Norgesvenn Hall: The AARland bAAR

The Grand Re-Opening

coz1 adjusted the framed announcement located at the entrance, making sure it hung on the wall with perfect alignment. He smiled briefly as he read the words once more – changed slightly but still within the spirit of the place. He moved back into the main room to made sure the champaign was chilled and asked Iron-Chef if he needed any more help with the buffet. Seeing that all was coming together as planned, coz1 rushed back to the front doors and bent his ear to hear the sounds outside. There was a low din of noise suggesting that the natives may start to get restless, so he threw open the wide oak double doors and announced to all,

Welcome once again to the AARland bAAR, refurbished, refitted and now re-opened!

Immediately a crowd began to file in and coz1 moved swiftly behind the bAAR’s counter where stnylan and Mettermrck were keeping the place clean with the famed DirtyRag™. coz1 joined them and winked to the senior Mods, Lord Durham and Stroph1,

So what can I get you gents?

Both suggested their drinks and began to work on them as coz1 looked out over the quickly filling room. There on the grandstand, was the Wlak Pack, famed musical group and able to play any style of music from classical to jazz and all the way to rock & roll. And in the center of the room danced two beautiful women, both competing for favor – Trixie and Erika Blow. Many a man would be found with empty pockets before the night was over, coz1 was sure of it.

The buffet was going well, with the queue piling up and then Storey entered the room announcing that he would be buying no one drinks that night. This time, he suggested, the favor should be on Lord Durham for forcing him to pay for so many drinks in the past.

Looking over in the corner, coz1 spied Valdamar sitting in the ComfyChair™ and lifted a glass to say “glad you could make it.” And then he looked over and smiled at the framed photo’s over the bAAR – past mods and bAARtenders alike kept their gaze over the room – Norgsvenn, Rictus, Eochaid and Amric for the bAARkeeps and Val, MrT and Warspite as ex-Mods.

Seeing that the room quickly filled, coz1 moved swiftly to the grandstand and asked the Wlak Pack to stop the music for a moment. He tapped on the microphone slightly,

Is this thing on? Sorry…sorry…it’s an old joke, I know. So I guess you’ve all noticed the bAAR is open and ready for business once again. I’d like to thank you for showing up and would especially like to thank our Mods, LD and Stroph for giving the go ahead to move forward with the reconstruction and reopening.

He lite a cigarette, a nasty habit he knew he should quite, and picked up his glass of scotch,

I’d also like to say a few words about the rules. I know it’s a little hard to remember them sometimes, but most everyone from the old guard knows not to quote. What’s a quote, you ask?

Well this is a quote…

Click to expand...

…And it won’t be allowed. You can certainly refer to something someone else has said, but do so in your own way. And there is always the nasty Quote Gun™ to keep you honest. As well, promoting your own AAR in this room is not what we are after. Any post that recommends a writer’s own work will be deleted, as it is simply spam. Of course, that means spam won’t be tolerated either. What we want to see in this place is good recommendations of other work being done on the forum. Hopefully, we might see people follow the links offered. Further, this is a place to announce if you have to leave for a while, or if you’ve returned. And it’s a place to talk about general stuff that doesn’t really belong in an established thread. Most of all, we want you all to feel free to come in here and get to know one another, practice your writing, and simply have fun.

He takes a drag and blows the smoke quickly over the crowd, And remember the biggest rule of all…always stay in character. If you are not sure what that means, you can take a look back at Ye Olde bAAR or The Central bAAR to give you some pointers. But the idea is to have fun, try to write as creatively as you can, and enjoy one another's company and work.

coz1 walks off the podium and gestures for the band to strike up another tune. He sees some old hands enter, talking with one another as they compare notes. He watches some of the newer hands walk in, looking around and not quite sure what to think of the place. And he sees LD and Stroph looking around to see if the whole endeavor is worth it or not.

We'll have to see, coz1 mentions as he steps back behind the bAAR and flicks his ashes into an ashtray. But if it takes off, we may want to think about hiring a full time bAARtender. And I have a feeling, it just might. Hope so at least.

