Posted by Commander Garinder’Jen th’Jir (Executive Officer) in Side Sim - Mike’s Place - Grand Opening, Don’t Burn It Down (Open To All)

Posted by Civilian Michael ‘Big Mike’ McKenzie (Bartender - Mike’s Place) in Side Sim - Mike’s Place - Grand Opening, Don’t Burn It Down (Open To All)

Posted by Commander Garinder’Jen th’Jir (Executive Officer) in Side Sim - Mike’s Place - Grand Opening, Don’t Burn It Down (Open To All)
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

<<<For a visual of the bar, look at Mike's Bio. Links at the Bottom>>>

This wasn’t your normal Fleet ship’s bar. No, this was something different. It was close, dark, stark, industrial… raw. If you wanted a place to enjoy a quiet drink, you were in the wrong bar. If you wanted comfortable, intimate place to take that new special someone… wrong again. Because while this place was quiet now… it would soon be loud, riotous, and packed with people looking to get away.

The place was finished… mostly. A big stack of stickers sat on the bar, on tables, and at the door… waiting for people to throw them up wherever. The jukebox was on, but quiet. And the stage holoprojectors had been programmed by the proprietor with some of the most famous and historic punk bands ever, meticulously recreated.

The man known as Big Mike stood in the center of the room, eyes closed, motionless. He felt the distant hum of the ship, and heard the small noises that a week ago seemed so different, now felt familiar. He opened his eyes and looked around one last time. He turned and went to the jukebox and pressed a series of holographic numbers and there was a pause and then music started blaring. It was the well known punk band ‘Government Kills’ and their biggest hit ‘FedSec Fascists’. Mike listened as the intro bass line came in and smiled, remembering the crowds yelling and screaming when he and his band mates played it. He shook his head, clearing the past from his mind, and he walked to the door. He slammed his hand against the door frame and a sign outside lit up in glowing red letters: “NO RANK PAST THIS POINT” and a holo of a big Naussican bouncer appeared in the passageway next to the door. Mike opened the door to where about twenty or thirty crew had lined up, and said simply “C’mon in.” and as people filed past he smiled slightly and then went to go do the one thing he did almost as well as music… sling booze.

Big Mike McKenzie

Lera was nervous. This was really going to be the first time she and Mar were going to be out, as a couple, on the ship around more than a few passing folks in the corridor. She was waiting for him to answer the chime on his door. She had on calf high black boots over deep grey leggings. Her top, cropped off from left shoulder to under right arm, was a deep jewel tone green. The single sleeve on her left arm had a gold band around it. And her neck had a double wrapped coil of a similar hammered metal pattern, as did the thinner circlet on her right wrist. Her hair was down, just pulled back off her face with a gold barrette. She was fidgeting. She was happy with him, no doubt about that. But in the back of her head, she still worried how people would think.

Lt Auleraine Brison
Engineer

The door slid open and Mardusk was in the door. He was wearing bluejeans and black boots with a tshirt under a black leather jacket. “Hey. You ready? We need to get going before the place fills up.” and he stepped through and leaned down and kissed her cheek. “You look great, by the way.” and he smiled at her and winked.

Mardusk

Lera smiled and whistled with appreciation. “Mmmmm you look pretty amazing, yourself.” She stepped back and smiled. “Guess we better go. I may have stood down a half dozen mad Orions, but he scares me.” She laughed and slid her arm under his as they headed down the hall.

Lera

They made their way to the bar. It was quiet in the passageway, but when the doors opened the music came out loud and clear. As they made their way to the bar, Mardusk’s frame parted the crowd. He arrived at his seat and lifted his chin at Mike, who smiled and then looked at Lera. “You guys good now? Drama all handled?” he asked her.

Mike

Lera smiled as she leaned on Mar and waited for a nearby stool to open. “Yes, Mike… all handled.” She was blushing just enough that even with the makeup, once more present, it was noticeable.

Lera
CE

Mike looked at the person in the stool next to Mardusk and said “Move. Lady needs a chair.” and the look he gave chased the young Deltan off to another part of the bar. Mike set up two beers and two shots of whiskey in front of them, then one for himself. “To ya” and he threw the shot back.

Big Mike

Lera bit her lip. “I could have waited, Mike.” But she sat up as the drinks were set up. Taking her shot she paused and held it to Mike. “To you being a bully, and pushing me into his arms.” She laughed and glanced at Mar to see what he thought.

Lera

Stickers. Swell. Someone’s been busy. Those were the thoughts that crossed Jen’s mind when he at the same time crossed the threshold. Evidently he would not have any issue with knowing who was the primary sticker. Mike. Jen was not one who liked ‘traditional’ bars. They felt antiseptic. Reputable. Places like this ‘usually’ had character. Thus far Jen didn’t know about that. All he knew was that it had stickers. As he made his way to a seat. A number of people were already here and a couple looked entirely out of place there, he thought, when he scanned the people to assess the potential of any bar fights. Taking a seat he tried to figure whether the door had any rhyme or reason or if it just ‘was’.

