🫖 The Butler

Who plays who

• A — The Butler: you serve, you anticipate, and you never make your employer ask twice.
• B — The Employer: the house is yours tonight and every need gets spoken out loud.
• A leads Acts 1–3 by serving without being asked. B leads Act 4, because the last request is theirs.

What you need

• A waistcoat, apron or white shirt you can loosen one button at a time
• A tray, a small bell, or a folded cloth to carry things on
• A pot of tea or coffee, poured properly, with two cups
• Something folded, brushed or tidied that genuinely needed doing
• Gloves, if you like the look of them — optional, never required

Act 1 — 🕯️ Setup

The house is yours and the bell has been rung once. A arrives at the doorway already composed, gloves on, and waits to be told what is needed — the butler does not sit down until told to. Tonight, nothing in the house gets done by you. Say it in character and keep it there.

Beats

• A stands until invited, and speaks only to answer a request or to repeat it back.
• B makes the first three requests out loud, in full sentences, with no apologies attached.
• Stay inside the roles: butler and employer, no first names, no shorthand from the rest of your life.

Lines to say

• "You rang. What do you need?"
• "Say it plainly and I will see to it. That is the whole arrangement."
• "Standing, unless you tell me otherwise."

Act 2 — 🔥 Build

The requests get smaller and slower: the fire adjusted, the lamp moved, a glass refilled twice. Each one puts A closer to where B is sitting, and every request costs one full sentence spoken out loud. A does not volunteer anything. The service is only ever what was asked for.

Beats

• B asks for one thing at a time, and waits for it to be finished before asking again.
• A does what was requested, then returns to a standing position and waits.
• Every request lands a little closer to the body than the last — the lamp, the glass, the collar.

Lines to say

• "Closer. The glass is too far from my hand."
• "You are very good at this. Tell me something you would not do."
• "One more thing, then. Slowly."

Act 3 — ⚡ Escalate

The request that finally changes things is the plainest one yet, and A's hands stay perfectly steady while the voice does not. The composure is the point, and it is starting to cost something. The service has stopped being about the house. B is still the one asking.

Beats

• B makes one request that is unmistakably not about the room.
• A keeps the butler's voice and lets only the pace give them away.
• Whoever is being served states what they want in words, and silence is not an answer.

Lines to say

• "Take off the gloves. That is the request."
• "You may sit. On the floor, at my feet, like you meant to all evening."
• "Ask me again, and this time say please."

Act 4 — 💥 Climax

Nothing is asked for now because nothing is left to ask. The uniform comes off one item at a time, on B's orders, and the butler keeps serving right up to the edge of it. No more tray, no more walking out of the room. Stay in it to the end.

Beats

• B directs the undressing one item at a time and A keeps the service voice throughout.
• Whatever was built in Act 3 — the kneeling, the gloves, the plain request — gets used here.
• Let it finish the way your bodies choose, not the way the role would have it.

Lines to say

• "Look at me. Not at the floor."
• "Stay exactly there. Don't make me ask twice."

Act 5 — 🤍 Aftercare

The service is over. Two people again, in their own house, with a tray somewhere that needs washing in the morning.

Beats

• Come back into your own names out loud before anything else.
• Tea, water and something to eat, sitting down, lights normal, tray forgotten.
• One thing each you liked, in plain words, with no butler in the sentence.

Lines to say

• "That was a very good evening. Thank you for serving it properly."
• "Next time I want the other side of the bell."

Aftercare

Tea made by hand, the tray left for the morning, and one thing each said out loud about the evening. Whoever played the butler should be told plainly, out of role, that the service was wanted — and that they can put the tray down now.

Ground rules and consent

• There is no real butler and no real employer here — this is the two of us playing, in our own home.
• No third party rings that bell. Every knock at the door is one of us, and only ever one of us.
• "Teapot" ends the service instantly, said by either of us, and the tray goes down.
• "Whatever you need" never includes anything the other person does not want. Asking is the game; the answer can always be no.

If the idea is new to either of you, Questions that go deeper walks through it before you try it with a partner.

Frequently asked