A Kringle Through Time (An IC Thread!)

[Yuki Akuma]

OOC Thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10075761)

Antonio's Bar & Grill is a dull affair to look at, but the pizza is good and the beer is cheap. It's tucked away down an unremarkable alley in the unglamorous rainy streets of the cheaper part of town. It's 2006, and it's Christmas Eve. Antonio's holding a party. Outside, the rain is turning the sleet.

The clientele at Antonio's is generally a mixture of construction workers, bored middle-aged businessmen,hoodlums, gangsters, soldiers of fortune and rough company. Contract labourers mingle with contract killers and share clouds of beer breath, cheering at the touchdowns and whistling at the girls in the rock videos. It's the kind of bar where people do that bet about stabbing between your fingers. Since everybody wants cheap beer, good pizza, and the occasional fried eggplant sub and a place to feel at home, everybody gets along, most of the time.

They get along especially well when Antonio decides to throw a Christmas party, and every 365.25 days or so, Maria pulls out a huge dusty box and decks Antonio's halls for all they're worth. Garland is hung over the stuffed jackalope heads that adorn the walls, fake snow is sprayed on the windowsills, the windows, on the tables, the floors, the bartop, and often Antonio's armpits. The ceiling is dotted with mistletoe, and the stage (Antonio gets live bands in on weekends) becomes overflowing with a gigantic scotch pine, itself overflowing with lights, ornaments, and tinsel.

Tacky, some say. But not to Maria's face. She's sweet provided she isn't angered.

This very night is the climax of it all: the Christmas Eve Bash. The hour is getting late, and Maria's dipping into Antonio's custom eggnog, which is even now overflowing in the punchbowls. She's weaving through the crowd in a manner which can only be described as 'bebopping', passing out red hats tot he customers, flirting with the cute ones, pushing the older and drunker ones away.

NPC Rundown!


Antonio

The owner and usual barkeep at Antonio's Bar and Grill. He's an affable guy, pretty young for a business owner. He loves to have a good time and enjoys pretty much anything that doesn't require math. He's a guitarist when nobody's around, which is to say that when he hauls out his guitar, people suddenly remember how late it is.

Fun-Loving Bartender (3), Businessman (1), Master Chef (1), Romeo (1), Wannabe Rock Star (1), Pervy Tree-Fancier (1)


Maria

Antonio's chief assistant barkeep, Maria's tough, smart, witty and capable. She flirts playfully, but she has no patience for artless lechers with wandering paws and no useful dialogue. The bar is an excuse for Antonio to pretend he's 22 years old forever, but thanks to Maria it's also a successful, stable business.

Fun-Loving Bartender (3), The One Around Here Who Can Actually Do Stuff (3), Every Drunkard's Bashful Crush (3)

[smuchmuch]

The rain tapping on the bar's windows muffled the sounds and distorted the decorative street lights who refected on the shops' windows into wilds colorfull stained glass paterns. Even if it was new years Eve's, the foul and bitter weather of the last few days had managed to clear the alleys of the usual night scurrying, and the empty streets had an ususual feeling of peace to them; as if on cue to celebrate a most holy time of year the city had transformed the urban landscape into a giant cathedral. For a night, you could almost believe the place to be serene.

But I knew better, I had looked through too many window, passed into too many chemineys, to the dark halways where people weaeved the sad and sad and crual dramas when they though no one else saw them. That was were she showed the worst of her soul, she was a femme fatale drapped in a viginal dress, a monster lying under an innocent child blanquet, a.. er not very good candy... like say a nougat under a better candy wrapper ?.. er... Anyway., she showed you bright colors and perpetual movement but spat out monotonous broken lives and shatered dreams huddled.

...And provided houses ...and security and kind of a better life too, comme to think of it. Maybe I was beng too harsh ?
It's not like peoples where that better off in the campain after all. There were still lots of bad stuff too, vendettas and small wars all the same, crime and treasons, ignorance and hate posing as tradition -feh-,and peoples lying in the gutters. Well no, not gutters obviously, that was more of an urban thing, well lying in the bushes then.
After all, I had know what it was to comme from nowhere; A dead end existence in a place that seemed forsaken from the world. Trying your luck in the big city seemed like the gratest thinge at the time, the promess of a new deal...
Was it more of a human nature things then ? Or simply a consequence oif the nature of things Seemed about right, I guess

.. but damn.
...How downright depressing. Not even sure why I started on the subject.