He turns to some new members stepping up to the bAAR and offers them a smile and glass.

What'll it be?

coz1 pops his head up realizing there are a couple of other items that need addressing,

Recognizing some question may be asked about these things, one - we don't plan to sticky the bAAR this time around. It will rise or fall depending on the activity and desire for it to stay active. And B - you'll note the mass amount of views the bAAR already has. That is due to wanting to give Rictus the full credit for starting the thing in the first place and allowing his words to remain the first post. I copied the thread and deleted all other posts for this particular bAAR, and hope it fills with a whole new count.

He takes another drag from his smoke as he rolls the limited ice in his drink around,

Again, hope you enjoy.

And that's about when Cat walked in. Today he looked like a Teuton knight wannabe, complete with tabard and sword. Other days he looked like something that wandered out of the American revolution. Such was the life of someone who ran multiple AARs.

He nodded slowly at the decor, subtlely different but still recognizable, and made his way to the baar. Many old friends were here, some new ones, though the thick smoke did make it hard to see. Briefly he wondered if a knight's helm doubled as a filter.

"I'll take....mead." He really didn't like most alcohol, but he happened to be addicted to sugar, and the honey hid the liquor until it was far too late for him to care. He began looking for munchies as well.

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends?" he asked Coz, indicating the room and smiling.

The Duke gazed in amazement. What was this? Lights shining from within the bAAR. What was going on?, he wondered. Cautious he approached the door, it swung open with little effort and almost silently, surprising given the time at which it for which it had been unused. Inside it looked warm and inviting but also daunting when one knew a little of the legends, deeds, characters and tall tales associated with the place. How could he ever belong here? But his curiosity soon overcame any apprehension. The Duke entered the bAAR. It was quiet for now, something sure to change soon as word of this great reopening spread. The Duke headed not to get a drink but rather for a far corner of the bAAR. Somewhere he could sit and observe some of the customs of this hallowed place.

stnylan wanders in, looking pensive. He heads straight to the counter, and looks over all the whiskies. "Islay or Highland, or maybe something from Speyside..." he muses, "something to celebrate, mmm, ahhh, that 18 year-old Highland Park will go down a treat."

He turns about. "Good to see this place re-opened. Incidentally, I've just come from rich-love's new AAR Awaking from the Nightmare Years where he is again attempting the bring the world back from the brink of Axis domination. Exciting stuff."

He takes a sip of the drink, and smiles as a warmth suffeses down his throat. "Oh, and I've just remembered, some old-timers might remember a writer called invertigo2004, who was writing a rather spiffing AAR about an interventionist Roosevelt. Alas, it sadly fell by the wayside, but now he is back and he is Re-Jumpstarting the American Century. Trust me, check these two out, and you will not be disappointed."

With that stnylan wonders to find a quiet seat where he can sip his whisky, dose, and try to think up an acceptance speech.

Lord E walks around the corridors of AARland, then suddenly he hears sounds coming from the bAAR, he decides to investigate fearing it might be thieves trying to break into the bAAR, then as he approaches the bAAR he notices the new sign, and slowly opening the door he enters.

As he walks up to the counter he smiles.


”Great to see this place reopen, now is it possible to get a drink?


Watching stynlan decided upon a nice old whiskey Lord E nods, and decides that a whiskey would be a nice drink the celebrate the reopening of the bAAR

”If I could get a drink of that whiskey there, yes the old one that stynlan got, that would be very nice….

Thanks


After getting his drink Lord E looks around the room, pauses his eyes on the pictures of the old bAARtenders and the older mods. After nodding slowly to the pictures and saluting them, his eyes continues to move around the room until he finds a comfortable chair to sit down and read. Noticing that someone is trying to see what he is reading, he smiles.


”A superb story if there ever was one. Draco Rexus’s tale For King and Country is one that everyone should take a look at…


Having said that Lord E returns to the story and his drink.

"Really LD, I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a drink today." Storey looked solemnly at the floor and twisted the fedora in his hands with nervous expectation.

