Raise a Toast • •

[perri alexis baines]

O’Malley’s was jam packed with people from a local movie set, and Perri hadn’t stopped since she had arrived that evening. The private event had certainly kept the bar staff busy, but she was loving every minute of it. They tipped well each round and kept her laughing with jokes and stories from the movie. Perri could talk to just about anyone, but she was getting on great with so many of the crew here tonight who kept calling her into their silly games and friendly arguments whenever she was passing by collecting the glasses in. Perri loved her work in the Irish pub, and since landing in New York she had held this job down the longest. It wasn’t that she had ever done anything wrong in the past, but her usual problem was that she grew bored, fast. O’Malley’s was different though, and always full of interesting characters. Tonight was definitely that, and it reminded her why she had come to New York in the first place.

This was a room filled with people who had achieved their dreams. To so many people Perri was just another dreamer who had flaked out a long time ago and still amounted to nothing more than a giggling girl behind a bar. She kept it that way on purpose, so she could have an element of freedom in her life, even with commissions and deadlines to keep up with behind the closed doors of her secret studio. Usually she headed there after her shift finished and O’Malley’s closed up for the night, but tonight she felt differently. It was so much fun here that she might actually head straight home for a change, or see if anyone fancied heading to one of the clubs with her. Perri rarely fancied going out when she worked in the nightlife business, but to see everyone having such a good time made her crave it, too.

Collecting the glasses from an empty table as a group of women headed towards the bathroom, Perri stacked them skilfully against her shoulder. She used the cloth woven between one of the belt loops of her jeans to wipe the table down and then headed back towards the bar, spinning away from Sammy as he headed out with his arms full of nachos for one of the booths. She hadn’t seen O’Malley’s thriving like this since the New Year, which might have only been a few weeks back, but it had felt like longer. After dropping the glasses off at the glass wash, Perri returned to the bar and leaned on it as she smiled at the guy waiting to be served. She chatted to him as she fetched the bottled beer he asked for, and laughed at his terrible joke before he walked off. This was only one of the jobs she loved, with the other being her art. This was just the only one the world saw her put her name and face with. Perri pulled her hair back from her face and leaned over the bar to chat with a table full of camera crew who were shouting her name and trying to ask her a question about London – just like they had been since the first time she had spoken to them that night.

• • •

TAGGED! Wilder Ezra Bishop
WORDS! 549!
OUTFIT! Bright Brit!
LYRICS! Don’t You Go - - - All Time Low
NOTES! <3

[Wilder Ezra Bishop]

Wilder was pretty glad that filming had finally wrapped up probably as much as the rest of the crew was. They had a few day's rest ahead of them before some, if any of them were called back in to shoot some scenes again. Most times the retakes were done when they were initially filming but there were a few times they had to go back, after scenes had been reviewed. Wilder didn't mind those times so much, they kept him busy when he would have just been sitting around his place doing nothing at all. In a week or two, he would head back to the studio to see what sort of trouble he could get himself into. Wilder hated being bored and needed something to occupy his mind until the next job came along.

The group Wilder belonged to was surprisingly small among the stunt community. Some preferred the hands on of being a stunt double and doing those sorts of jobs but Wilder preferred to be behind the wheel, in charge of a machine that became an extension of his being. He had always felt that way, ever since he'd been a boy on the family track, cruising through that thing on whatever machine was handy. Wilder had been racing everything with two or four wheels since he'd been old enough to. Becoming a stunt driver had just seemed to be his fate. He even used his skills to pay for university. Most kids got jobs at coffee shops, music and book stores, regular things and Wilder had taken up a job as a stunt driver for a local studio while he'd been in Boston. Even with a law degree under his belt, Wilder would have preferred racing cars for the camera over standing in an expensive suit, pleading a case that he really didn't care about. He'd only attended law school to appease his parents. They wanted something for him to fall back on and he gave them something. So now for them all, it didn't matter if he ever used his law degree or not; he had it to fall back on should the stunt driving world toss him out.

Plus, it meant he got to call the group of brutes he was currently with at the bar friends. He worked with them so often, he really thought of them as family. And because of that, he also knew just how terrible they could get when filming ended and they could finally let loose a little. It was a good thing the cute bartender he'd been eyeing all night didn't mind the rowdy bunch she was taking care of because they were bound to only get worse. "Next one's on me." Wilder said loudly, standing to head over to the bar. He could have called out the next order but he wanted to get a little closer to the bartender without the eavesdropping ears of his buddies. He knew how relentless they could be. "I'd apologise for that bunch but then I'd have to lay claim to them and I'm not about to do that, either." He joked, looking back at the table he'd just vacated over his shoulder, seeing them laughing and joking around like always.

