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Post by T.I. inc. on Jun 20, 2016 13:46:38 GMT -8
Opening Ceremonies
The day started as usual, he took the stools down off the bar, put the chairs down off the tables, wiped everything down and went on. Polishing what was left of the counter top, the rustic bar lights coming on, as the neon sign on the window lit up proclaiming to the world "Open". Behind the bar, his shotgun sat rested and loaded, clean glasses, cold beers in the cooler and a picture of his father. Along the walls were various posters, signs, pictures of people or events. A pool table to the back of the room and a dartboard, as he made his rounds, adjusting lights, cleaning messes and finally unlocking the front door and pulling the iron gate up.
Here in their small corner of Kentucky, where odd people came, odd things happened. The bar was open for business.
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Post by John Doe on Jun 21, 2016 22:21:18 GMT -8
John Doe • • • • Another Day at the Job…
John shut the door to the old beat up truck with a thud, the gravel under his feet from the parking lot squished under his boots with its normal crackling. John checked himself in the side mirror of the pickup. Making sure there is no crumbs in his beard or on his lips from one of the donuts he picked up along the way. Those jelly filled donuts from Ms.P’s where one of the pride and joys of the small town of Crossroads. So he grabbed a box as often as he could, plus she appreciated the business.
John realized he had forgotten the box of donuts in the car and reached through the open pickup window to grab the box. It was a small town; no one was going to steal his truck. Plus, it was barely running anyway, John often welcomed the idea of someone taking the truck off his hands. Even if it was a gift from one of the townspeople.
John walked towards the tavern with quick steps hoping he wasn’t going to piss off the boss for being late. Although Grumsky his boss was a pretty understanding guy, it was still John’s professionalism that he tried to practice. Being a bouncer for the tavern was a pretty easy job, especially in a small town. Usually it was only travelers or the occasional late night drunk that would cause a problem, but john viewed the bar as his second home, and so he always kept an eye on it and on Grumsky. Feeling far more comfortable sitting on the old bar stools, or at a booth, then sitting at home watching a game.
He walked through the door, as he had countless times, letting his eyes reset to the light inside the tavern.
“Morning boss.” John would say as he entered the tavern, slowly walking towards the coffee pot on the other side of the bar. John would set the box of donuts down on the bar, before grabbing the pot of coffee and a cup, and then pouring himself a glass.
“Grabbed some donuts on the way if you want?” John would say before taking a big slurp of coffee.
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Post by T.I. inc. on Jun 21, 2016 22:55:17 GMT -8
Opening Ceremonies Arc
A raised eyebrow , and then the plucking of one of the donuts from the box, with barely a word spoken. He looked around the bar, the empty building still clean before the usual's came in, maybe a traveler or two.
"'Mornin"
He said looking at the time, not like they really needed to do much it had been a slow week.
"Late night? With---uh---whats the new ones name?"
He asked, as he checked the liquor under the counter
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Post by John Doe on Jun 21, 2016 23:25:21 GMT -8
John Doe • • • • Another Day at the Job…
“Oh that girl from last night?” John would say between slurps with a wry smile. “I think here name was Bev….er..ly?” John would say lost in thought trying to remember.
“I don’t really remember, I guess. But she was from that big town nearby visiting her sister or something.” John would finish saying, then take a big drink finishing the last of his cup of coffee. Reaching over for the pot again he would fill his cup, and then walk over to the other side of the bar and grab the stool near the end. Closest to the door.
Grabbing the morning’s paper from end of bar John would start thumbing through the articles.
“Anyways how was your night Grumsky?” John would ask.
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Post by T.I. inc. on Jun 23, 2016 17:40:35 GMT -8
Opening Ceremonies
He nodded, seemed accurate that Johhny boy wouldn't remember that.
"Eh, pretty quiet, another one of them lost fellows showed up----y'know stammering about how he was someplace els, think it was egypt or something---seems too drunk to serve so sent him on his way...Third time this week"
He said, and nodded to the chalkboard "Randoms |||" and below it were the bets. Someone had bet at two, and if it had ended being two that week he won the pot. But seeing as it was wednesday and it was three, not to much. Barkeep's bet was 10, but it was always ten.