When he caught the eye of the man behind the bar. While this was not typically the place Jen would endorse, given the band names, he always felt that one needed to ‘know your enemy’. “Have any Ollie?” He asked. “Olympus Beer,” he clarified.
- Jen

The man nodded once and then pulled a glass set it under a tap, turned the handle a few times, and pulled. Beer flowed into the glass, topped with just the right amount of head. He set it before the new patron and said “Here ya go. Name’s Mike. Who are you?”

Big Mike

Jen considered that. Andorians were notorious for their many names per se that referenced different things from gender to family to name to whatever. In his years in the marines Jen had found that simpler was better for everyone, and explaining the intricacies of their naming convention just led to glazed looks and improvised nicknames. He quickly learned to simplify it unless he was around other Andorians. “Jen,” he said simply. Out of all the races humans found Jen to be the most basic and amenable. For Klingons th’Jir seemed to something they wrapped their vocal chords around. Strangely Bolians just went straight for Garinder, as did Cardassians. Ferengi called him whatever they felt would get them ahead with him.

He nodded and reached for the glass to pull it close. “So what’s your story that brought to you build a place like this?”
- Jen

Mike nodded and jerked a thumb to his chest and said “Mike.” and then saved a couple more drinks. “Big green guy at the end of the bar? He convinced me. I convinced the Skipper she needed a place for people to blow of steam. Get loud, get a little crazy. Somewhere they didnt have to worry about who they ran into, because rank and work stay out there.” and he nodded a head toward the door. He then chuckled and said “An oasis of noise.” As if on cue, the jukebox kicked to a new song and the Dropkick Murphy’s “God Willing” came on Mike grinned and reached under the bar and the music got noticeably louder. Interestingly, it wasnt as loud at the bar as it obviously was elsewhere in the bar.

Big Mike

The ‘music’ was sensitive to Jen’s antennae. However, after a couple decades of battlefield noises this was not too different a thing. Just one more rebellion in a different form. He took a long drink from the glass and smiled into the suds and dark liquid under it. “I’m surprised you’re not playing the Techno Revolutionary music of the early 23rd Century.” That had been some decades of non vocal music of mostly clashing disparate sounds that were later dubbed as simply ‘loud’ but had galvanized the youth and often preceded protests or simply a way to keep the ‘others’ away. Others being anyone considered ‘adult’ or, in Jen’s impression ‘with musical taste’.

Jen glanced at the big ‘green’ guy. “Who’s he?”
- Jen

Mike smiled and said “Punk rock is the only music that matters. That, and ABBA. And the guy? Ask him yourself. I don’t talk about folks unless they tell me to.” and he moved to help some other patrons.

Jen thought that was a bit .. limited in scope, unless the definition of ‘punk’ was very broad. He had found that many species tended to find their own world’s music to be the limit of their appreciation. Most people didn’t have a lot of cross pollination of culture prior to their leaving their world. There was that bias, though it was not a bad bias. One could only focus on so many things and too much music was .. too much. “ABBA?” he asked. “I don’t know that genre of music. Is that a derivative of punk?” He looked again at the ‘green guy’. “What’s his name?” he asked. If he was going to talk to him he should at least know that.
- Jen

“Mardusk. Might wanna remember that for work!” Mike said over his shoulder.

“Mardusk,” Jen repeated, then looked at him. That named seemed to fit the big green guy. Jen actually felt a better affinity to the ‘green’ than the typical Terran coloration. The old adage of ‘pink skins’ that had lasted a long time in Andorian nomenclature had taken a long time to be lost. He sipped his drink, keeping an eye on this Mardusk and whether anyone else went to interact with him.
Jen

Between distance and music, Lera couldn’t hear the exchange with Mike but she saw him thumb in Mar’s direction. She smiled and looked up at the large man beside her. Her head nodding back towards Mike. “I think Mike is blaming you for something.” She laughed and finished her drink, sliding the glass towards the far lip of the bar for Mike to refill when she was ready.

Mardusk chuckled and said “Probably.”

“He did a good job,” she said, trying to be heard over the blast of music and murmur of the myriad of voices already in the bar.

Lera
Eng

Big Mike

Gravel turned and looked around and nodded in approval. “Yeah, he did. Needs some more blood and vomit stains on the floor, but those’ll come in time.”

Mardusk, CoS

Lera laughed and punched his arm. “MAR!” Shaking her head, she leaned on the bar and had another sip of her drink. “Remind me to ‘not’ let you decorate my place.” She laughed and shook her head again. “Can’t take you anywhere,” she laughed again.

Lera
Eng

Big Mike

Mardusk leaned over and kissed Lera on the cheek and smiled and said “I would use a lot less blood and vomit for you.” and the laughed. He kept the Andorian in his peripheral vision, and noted the antennae movements and his overall bearing. That, coupled with Mike’s gesture towards him, made Mardusk sigh a bit and e said “Meh, might as well.” He leaned back past Lera and waved at the newcomer and then yelled at him “You gonna come drink with us or what?”

Mardusk, CoS