The internet is a storm of URLs, wi-fi and strings of dangerous code, whirling and thundering. Out in the wilderness you can only survive so long unaided, but in here, behind the mellow yellow windows, a safe and comforting place awaits. This place is a respite from the internet; the fire crackles invitingly and alluring rainbow-coloured drinks are poured into glasses. Exciting chatter fills the rooms from tables bustling with friends, eating from trays of warm, rustic carum bread and hearty stews. Gentle music comes from the band in the background.
[image description: a busy tavern lit by orange light]
Come in, chat away, have a great time! The old location may have been overrun by the Codekind, but this new building has three-meter thick walls, three floors and turret bedrooms to rest in at the top! We’ve returned, free from the battles of the secret pages! A safe micro-community of equality and no judgement. Hang up your HTML-reflective suit at the door and settle in with a drink and a meal.
Notice Board: Free candy in the bowl on the counter! What types of candy are there? Yes.
Wow. This whole conversation took a huge turn. Christmas trees? Orange juice? Well, I’ll just roll with it…
~
Iris opened the trapdoor and pulled her self out, her sleeve catching on a nail. She tugged hard, almost falling back down the steps. Clumsily pulling her legs out of the door, she stepped out, trying to regain her composure. The scene that greeted her eyes was not at all what she expected. rather than a huge fight, Iris saw Blue, Peto, and Fawny setting up a Christmas
tree. “Well, I’m not complaining.” Iris thought as she grabbed a fairy shaped ornament and stepped over to the tree, hanging it up. Iris then looked around for a friend to sit with as she walked up to the counter. “Can I please have a mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows?” she asked.
Emberdawn took the knife out of Shadowedpaw’s hand, and placed it in a compartment underneath the counter. She grabbed a mug and made the hot chocolate order, sliding it over to Iris. “Enjoy!”
(I lost track of what is going on. So lemme just do this.)
Abandoning whatever she was doing, Blue sat down at the counter. “Got any berry punch?” She murmured half-heartedly.
Grabbing another glass, the bartender poured some punch into it and placed it down in front of Blue, keeping an eye on Shadowedpaw.
“Thanks.” Blue mumbled.
Hazelspots sipped the root beer thoughtfully.
It’s nice here, but I can only stay so long. She lightly touched the scabbard tucked behind her shirt, clipped onto her sturdy belt. Inside it was a dagger, one that had its fair share of wear. It had been worn down so much that the hilt, once made of leather, was now patched by leaves and stems. She wouldn’t bring it out now. Honestly, she didn’t want to have to bring it out ever again.
Others would run at the sight of the Codekind. But while others would run, she fought. And that’s why she couldn’t stay.
She’d be found the second she stepped out. For now, she was safe, but how long could that safety be guaranteed?
She yawned. She knew the moon was high in the sky, and that the hour for sleeping was approaching. “How much for the beds, Emberdawn?” she asked, emptying her mug with one last slurp.
“Couple o’ quid a night,” the redhead responded with an accent, before blinking and clearing her throat. “Sorry, ignore that! Just a couple of dollars, depending on the luxuries you’d like. We have the single, double and team rooms, all of which have the standard and deluxe versions.” She peaked at the registry. “A few deluxe rooms are still available. Payment is either daily or all in advance.”
Wavesplash walked up to the people setting up a Christmas tree. “Can I put up a menorah? It looks really nice guys.”
“Of course you can,” Willowstep responded while taking the string of lights and draping it over the Christmas tree. “Where would you like to place it?”
Once she finished, she sighed tiredly and let her feet carry her over to the counter. Willowstep asked, “What drinks do you have here?”
Iceflower placed her coffee mug on the counter after taking a long sip. “Pretty much anything you want. A dozen different types of coffee, because, well, obviously.” She pointed at herself. “I could choose for you, if you’d like.” She wiggled her eyebrows in a most mischievous sort of way.
She grinned sheepishly. “Um… sure. What do you recommend?” The girl had a strange feeling that Iceflower liked coffee. A lot.
Iceflower lifted her mug. “Coffee. Cinnamon hot chocolate. The pear blossom fizz. Anything but orange juice.”
“Cinnamon hot chocolate, please,” Willowstep replied. “Also, what do you have against orange juice?”
Iceflower shrugged. “I don’t like orange juice. Nothing personal.” She slid a tall mug of whipped cream over to the girl and topped it with a healthy serving of whipped cream.
Wavesplash pulled out a menorah that she just happened to have. “Hmm… how about the window over there? Is that okay?” she asked the bartender.
Emberdawn took a moment from her conversation to flash Wavesplash a thumbs-up.
Wavesplash nodded thankfully and set the menorah on the window. She placed a box of colorful candles beside it. ready for Hanukkah.
(Pssssst I made a discord version of this… the discordpage 😛 https://discord.gg/uwfGzNP )
(Do people have powers/weird abilities here? Are we still on the topic of aliens? What is this? Why am I here? What are elephants?)
(The only point of that was because I thought of a very wacky and impossible ability that I’d totally have, knowing me. 😛 )
Iceflower slammed her now-empty coffee mug on the counter with a dismayed sniff. Shooting a glance at the clock, she sighed. Was 8:30 PM really too late for coffee?
(I don’t know – I’m confused 😛 )
Lion looked at Icy, “It is never too late for coffee.” She winking.
(some people have powers, like Iris, but most don’t. No we are not on about aliens any more, we’re decorating a Christmas tree. This is the Hazelpage. You are here because it’s a nice warm room full of peace and mostly happiness. Elephants are big grey animals with big ears.)