LD shifted in his chair and reached over to flick the ash from his stogie into an ashtray shaped oddly like Ontario. "Seems I recall during the old days you ordered everything in sight and charged it to my tab, anyway." LD paused as he saw the bounteous form of Trixie threading her way through the crowd toward him. "But, seeing this is a special occasion, go ahead."

Storey grinned and shuffled off, calling to coz1 for the most expensive bottle of Dom Pergnon in the cellar.

LD eased his chair back to allow Trixie space on his lap. He accepted the deep kiss. "You're looking like a million bucks, Trix."

"You're not looking too bad yourself. Nice to see this place running again."

"Yeah, well, we'll see how it goes. What's your poison?"

"Scotch, neat." Trixie looked at a sheaf of papers laying on the table. "What's that, dear? An AAR?"

"Yep. It's almost complete. A real gem. It's called Into the West. Check it out." He signaled the waitress. "Scotch, neat. Better yet, make that two." LD leaned back and smiled. It felt like home.

In the green trench coat that he had worn on his expidition to China, Comrade Brian steps out of his Bricklin. "I need a beer," he mumbles to himself. After dealing with the idiocy of Fang and Ziao, Li Kenong's drug use, Chairman Mao's cannibalism, the lamest party ever, and the constant breaking of the fourth wall, he needed to escape 1936 China. He spies a bar with an oaken door. The warm glow of the lights and the amber ale beckons him to come in. After parallel parking his Bricklin between a Panzer tank and a horse-drawn carraige, he gets out and saunters into the bar. He walked through the thick smoke up to the counter. "I'll have a dark ale," he says to the bartender. The bartender holds a glass under the tap and the dark brown liquid flows into the glass, creating a perfect pint. Comrade Brian takes a swig of his beer and looks around. It was as though this place was frozen in time, with crusading knights sharing drinks with Soviet tankmen. He looked around, taking in the sights of the people in the bAAR. "I think I'm gonna like this place," he mumbled to himself before taking another swig of beer and pulled out his travel guide to Tibet .

As Hannibal walked into the bAAR, the glaring lights almost blinded him as he came in from the winter of Stockholm. Dressed in a thick winter coat, Hannibal sat down on a stool near the corner of the room, content to watch the old-timers to see how things were done. Unpacking his large bag, he took out A New CAARthage - A Tunisian AAR by Lazy and started reading. He was interested about how his home country would be represented in the modern age, and hoped they would be the damned Italians. Soon he took off his heavy coat as he warmed up. Finishing the last installment, he looked up, to watch the old-timers enter the re-opened bAAR.

'Ah, good to be back again.' Singleton Mosby exclaimed while he opened the door and felt the warm gust of wind touching his face. Cozyness, friendlyness and a relaxed atmosphere. He had missed it, he had missed it for sure. "Why don't we go to the bAAR anymore.' he had asked his friends some times ago and they had told him it wasn't fun there anymore. But now he entered he knew the joy of the bAAR was back.

In a corner on a table he saw the AARland Advocate of October 2006 and smiled. Turning to the barman he said. "You will get the next issue halfway November. We lacked enough articles to fill it up completely. But, don't worry your issue will come. And, nice to see the bAAR has a subscription as well."

Sitting down on a bAAR-stool besides COZ1 Singleton orders his regular Vodka-Red Bull and tells his friends to order a drink on him as well.

"Good to be back." he says once more and smiles.

Shuma stopped in his tracks. He had recently come to AARland, and had not yet explored much of it, but he was fairly sure he had passed this way before. Something was different though. He stood in the alley, lifted his Indiana Jones-ish hat off and mussed his hair, while trying to figure out what it was exactly.

Then he heard a door creaking open behind him, followed by a rush of noise. He quickly turned around, just in time to see someone silhouetted in the light coming from an entranceway near the corner of the alley, and then the door was shut, and the light and noise were gone as quickly as they had appeared.