"You didn't bet this week, you doing okay champ?"
Barkeep said, as the front foor opened with a bell, some locals filtering in.
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Post by John Doe on Jun 23, 2016 20:02:31 GMT -8
John Doe • • • • Another Day at the Job…
John would listen as Grumsky told the story about the new crazy that had ran into town. He was right to there always seemed to be the same number, and it was usually Grumsky that got it right. Grumsky always seemed to have an intuition about things, whereas john read people’s minds and just pretended it was intuition. Grumsky would feel people out, like he could almost sense their worth as a person. It was something that always intrigued John, he often wondered if Grumsky had powers of his own. Although John respected Grumsky far too much to read his thoughts or even ask about it, he presumed it was one of those he would never quite know and just gave him the sort of trust Grumsky had showed John.
Years ago when john was first released from the hospital the small town of crossroads originally treated him much like the other random crazies that spring up. However, it was Grumsky who took him in, gave him a job, and made sure he was taking care of. Although John by age was Grumsky’s elder, often John thought of Grumsky as a big brother. After leaving the hospital with no memories and living in a barn for a while John didn’t have much, so if Grumsky hadn’t helped him out he didn’t know where he would be. Probably homeless on a street corner somewhere.
“Well, I didn’t take part in the raffle this week because I had kind of been thinking about how strange it seemed that those people keep showing up. Like where are they coming from? I have often thought about if you hadn’t given me a job, there is the chance that I probably would have ended up like them.”
After speaking John would pause for a second and take another big drink of coffee. Wave to the other regulars that entered into the tavern with a wave over his shoulder and then look back to Grumsky.
"Well there’s also the fact that you always win, so you would just be taking my money.”
John would say with a cracked smile trying to lighten the mood he had created.
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Post by T.I. inc. on Jun 24, 2016 0:12:22 GMT -8
Opening Ceremonies
He looked at the "kid" as he thought of him. Sure John may have been older, but he was still like a kid, knowledge was lost to him and he was trying to find out who he was. Kinda reminded Barkeep of someone.
"Yeah, dunno, towns always had strange folk...might be the water...might be old voodoo"
He said, as he did some of the older locals looked over at him. Old wives tales, mysterious of the bayou... The south always had weirdness, but this town, rumor was it had demons...
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Post by John Doe on Jun 24, 2016 22:08:03 GMT -8
John Doe • • • • Another Day at the Job…
Grumsky was right ever since John had come to the city he had noticed its weirdness factor. People, just like he said, would show up from random places and just kind of stroll around, sometimes they would be crazy and sometimes they were just quiet tourists that kept to themselves. The reality was that during certain seasons the town of Crossroads, and then other times it just had weird people. Weird people that weren’t locals, some of them stayed for a few days and then disappeared, and other times they would just walk right out of town and never be seen again.
John might have been one of them before his hospital adventure several years ago. In fact, no one had known the people who dropped him off at the hospital, nor had they ever seen the car before, nor have they seen it since. It was pretty strange and mysterious the details surrounding John’s arrival, but people have slowly over the years looked past it. Well other than Fred the local town drunk, who swears he knows where John came from, and something to do with “other worlds”. Yet Fred was also a conspiracy theorist who believed aliens had abducted and experimented on him too. So most people, including John, took what he said with a grain of salt.
“Ok, put me down for 6 this week. It hasn’t been ten in a while and I’m feeling lucky” John would say as he pulled out fifty bucks and slid it across the bar to Grumsky.
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Post by T.I. inc. on Jun 24, 2016 22:34:26 GMT -8
Opening Ceremonies
He smirked, taking the money and stashing it in the till, grabbing a piece of chalk he went over to the board and wrote in 6, next to John's name. Coming back over he poured a few drinks for the other seated at the bar, before coming to linger over near the end near where John had been sitting.
"Makes me wonder sometimes...nah...never mind"
He said, brushing that thought aside as he didn't wish to bring things up. Not right now anyways, the day was just getting started, and it seemed like it was gonna be a quiet one, at least he hoped.