I guess that explained why I had decided to stroll here. Antonio's bar looked like a sleazy dive at first but it was actually pretty nice place if you gave it a shot. It was crowded tonight, as at every new year eve's, when everyone converged has a bunch of stray cats to an old lady's whose grandkids had run pout of excuse not to visit home,. Gimme your tired, your loners. Your selusioned masses with no families, the wretched refuse at your party's doors, send them to me, through slush filled alley's. I'll lift a pint to a golden new year.
So yep, pretty good ambiance you could say, not the kind suitable to outburst of philosophy, unless you meant the happy thren kind that happened at high level of alcholemy. Noise was getting a bit gratting but all thing considered, tonight I'd rather be annoyed in compagny than feeling low alone.

Speaking of compagny I realised the guy sitting next to me was looking at me funny, more than the usual curious glance. I wondered why for a short while then it hit me like a paintball on a 20000 bucks rental tux. It was just a whisper, but I was actualy narrating outloud from the corner of my mouth.

... Okay, resolutions time.
First, I need to refill my prescriptions first thing tomorow. And two, grab a drink, If i was going to makje an as of myself I might as well get mysef the excuse of being inhybriated.
The minute hand of the clock had been hanging over twelve, mkeing herself wait like a rockstar before a concert hagling for more money -the rockstar not the concert because that wouldn't make much sense, right- but any time now it was going to strike twelve. I was going to get a drink by then, or my name ain't Tim Shugarrush.

Off I go. Happy christmass eve folks, I've got a feeling this one might actualy abe a good one.

[Mr White]

Randy hated this place. The bar itself wasn't that bad. The staff was friendly enough, the beer was decent and the patrons kept him mostly to alone. He would've come here now and then with his friends ... well if he had any that is.

The reason he hated this place with all his heart was that Maria was part of the staff here. The sweetest, kindest, most innocent person in the world chose to work here. He resented anybody the moment they entered those lime green doors. Randy saw them ogling his sister the moment she turned her back on them. How they lusted after something that should remain pure.

That new customer was the worst. Randy caught him murmuring something about using her for some company and feeling low ... or something like that. This creep mustn't get within a light year of Maria.

[Fri]

The bell above the door rings softly as Mia enters. Her face is completely emotionless, not only because she's a robot, but also because she really doesn't know what to expect, this is her first time stepping outside of her normally mapped route.

Okay, it's mostly because she's a robot.

She let her grocery bag hangs on her hand, completely undisturbed by its weight, as she scans the surrounding.

Is this place a source of 'christmas spirit' as the sign outside said?

[The Rose Dragon]

Ku-Ku sits at a dark corner, mostly trying to figure out what to drink. And how to pay for it. He hasn't really found a job that is suited for royalty - or cavemen - in this period of time, so he mostly gets by by washing the dishes at every single restaurant so far. He finally settles on non-alcoholic lager, and orders some.

He is not sure what this Christmas thing is, either. Mostly it seems to be an excuse to get drunk and spend money, neither of which Ku-Ku is good at.

[Yuki Akuma]

The party begins to wind down as it approaches midnight. Outside, the snow seems to get harder. Maria begins to dip into the punch bowl, just as the clock starts to strike midnight.

It's just an electric wall clock, but it's been rigged to chime the hours. Most patrons find it strange, but they don't seem to complain - it's good for parties like this, anyway.

At the twelfth chime, however, before anyone can shout 'Merry Christmas!', there's a loud thump from the roof, followed by several more thumps. Everything goes quiet.

[Mr White]

Maria winked at one of the patrons. Randy couldn't deny it, but surely this was an innocent greeting because she had no free hands.
"I must definatly talk to her about this." thought Randy, "My sister may mean well but such things can be interpreted as something else".
Randy made a mental note and just like that a new person rose up to the top spot on his 'ToDo'-list.

"Hey Maria!" he shouted but all he got in return was a warm but apologetic smile from his sibling. There was no way she had time for him at a moment like this but randy was sure she would make up for it afterwards.

Doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, ... Thump, thumpthumpthumperthethump...

Insticntively Randy shrunk a bit further away in his corner. What could that be?