Tag || perri alexis baines
Words || 542
Clothes || Dashing Devil
Music || Somethin' Bad --Miranda Lambert ft. Carrie Underwood
Notes || <3

[perri alexis baines]

Perri had yet to meet anyone who came into O’Malley’s who she couldn’t handle. There were a few creeps who annoyed her, but there had been creeps floating in and out of her life ever since she was a teenager in London. She could handle them with a quick warning that she wasn’t interested and then a moment in private with Stirling to let him know what had happened in case any of them felt like trying to land the blonde bartender in trouble with her boss. He always sided with her, thankfully. Rowdy customers weren’t an issue unless they started a fight and then most of the time Perri didn’t get a chance to intervene. It was like Ripper had a sixth sense because he flew out of the kitchen and over the bar quicker than anyone could blink to break that sort of behaviour up. She figured he was the most menacing member of staff to leave people thinking twice about starting trouble again.

The crowd tonight seemed harmless enough. Perri recognised a need to blow off steam. She felt it herself after putting in the long hours to complete a new series before an art show. It usually left her in the mood to paint the town red, but she had to simply act like she just had a new party dress to show off, since no one but her agent and his assistant knew her identity in the art world. Still, she dressed up and got as drunk and as hysterical to watch as some of these people were, of that much she was sure; there were photographs to prove it hidden on cell phones and cameras somewhere. She dreaded to think what might actually be out there if she looked which was why she took great care in maintaining her anonymity. If she chose to sign her work with her real name she probably wouldn’t be able to go out and have nights like that and she definitely wouldn’t be working behind the bar of an Irish pub.

Grinning at what she knew would be a sizeable order, Perri began pulling the bottles she could remember from the fridge and snapping the caps from them. It wasn’t many, but it would make her job easier to get through them before the man got to the bar for the rest. Laughing warmly, she slid a couple of bottles over and took a moment to lean closer to him. “And you don’t want to be the one making sure they all find their own beds at the end of tonight, right?” She asked playfully, hopping back to grab another couple of bottles for the order before moving over to those who were on something a little stronger than beer. “And don’t worry about it. That bunch are funny.” She said honestly, waving it off as she worked through the order. “Although I notice you’re nowhere near that level of smashed yet. Do I need to spike your drink with this?” She teased, waving the whiskey bottle in her hand as she poured another. “Rules of O’Malley’s; you’ve got to be having a good time, or I drag you into doing things you’ll hate. Like karaoke to the Spice Girls.” She kept a serious face, but there was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

• • •

TAGGED! Wilder Ezra Bishop
WORDS! 564!
OUTFIT! Bright Brit!
LYRICS! Don’t You Go - - - All Time Low
NOTES! <3

[Wilder Ezra Bishop]

Wilder loved what he did for a living and wouldn’t change a single thing about the life he had except maybe less bruises. He usually looked like he went four or five rounds with a heavy weight out of his class after a good day on set. He preferred the driving scenes but he’d been trained to do other stunt work since he’d been hired on at that first studio while he’d been off getting his law degree. He’d been thankful that he’d been given the opportunity to develop his stunt skills because otherwise he wasn’t sure if when he’d moved to New York, he would have been hired on at another studio there. He’d only ever had driving skills and though they had gotten him in the door in Boston, he’d thought maybe they were a dime a dozen in New York.

And so he’d been worried he would have had to fall back on that law degree he’d worked for in Boston; take the bar for New York state and work at some entry level position in a law firm, no doubt acting as someone’s research assistant because they couldn’t be bothered to do their own work. Wilder had never wanted to be a lawyer and hell he didn’t have the name of a lawyer. No one would have trusted Wilder Bishop with a case. A Bishop, maybe but not Wilder. It was too...wild. He’d really only gotten the degree to please his parents who wanted their children to have something to fall back on should they ever fall out of love with the family path. Of course, so far none of them had so the safety nets were kind of useless. But it made their parents happy and that had been the point of it all. Not that Wilder’s would be of any use to him. He never actually put in the hours and he was already twenty seven. If he ever did fall out of love with racing cars, he would be too old to find himself a career in law. He’d be left finding employment in some other capacity.

