Bumbazine steps inside the door and glides to the side to allow his eyes to adjust.
Hmmmm. No obnoxious music - check,
Wide selection of beers - check,
Regulation size billiards tables - check,
dart boards - check,
a backgammon table! - righteous!
Steps over to the bar; “A black Butte Porter if you have it, otherwise a pint of the house dark, please.”
Spots Ferrous at the dart boards with a very nice looking lady, grabs his beer and a bowl of peanuts, checks that he has his darts in his pocket and heads over.
:TP notices TheOtherOne make his way to the corner with an old, well-loved guitar. Now that just might be the thing, she thinks.:
Friend, if you’re good with a melody on that thing, I’d wouldn’t mind some background music while I play. If you’re up for it, and it doesn’t bother anyone else, that is.
CD sidles in, thinks, “I can just lurk over here around the bar…” Finally pipes up with " Bushmills…a double, and a pint o’ Mirror Pond…please" Takes a healthy swallow of the whiskey and a long, slow, pull on the pint…whoa, GOD, that’s good!!
I hang up my cell phone and a huge grin creaps across my face.
I walk over to the small stage, where the live music sometimes plays, and address the room.
“Ladies and gents,” I start. “I just got off the phone with work. I turns out the VP of the company was very pleased with the marketing campaign I designed for one of our major customers. Big raise is coming, so the drinks are on me!”
Grabbing a small stool on the stage, I ask the bartender to bring me the trombone from behind the bar and play some soft jazz for screech-owl.
chique pauses inside the door, letting her eyes adjust to the dim room as some un-boldfaced guy walks by her with a pint.
She crosses the bar slowly, taking a wide berth around the dart players.
She asks the barkeep for a brandy sour (after listening to him joke about actually selling a Corona to someone a few minutes earlier), the cribbage board, and a deck of cards. After tipping the keep well (he is a nice guy, after all - efficient and friendly, like all bartenders should be) she settles down at a well-worn, solid oak table, takes a sip of her drink, and considers a game of eight-ball while waiting for her cribbage partner to arrive.
pricciar enters the bar. Orders a Meyer’s and Pesi with extra cherries. He looks at all of the portraits of famous peoples on the wall. Well, somewhat famous. He notices after staring at the portraits for a while, that they all resemble the bartender wearing different sorts of hats.
Then he notices the cribbage board, the cards, and chique’s come cribby look.
He pounces on the chair with visions of 29 dancing through his head.
Bumbazine, it’s a pleasure to meet you as well. You’re more than welcome to play. Let us finish up this game and then either you can play the winner or we can play a three-way game, whichever you prefer.
I’d be glad to play a three-way game. I think I’ll see if I can promote a game of pool in the meantime. Give me a holler when you get through if I’m not back before then.
What’s in your repertoire, Other One? If you’ve got any foot-stompers and you’d like some rhythm, I brought my spoons. Or if you want to do some country or folk, well, I’ve been known to sing before.
Oh, and Max–thanks for the pint! Barkeep, mine’s the dark lager, thanks.
Hey, Ferrous…pleased to meet ya, and happy to see a fellow Oregonian in this crowd. Yep, Deschutes has yet to brew anything that’s not way above average, IMO. I enjoy all their brews, and it’s just way cool that this here pub has them all on tap. Now, is that guitarist over there taking any requests?
Ethilrist steps into the bar. Hmm, he thinks. Pretty crowded tonight. Must be 20, 30 people here, and some of them are armed…
“Hey, Bumbazine! Is that a dart in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?”
dodges popcorn thrown by screech as he goes to the bar.
“Hacker-Pschorr weisse, bitte.”
walks over to the fire, applauds the wisdom of only putting ceramic logs in the log carrier when you’ve got a gas fireplace, and takes a seat so he can see the room.
Toshi peers in… I don’t know anyone here but I smell CLAM CHOWDER!
Carries bowl to table like it was an infant… “Ohhhhh thats good”
Digs through her backback and finds her book Total Recall by Sara Paretsky… props book up and is soon in her own world…
hmmm that fellow by the fire looks a little young… but way cute hmmmm
)