.

Sunday; Teagan's house

[thebalrogslayer]

[Gabriel was never much of a liar, and he can't help but feel guilty for setting Thorir and Teagan up. Yes, he had good reason for it, but maybe he should have just spoken to them both and asked them to meet up rather than throwing them together.

But he was also worried over the way that Teagan had treated Eliot. Something was wrong there, and that concerned him.

He hadn't wanted to show up immediately afterwards, though. So he gave him a day to get himself together, and as long as he could the day afterwards until the guilt started to eat him up. Around four he gives in and heads over to his friend's house, ringing the bell. They need to talk.]

[unelven]

[ It's a good thing that Gabriel gave him a day, because being out of the city proper helped. It relaxed him to be home (for this was his home, not his apartment in town), for the first time since the world decided to engulf him with ridiculous truths. Gabriel is perhaps the only person he could stand disrupting him right now, as he drinks yerba mate and reads a book, but he does go to the door and there's Gabriel, so he lets him in. ]

You came out of your way. Any particular reason for that?

[thebalrogslayer]

[Relieved that he's allowed in and Teagan doesn't slam the door in his face, Gabriel smiles at him as he steps inside so they can close the door and keep the heat in.]

I wanted to apologise for Friday. I shouldn't have jumped the others on you like that. I didn't really think - or rather I just wanted to make sure that it happened. [Despite it all, he still does think it's important that they all had a chance to talk.]

[unelven]

[ There are quite a few people whom Teagan would slam the door on, but Gabriel is luckily not one of them. He has more respect for him than that. Rhys comes padding through the house to woof at Gabriel and lick his hand. Teagan on the other hand just continued on through the house to lead Gabriel towards the kitchen. ]

It was bound to happen anyway, I just expected the dignity of a warning. Do you want anything to drink?

[thebalrogslayer]

Next time I'll warn you. As long as you promise not to find an excuse to get out of it. [Gabriel promises as he rubs Rhys' ears and then strokes his head before heading after the dog's master.]

Some tea would be lovely, thank you. [Gabriel leans against the counter, watching Teagan openly.] Aside from surprise group outings, how have you been?

[unelven]

I can't promise that a reasonable excuse wont come up, but I won't go looking for one if that's good enough for you.

[ He starts filling up the kettle, before placing it down on the stove and letting it begin to boil. ]

How do you think I've been?

[thebalrogslayer]

That's more than good enough. [Reasonable excuses are different - after all, they're all busy men.]

I know this whole network thing can be a shock to the system but I thought you would be able to cope with it. [There's a slight question to his voice. He's not entirely sure any more, not after how he was on friday night. Perhaps Gabriel should have paid more attention to Teagan after finding out that he was on the network, made sure that he was taking it as well as can be.]

[unelven]

[ Teagan isn't stupid, he knows what that question is about. He had gone over the events of the last few days in his head a few times now, and the same question kept arising: was Eliot really being so condescending? It seemed out of character, but he had felt so at the time. He even feels so now, with a bitterness on his tongue. ]

I am able to cope with it. If this is about being short with you, I had every reason to be, and I forgive you for it. I'd expect the same decency in return.