"Hey John, case of corona in the back, bring it up"
He said, as he slapped his towel onto his shoulder, and then set five corona's out on the bar, a local biker group coming over and taking them, cracking them and chugging them with a row of toasts and laughs.
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Post by John Doe on Jun 24, 2016 22:52:59 GMT -8
John Doe • • • • Another Day at the Job…
“Got it.” John would say hopping out off of his stool and heading into the kitchen. John would pass by their bar’s cooking stations, where the burgers and fries and other assorted fried treats would be made. He popped open the door to the big walk in fridge and grabbed another box of the corona long neck beers. They were a pretty commonly drank beer, especially in the heat, and so they usually kept a couple cases cooling in the fridge. Whereas all the kegs and such were usually kept in the outdoor full walk in fridge, that was hooked up to its own generator, just in case.
“Looks like that’s the last case in this fridge.” John said to himself as he hoisted the case up onto his shoulder.
Heading out of the walk in and back into the much warmer kitchen John would tap the door closed again with his back before continuing out of the kitchen. Normally their day cook would be working in here making grub, or watching the game on the little television he had in here. But today it seemed he was nowhere to be found.
John would head out of the kitchen and make his way across the back of the bar, making sure to not be in Grumsky’s way while he served customers. Cracking open the case of corona’s John would put them individually into the cold box. One of the ones that you see with the glass fronts so that people can see the cold beverages. It was one of the marketing techniques Grumsky had mentioned once before. Product placement or something like that.
“Hey Grumsky, is Floyd not coming in till later tonight or something?” John would ask inquiring about why the day shift cook Floyd wasn’t loitering in his normal spot inside the kitchen.
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Post by T.I. inc. on Jun 24, 2016 23:15:27 GMT -8
Opening Ceremonies
He thought for a moment, Floyd hadn't called in, and he was scheduled today. But maybe he was running late.
"Dunno, might be running late, he was supposed to be here an hour ago"
He said, as he poured a water glass for some floozy with the bikers as they downed their seventh beer a-piece. He looked up at the clock, twelve thirty am, these guys were rolling hard early, never a good sign. |
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Post by John Doe on Jun 29, 2016 20:08:48 GMT -8
John Doe • • • • Another Day at the Job…
John responded silently when Grumsky looked across the bar to the group of biker types. Seemed like they might be on the fast track to causing problems, it being only noon and they had already put back their fair share of alcohol already. All in all, it was a pretty small town so there wasn’t much to do but drink or walk around in the bayou, which had tons of dangers of its own. So generally people, at least in Crossroads, found their way to the bar quite often.
However, John’s mind was less on the possibility of the bikers who might cause as scene and more on their cook would was the sort of guy that normally was here before john was. Despite it being a small town one of the sentences Grumsky had said earlier was quite true, this town had some weirdness to it. Call it something in the water, a nearby military base, or some other crazy conspiracy theorist idea and they might not be too far from the truth. All john knew was that from somewhere deep out in the bayou there was a psychic ringing that sometimes bothered the piss out of john. Despite the level of control john had there was also quite a bit more that john didn’t have over the completeness of his power. There always seemed like their might be more, like he could push himself further, but he was always quite frightened of the consequences of trying that. Just like he felt it now after hearing about their missing cook, john had felt this strange psychic ringing before, the last time someone went missing.
John would clear his vacant gaze and meet Grumsky’s.
“Don’t worry about them, isn’t nothing I can’t handle.”
John would say with a smirk, trying to ease Grumsky’s rising worry of the bikers.
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Post by T.I. inc. on Jun 30, 2016 22:19:34 GMT -8
Opening Ceremonies
He would like to think that, but casually his eyes trailed to the shotgun. John was a tough guy, but sometimes being tough wasn't everything, sometimes you needed help.
"Nah, not worried, just overly cautious...those are new stools after all"
He said with a joke, as they ordered another round, and he thought about serving them or cutting them off.
"John, take them their drinks, but let them know its the last round for them"
He said, pulling the beer bottles out and setting them on a tray.
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