“Exactly.” Wilder said with a wink and an accompanying smirk as he took the first of the bottles he was ordering to their right places. He wasn’t out to get wasted, he was out to have a good drink but that didn’t mean he wasn’t matching them drink for drink. They’d just finished filming and it had been a long few months of hard work. In a few days he would be going back to the studio to find out what was next on the list for them but for the night and the following day, it was about drinking and getting over the alcohol poisoning that would keep them out of commission for a day or two. “I’m apparently much better at holding my liquor.” He said with a careless shrug. He was keeping up and that was all that matter because if he hadn’t been, the teasing calls would have started already and would continue even if he caught up and surpassed them. They were a good crowd of folks though and it was all done in good-nature. So Wilder didn’t mind all that much even when he was a drink or two behind. “I’d much rather some Atomic Kitten but I could work with Spice Girls, too.” He said remembering his sister’s favourite girl group back in the day. She had been able to rant, bitch and moan about the Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys and N’Sync being too mainstream and preferred the groups that no one in Florida seemed to know existed. And how she’d found them was beyond him and he really didn’t care enough to find out.

Tag || perri alexis baines
Words || 692
Clothes || Dashing Devil
Music || Somethin' Bad --Miranda Lambert ft. Carrie Underwood
Notes || <3

[perri alexis baines]

Perri adored her life. She knew her parents thought she was flaking out and flitting from job to job on the other side of the ocean, but they didn’t know that she was financially stable thanks to her art. They had always pulled a face at her passion, wishing she would keep it as a hobby and pursue a more secure career. She didn’t know if they would ever find out about her life as Orion, but she knew that they would probably find a way to wish something more for her. It was probably why she hadn’t revealed her big secret to them and allowed them to continue thinking she lived a scatterbrain lifestyle. The truth was that she took day jobs in places because she liked them and the people she met there. They were her inspiration and without them she would probably spend too many hours locked in her studio inhaling paint fumes and getting annoyed at herself when things didn’t turn out the way she wanted them to. No, Perri liked the way her life was. She had a nice balance that no one else saw.

“But the question is, who will make sure you find your bed?” Perri asked, glancing across at him coyly. She worked in a bar, but it wasn’t like Perri flirted with every man who came her way. However, there were moments when a cute guy would come in and she would turn up the heat a little bit. More often than not it was harmless and went absolutely nowhere, but it got her a tip and sometimes a drink. She was young, single, and lived a little on the cheeky side, so she didn’t see the harm in making a point when she thought someone was attractive. The worst thing that could happen was they could turn her down and it wasn’t going to destroy her world. Perri was made of tougher stuff than that. “So a girl can’t ply you with liquor and have her way with you then?” She asked, grinning wickedly as she finished off pouring the round of drinks.

Laughing loudly, Perri threw her head back and took a moment to regain composure of herself. “Now you’ve told me that I’m actually going to demand you bring your arse back here for a karaoke night. I have to see you belting out some Atomic Kitten now.” She grinned, still laughing at their conversation. She had grown up in the nineties and remembered the cheesy Brit Pop like it was only yesterday. On karaoke nights they were often her numbers of choice just to get some atmosphere going when the mood ebbed slightly, and also to hear Ripper growling from the kitchen when one of the painfully catchy songs got stuck in his head for the rest of the evening no matter what he tried to do to get rid of it again. “I bet you wouldn’t even need a drink in you for that.” She teased lightly, leaning on the bar. Sammy seemed to be keeping on top of the orders and there wasn’t a queue of angry drunks demanding more beer, so she was free to chat for a few minutes at least.

• • •

TAGGED! Wilder Ezra Bishop
WORDS! 546!
OUTFIT! Bright Brit!
LYRICS! Don’t You Go - - - All Time Low
NOTES! <3

[Wilder Ezra Bishop]

Wilder had never thought he’d find himself in New York as a kid. He’d figured he’d be int eh family business his entire life, that he’d be racing on whatever circuit would have him. It had been a hope when he’d been younger to drive Indy or NASCAR or Formula 1, it hadn’t mattered which as long as he was behind the wheel of something. His aspirations hadn’t actually changed until he hit college and found work as a stunt driver that he’d even considered there were other options int he world that didn’t include hurtling himself around some of the sharpest and tightest corners in the world going hundreds of miles an hour. And now Wilder wouldn’t have taken any of that back. He loved what Boston had brought to him. Going away to college had opened up so many opportunities and possibilities and Wilder genuinely felt like his life was much better having gone to the open audition his actor friend had suggested to him. It was his bread and butter now. Being a stunt driver, and occasional stunt man should the scene call for another, was how he was able to afford the nice apartment in the city that he had.