(Noted. Thank you for the clarification on elephants – it was a burning question of mine. 😉 )
😛 You’re welcome 😉
After finishing her berry punch, Blue approached one of the waitresses. “Okay, so this is my first time here, and I don’t seem to remember anything about outside. But what I do know, is that I’m tired. So do you guys have beds? Or do I have to sleep on the counter?” She asked.
Emberdawn pointed at a sign beside the stairs. “We have rooms for the night. You either pay by day, or pay in advance. Rooms come in standard and deluxe versions, for single, double, and team.”
As some people walked up the stairs to their rooms, Brightwing sidled up to the counter where Emberdawn and Icy stood.
In an undertone, she spoke.
“How about we decorate the room with Christmas decorations overnight so that when people come down in the morning, it’ll be all Christmassy?” She looked eagerly at them. “I mean, I know the Christmas tree is already up, but we could have tinsel on the windows and gingerbread on the table and baubles hanging from the banisters and paper chains hanging from the walls and presents under the tree and Christmas cards on the mantelpiece and Christmassy cushions on the chairs and wreaths on the walls and stockings over the fire and, and…I mean…maybe…if you would like…” Her voice trailed off as she saw the two bartenders look at her with slightly open mouths.
“I think Icy’s got most of that covered, but we’d like to have a sorted of muted feel for the Christmas decorations. Our patrons come from all over the web, so it’d be nice if we can give them the liberty of being in an area where they can feel at home!”
“Oh – ok that’s cool,” Brightwing replied happily, glad the awkward moment was over, before hurrying over to say hi enthusiastically to Hazelspots and Softpaw.
Blue handed her a few dollars. “Single standard please.”
The redhead took the money and bent down underneath the counter, turning knobs this way and that until several series of clicks were heard. She dropped the money in after counting it, closed the safe-mechanism, and handed Blue a key with a room number on it. “The key number is the floor and the letter is the room. Payment will be daily, then?”
“Got it.” Blue smiled weakly. She slowly headed towards her room, unlocked it, and collapsed onto the bed.
“Wait, Blue!” Wavey called. She raced after the girl and paused at her side, panting. “I need a room too. Wanna share?”
Softpaw smiled at the bartender, taking her glass of orange juice and sipping it slowly. “Yeah, although I was pretty slow going. Thank God being up in the trees provided relative safety, or I would have never made it out.” She said, her hyperactivity from before wearing away.
“With the influx of the codekind, we might have to start upgrading the tavern to have more rooms,” Emberdawn commented. “Seems like a lot of people have taken up our rooms as a sort of lodge and the tavern itself as a hub.” She shook her head. “At this rate, we’re gonna have to start booting some people out.”
Softpaw sighed. “At least the more people that are here, the more people that are safe. Nobody wants to be in that URL forest with all those codekind. As I am not quite sure how this place works, I’m not sure how safe an expansion would be if it came to that, otherwise I would suggest it. But creating new rooms is a pretty safe bet when it comes to that.” She said as she flicked over a few coins as a tip.
“Problem is that we’d have to do the construction ourselves,” Emberdawn replied. “Which we can do, but the materials and time to do it is costly. And the more people who stay here, the more resources used, which means more money spent, which could end up with the tavern closing.”
A silver haired girl walked through the door and sat down at the counter.
“Um.,. So I’ve never been here before… any recommednations on what to get? My name is Silentsong, but you can call me Sylph….” Her voice trails off and she seems to shrink in her seat.
“Currently, our seasonal specialty is breeze-cold tea, which is a special mint tea where the intensity of the mint flavour increases the longer you let the tea cool!” The bartender responded.
Blazefur felt a mysterious breeze lead him into a small, peaceful area. He thought it was a hallucination, but it was in fact the hazelpage!
“Welcome!” Emberdawn called, then turned to grab a glass for another customer.
Thunder walked into the tavern and pulled off the hood of his cloak,he looked aroumd and decided to sit at the bar counter
“Welcome, can I get you anything?” Emberdawn asked, turning away from Silentsong.
“A slice of pie please.” He responded yawning, “and a place too rest, what are the rates for your rooms?”
“3 dollars a day for a standard single room, and prices rise up after that,” she responded, cutting a piece of pie for him.
“and how much for the pie?” he asked pulling a little back from under his cloak.
“Half à dollar!” She chirped, opening a freezer to scoop some ice-cream to accompany the pie. She turned and placed it in front of Thunder. “Enjoy!”
“do take trade?” he asked
(ive decided im an adventurer so i have lots of random and intresting stuff :P)
“Depends on the items,” she replied. “Normally, we only take money, but some items might merit a few nights for their use or trade value. Trade value is finicky, though; the web stock is always changing, after all.”
“Ill just make things simpler for now.” He said taking 3.50 out of a pocket and pulled an extra dollar for tip and handing it to the bartender “oh im thunder by the way.”
She took the money and ducked down beneath the counter, emerging a minute later with a key. “The number on the key is the floor and the letter is the room!”
“Right, thanks!” He said cheerfully.he took a bite of pie and ice cream “mmmm.”
SIlentsong decides to go with the recommendation.
” I’ll have breeze-cold tea please.”
She notices that the waitress has moved on to another customer.
” But it can wait.”
“No problem! There’s not too many orders right now, and it’s easy to do.” Emberdawn turned towards the back and picked a tea-cup. She dropped a tea bag in it and poured hot water in. She stirred it around to help it seep, then turned back to Silentsong. “Any sugar, milk or honey?”
“Honey,please and thank you.” Silentsong responded.
Emberdawn stirred in some honey and fished the tea bag out with a small metal skewer. She then placed the tea cup on a saucer and placed it in front of Silentsong. “Enjoy!”
Silentsong purred and sipped her tea.
Setting it down she waited for her tea to cool before drinking the rest of it.