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

[asouthron]

Of course. Of course he stumbles over her childhood like a newborn colt, numb-footed and graceless. This is exactly why he doesn't do small talk. This right here! Because you ask the usual questions and then when the cookie-cutter life isn't an answer, it gets awkward.

"Yeah, I s'pose that's true." At least Shepard doesn't let the silence drag on at all. He thanks her silently for small favors. "Biotiball...? I'm assuming there's some kinda ball involved, then...?"

[cmdreffingshepard]

She's never one to dwell on the bad old days. Or even the good old days, really.

"Yeah, it's a bit like basketball, and a bit like soccer. Bigger ball, though, bigger court, and some fancier moves, because, well. Biotics. It's been all the rage on Earth since humans finally got teams admitted to the league - less than twenty years ago."

[asouthron]

"Biotics?" His brow draws together at the term. "Guess I missed that class. Are you talkin' cybernetics? Synthesizin' biotic material with non-living components?" Hell, that sounds like one big damn handicap in a sport.

[cmdreffingshepard]

She finishes off her drink, then squints slightly and balls her hand into a fist, gathering dark energy around it in a faint blue glow. When she releases it a second later, the empty glass is thrown off the table, shattering on the floor.

"I'll pay for that," she says hastily as she gets up to help clean up the mess. "Didn't mean to send it off the table."

[asouthron]

"Well, shit..." That's not exactly what he expected. His eyebrow shoots straight up into his hair, high enough to rival Spock's same indignant gesture, as his hazel eyes remain glued to the strange, colored shift of energy. The hypnotic pull of the unthinkable breaks with the glass, and he quickly squats down to help her pick up the larger pieces.

"Clearly I need to be watchin' biotiball." What he does pick up is set on the table beside them. "But yer Terran, right?" With rare exceptions, Humans were psi-null and showed no inkling toward any supernatural abilities. "Is it genetic? Hell, with that I mighta actually become a pro ball player."

[cmdreffingshepard]

"Chicago, born and raised," she confirms as she sweeps up the last shards - a sliver in her hand would heal itself pretty much instantaneously, but that's another story altogether.

"It's not magic, and it's not genetic. Just eezo - element zero exposure, in utero. Some people, nothing happens. Some people get cancer and don't survive to their second birthday. And a few people end up with biotic potential. With my implants, I can do a pretty impressive charge - close over 50 meters in less than a second, if I need to. But the asari are way more impressive. Comes with having natural eezo deposits on your planet, I guess, and millions of years to adapt to it."

[asouthron]

"Georgia," he offers, as if that isn't obvious enough from his accent and his his drink of choice.

"Huh." It's a shame, though, that he left his tricorder at home. It would've been nice to get some readings on the energy output from her hand. But he doubts the Commander would be too appreciative of poking and prodding her like a test subject. It tends to mess up a budding friendship. "Can't say I've heard of it." But that's nothing new since turning up here. As big as he thinks his universe is, it has been undeniably expanded with just about every new conversation he has with a foreigner here.

Even being from Earth, her perception of it is so different. It's wonderful and irritating all at the same time.

[cmdreffingshepard]

She nods - hey, where she comes from, even an accent isn't necessarily a good indicator of where you're from. Anderson's British, she knows, but you wouldn't figure that from hearing him talk. "So how'd you end up -" she waves her hand vaguely in the direction of the bar where Kirk is supposed to be serving drinks. "Under the command of someone so young?"

[asouthron]

"Ha!" Staring down at his glass, McCoy shakes his head. It really isn't funny--It's really not!--but somehow the entire thing is ridiculous and her question sets him off in a dark bark of laughter.

"Yeah, that's... a story." Actually, hang on, he's going to finish his drink for a little liquid courage. Where does he even begin? "The short version: He stopped a ship hell-bent on destroyin' the Federated planets after our ship's Captain was taken captive. He got promoted afterward to Captain of the flagship. You know, a typical hero." Not that he's ever been surprised, just that it happened so fast. He has known his friend is destined for greatness, to be called a hero. And all it took is a vaccine for mud fleas. The universe is a weird, annoying place.

[cmdreffingshepard]

She has to laugh a little, herself, because only in a place like this would she hear a story like that and be willing to take it at face value - even given her own record. "I can't say I'm surprised," she says. "He reminds me a little of myself, though when I was his age I'd only got a Star of Terra, not my own ship just yet. But mine was kind of... well, not an accident, really, more like... shitty politicking."

[asouthron]

"Politics," McCoy grouses, the word a bitter twang on his tongue. It's one of the reasons he enjoys being a doctor in Starfleet, but even it comes with its own posturing and pecking order. Thankfully his skilled hands speak for his credibility when his grumpy words don't.

"I'd say more than a lil'--" Especially after he has heard just a touch of Shepard's childhood. They are eerily similar, and frankly, now is not the time to start psych evaluating that mess. "But let's be honest, yer young to have yer own command. And yer fairly well decorated, am I right? Politics or not, you still wouldn't be standin' if it were simple fabrication."

[cmdreffingshepard]

She smiles a little. "You won't hear me say it wasn't earned, just that... it shouldn't have happened the way it did, because a good man lost out on something to give it to me. Anderson was captain of the Normandy for... God, less than two weeks. Unseated due to backroom politics. He should've been a Spectre, too."

That deserves a shot. She waves a waiter over for another round.

[asouthron]

When the waiter comes over, he asks for a shot of whatever Shepard's getting--Hell, make it two. He's not going anywhere anytime soon.

It isn't a novel story in the long life of any military operation, but it doesn't make it any less cruel when the story's retold again and again. So many good men and women get mangled in the bureaucracy and status quo of the system, unable to affix real change for their own betterment.

Man, it just makes your blood run hot thinking about it. Hell, he's seen plenty of close calls in his short time with Jim. That searing light of his; it blessed and burned at the same time, and generally that applied to the Admiralty. They really need to invest in some goddamn sunsceen if they know what's good for them.

"Well, I certainly don't claim to know anythin'--" Although, it sure as hell isn't going to stop him from giving his own opinion. "--But the fact that he's got you to remember his intentions... They've got a hook in ya, right? All you can do when a comrade leaves is try and achieve what he tried to." It isn't exactly the most healthy burden to bear, or the most sane, but being a Captain in general is not healthy or sane. The amount of stress it puts on a person is more than a little sadistic, if his professional prognosis counts for anything. Watching his own best friend shoulder it, all he can do is try to help support it in any way he can. But, ultimately, it's never his to truly take responsibility for.

"Hell, you just do what you can. S'not like they make manuals for this shit!"

[cmdreffingshepard]

"No, they definitely don't," Shepard has to agree, shaking her head at the stupidity of it all. It's long since out of her hands, but she still feels bad about what happened to Anderson - forced into a "promotion" which really just meant he was destined to be stuck at a desk the rest of his career, when he should've still been out in the field, a man in his prime.

Hell, she thinks now it was probably a mistake, nominating him for the council seat. At the time, she'd thought it was the best idea - someone with a military background, not interested in social or political power like Udina, but genuinely trying to do what's best for the galaxy? It had been a no-brainer, but she knows now how much he hated it. Probably for the best he quit.

Well, even less she can do about things now, where she's sitting. "Maybe Kirk's got the right idea," she finally says. "Bartending might be where it's at."