Wilder leaned over the bar a little further, his wicked grin quirking up only one corner of his mouth. "I don’t know yet. You want the job?” He asked, lifting his eyebrow a fraction. His twin brother had teased him mercilessly when they’d been children because he could do that with his eyebrows and Henry couldn’t but there were dozens of things Henry could do that Wilder wasn’t able to without hours and hours of practice. Something the youngest twin wasn’t interested in unless it would get him something in the end. Wilder was a bit of a troublemaker that way, enjoying the years of learning how to flirt because it got him something in the end. Back then it might have just been stolen kisses behind the bleachers and the football games but it escalated rather quickly and Wilder wouldn’t apologise for that. “You don’t need liquor to do that.” He told her, the smirk still settled on his lips.

His sister told him he was a pathological flirt, unable to stop himself from saying the cheekier comment on his tongue but the truth of the matter was that Wilder enjoyed the teasing banter and seeing the reaction his words elicited. “Alright. When is the next karaoke night? I’ll blow your socks off.” He said, matter-of-fact. Since his sister was old enough to find her own musical tastes, his ears had been forced to listen to all her favourites through the car rides when they were stuck in the same vehicle. There were only three years between the twins and Ryan so that little predicament happened more than Wilder would have liked; more than Henry would have, too. “Nope. I could belt that out stone cold sober.” He admitted, chuckling. He knew most of the songs off by heart as well. It had amused his parents to know end when Ryan would force them to listen to one of her songs and it was the twin boys who were belting along louder than the one who demanded it be played!

Tag || perri alexis baines
Words || 588
Clothes || Dashing Devil
Music || Somethin' Bad --Miranda Lambert ft. Carrie Underwood
Notes || <3

[perri alexis baines]

Perri had never planned out her life when she was growing up. She just did things as the mood took her, much to the annoyance of her parents. She would wake up, make a decision while she was brushing her teeth and that would be that. Choice made, and by the end of the day Perri would have changed her hair, put a deposit down on a trip, or done something else that would be considered a rather big deal in the eyes of her family. She enjoyed being spontaneous and thrived on living in the moment. Of course there had been times when she was worried or stressed out about something or another, but Perri never dwelled on when another moment like that might come to pass. To waste time on what might happen and when was pointless. Instead she lived in every other moment, found her fun wherever she could and then let her life reflect in her art. In might not be painstakingly obvious, but she buried stories in her art. People often got the interpretation totally wrong when galleries put on Orion exhibitions, but Perri couldn’t open her mouth to correct them without giving herself away. Instead she stood around in an expensive dress she’d wear probably once more and took advantage of the free champagne. She’d have rather been in her studio than at those shows, but apparently she had to be there in some manifestation according to her agent.

She smirked as he leaned closer. He was definitely smooth, she’d give him that much. “I don’t even know your name yet. And how do I know if it’ll be worth my time?” Perri said, making a show of thinking it over. She didn’t make a habit of flirting or dating every guy who passed a comment her way while she was working, but this one was cute and Perri was feeling good. Plus, she was only young once and when she reached the point in her life when the Reaper was catching up she wanted to be sure that there were no regrets on her mind. She definitely didn’t want to be one of those people who wished she had taken more chances or lived a little more. Perri’s decisions were spur of the moment, total gut instinct sort of things and she had a fun feeling about the man in front of her. She wanted to see where their wicked words took them. “Good to know. But you can still buy me a drink when I finish in twenty.” She grinned, biting her lip playfully. She wasn’t some wallflower. She was as bold and as bright as London itself and Perri wasn’t ashamed of that. Plus the atmosphere in O’Malley’s tonight was contagious and Perri was already in the mood to join in the good time.

Laughing, Perri tucked her hair behind her ear being careful not to catch the large hoop dangling from her ear. “Next Thursday from nine. If you’re not here now I’m calling you a coward and painting it over the city.” She could quite literally do something like that too if it fell in with her next canvas design. However, Perri was very careful about keeping her artwork abstract enough from her own life that it couldn’t be connected from Orion to her. There were a few personal pieces she had done for herself that hung in her apartment that were the opposite, but that was a different matter. They were her ‘hobby’ for anyone who noticed and asked about them. “You do ‘Right Now’ and we’ll make it a duet.” She promised with a wink. It wasn’t actually uncommon for the staff to do a number or two on karaoke night anyway since they were mostly of the daring type anyway and usually picked songs with disastrous consequences for each other.

• • •

TAGGED! Wilder Ezra Bishop
WORDS! 652!
OUTFIT! Bright Brit!
LYRICS! Don’t You Go - - - All Time Low
NOTES! <3