Grand Opening!

[trifurcate]

Characters: Bryn Zethir and EVERYONE!
Date: Friday Evening, September 13th
Location: Bryn's Unnamed Bar
Situation: It's time for a grand opening!
Warnings/Rating: None expected but label your own threads if necessary.

After weeks of scrimping and saving, planning, organizing, working every day to get everything just so, Bryn's tavern is finally ready to open. There were times she wasn't sure it was ever going to happen, because what did she know about running a business, having only been a customer all of her adult life? There was still a chance that this would spectacularly flop and she would be broke and back to square one again. But tonight isn't the night to worry about that. One thing Bryn does know how to do is throw a party.

So, the two story has been scrubbed and polished within an inch of its life. The lanterns inside and out are burning with fresh candles. The bar is fully stocked, the kitchen has been bustling all day with food preparations, and for tonight, the stage is occupied by some of Keeliai's finest and liveliest kedan musicians. At one corner corner of the first floor, a table with ten jars can be found. Before each jar is a suggested name for the new tavern, and baskets of smoothly polished pebbles to be used to cast votes. Each attendee is welcome to vote for the name of their choosing, and Bryn will call her tavern by whichever one is the most popular.

All that's missing are her guests, whom she hopes to keep as customers over the coming weeks, months, or however long Bryn's stay in the city is.

-=-=-=-=-

Poll #14201

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 27

View Respondents

Bryn's tavern needs a name, and the following options have been suggested! Every character attending gets a single vote and the one with the most votes will be the one picked!

View Answers

Bar In-Between
2 (7.4%)

The Brazen Pack-Beast
1 (3.7%)

The Brazen Turtle
10 (37.0%)

The Carapace
1 (3.7%)

Chelonauts
0 (0.0%)

The Frisky Swizard
8 (29.6%)

Iron Turtle
2 (7.4%)

Nowhere
2 (7.4%)

The Red Lion
1 (3.7%)

That Place
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[epigrammatical]

He gestures around the lounge. "You see some of the fruits of it before you," he says. He's rather proud of having been able to supply Bryn with the best in smoking paraphernalia; a novel sensation, in fact. "And yours?"

[aloadeddie]

"All right, I suppose. Took a bit of a downturn when rationing ended, but I'm not without... other income streams," Arthur says with a slight smile. Providing security for some of the local businesses is once again his primary venture.

And more informative, for that matter.

[epigrammatical]

"Nothing decreases desire so much as an abundance of that which is desired," Henry replies, smiling. "One adapts, of course, and Daowei has done so rather well. Still, while I am glad that the alarums of the last few months have passed, I cannot say that they were entirely without their consolations. Did you enjoy yourself in the underwater city?"

[aloadeddie]

"On the other hand, my security business is booming, so you won't hear me complaining too much. Smuggling wine was a little more fun, and had a few more perks, maybe," Arthur says amiably.

"For dead people, those guys sure knew how to throw a party."

[epigrammatical]

"The waters of Lethe in that world appear to be largely composed of spiritous liquors—far preferable to a draught of forgetfulness," Henry says with a laugh. "And the sport! One reads of such things when studying for Greats, but it is quite another to see such an exhibition of mens sana in corpore sano."

[aloadeddie]

"Glad you enjoyed the spectacle," Arthur said with a faint snort. "It's a little too... showy, for my tastes. Hard to surprise someone who's seen all your moves already."

[epigrammatical]

"Perhaps. But it was all most diverting, and I for one am grateful to have had a respite from the usual manner of things here." He takes out his cigarette-case and matchbox and lights a cigarette. "I fear at times a kind of creeping dullness, paradoxically risen from a constant sense of peril. The novelty thereof has quite worn off."

He refers in part to Malicant and the related alarums, but—though it is not particularly obvious—he refers as well to his own melancholy, which he does not fully understand and has not been able to shake.

[aloadeddie]

Arthur snorts faintly, but nods. "After a while, if you're not careful, it's possible to fall into a routine even in a place like this. Become complacent with the state of things."

They're probably talking about very different things, though only vaguely. For Arthur, it's his single biggest fear - losing sight of the fact that this place isn't real. Even as weird as it is, it's always a possibility. To get so caught up in the fantasy that he loses sight of the need to wake up.

It worries him more than he lets on to Ariadne, because he figures he needs to be self-assured. She's still new at this, so he can't show her any vulnerability on his part.

[epigrammatical]

"Complacency is indicative of a laziness of thought," Henry agrees. "More than that, though—I suppose I find that it is often as if a dull sort of fog has crept into all the corners of this city, dampening the spirits, dulling the shine."

[aloadeddie]

Arthur thinks about that for a moment. "Are you suggesting there's some... outside force at work?" He means Malicant, of course, but it's probably best not to say the name.

[epigrammatical]

"It is but a theory," Henry replies. It's true, but it's also easier to play his hand thus rather than to admit to the melancholy that has darkened his own mind of late. "I have remained at a distance from most such speculation, but it is impossible to miss if one pays attention."

[aloadeddie]

"Maybe," Arthur says. He can't say he's experienced anything like that particularly, but it's also not outside the realm of possibility that whoever the dreamer is, is somehow manipulating the mood or tone of the dream. "Why not? Seems like just about anything else is possible around here."

[epigrammatical]

"My dear fellow, is that resignation I hear?" Henry raises an eyebrow, regarding Arthur curiously.

[aloadeddie]

"Probably the alcohol," he admits with a certain level of wry self-deprecation. "Maybe after a while that's how we have to deal with a world that goes so far against the usual rules."

[epigrammatical]

"Pour ne pas sentir l'horrible fardeau du Temps qui brise vos épaules et vous penche vers la terre, il faut vous enivrer sans trêve," he says, though the fragment of Baudelaire immediately reminds him of Grantaire, and in turn of Rogers and anyone else he had met who had gone from this place. He shakes his head, willing himself to not dwell upon it. "M. Baudelaire's advice is not without merits."