Intrigued, he slowly approached the door. He looked at it for a time, whilst scratching the stubble on his cheek, and then tentatively tried to open it. Immediately a gust of hot air, thick with smoke, hit him in the face and he stood there, squinting into the light, trying to see where he has entered. Someone shouted at him to shut the freakin' door, and with a start he did so, albeit a bit too energetically, sending a hollow boom echoing throughout the room. Nobody seemed to notice, but still he hunched his shoulders and softly said: Oops, sorry.

Then he saw a sign on the wall by the entrance, a recent one by the looks of it, and quickly reading through it, he realized he had stumbled upon the famed AARland bAAR! With big round eyes he looked around. Noticing the counter, he started working his way toward it through the press of bodies, careful not to push anyone too hard and draw attention to himself. After ordering and receiving a glass and a bottle of rum from a bartender who, at least in his own mind, squinted at him suspiciously, Shuma walked over to a dimly illuminated corner table and placed the glass, bottle and his hat upon it, sat down and took out a crumpled piece of paper out of the pocket of his raincoat.

While seemingly trying to look invisible himself, he peered carefully at all the people in the crowded room, wondering what legendary persons he was bound to see if he spent some time here. Snatches of conversations about the works of various writAARs drifted towards him from various parts of the bar, and he just sat there and listened, feeling too much out of place to offer any opinions of his own.

Occasionally he would glance at the paper on the table. It was only the beginning of a new AAR, The de Lusignan Dream - Cyprus 1337, but he was impressed by the excellent command of the English language possessed by the author ComradeOm, and he was sure that the work was something worth keeping an eye on.

Ayeshteni hurried through the darkened streets, occassionally glancing over his shoulder nervously. To his amazement he found himself facing the entrance to a bAAR. Nervously he pushed open the door. It seemed quite cosy and friendly (judging by the women dancing on that gentlemans lap). Perhaps he would be safe here.

Making his way to the baar Ayeshteni ordered a whisky. He hated whisky but everyone else seemed to be drinking it and he didn't want to stand out. The baarman noted his unease.

"You alright there friend, you seem out of sorts?" the baarman asked.

"Why yes" Ayeshteni replied, puzzling the baarman somewhat, was he saying yes to being alright or yes to being out of sorts?

The answer soon presented itself.

"It's madness out there!" the newcomer exclaimed, "there is soom fool who sent me a missive! A missive! that states; 'To the Count of Ayeshteni, I am awfully sorry to trouble you like this, but I have to invade you. You are next on my list of conquests you see and only real men conquer alphabetically. Hope to meet your aquaintence soon. Signed - Anonymous' I am scared stiff!"

the baarman gave him a wink, "you are safe here lad, have another drink."

And so Ayeshteni did just that.

Stroph comes from the back. He had been working the finances to see if the new bar made a profit.

"Not a bad start," he mused. "A nice cross section of tales to read. You might want to give The seven wonders of the diplomatic world Try is a nice little tale in the diplomatic world. A nice read."

With that, the mod grabs the DirtyRag™and gets to work...

A rather startled Estonianzulu enters the bAAR.

"So different, and yet so the same." Already two things had surprised him this day. First was the rather shocking re-opening of the bAAR. EZ had not been a frequent visitor to the crowded establishment, but he had occasionally taken a pit stop. Now it seemed fully re-invented, and EZ hoped to go unnoticed.

His only purpose was to tack up a notice. It read as follows

Attention All:

EU 1 is not dead, in great part thanks to Battle bunny's wonderful work The Habsburgs.

I repeat; EU 1 is still alive. Come on down if you find the time.

With that the timid libraarian orders a drink and sits in a corner on his own.

Duke rose from the corner and headed over to get himself some well needed refreshments. Having just finished off a Bachelors degree he felt it was nigh time to relax.

He was amazed at the bAAR's selection of drinks. Not for a long time had he seen so many. He settled on a nice cool pint of the local Bushmans draught. The headed over to the notices.

EZ's notice caught his attention for this was something he himself had been planning to do. After all EUI was the factor that without this bAAR would be much emptier no doubt. Duke then pulled from his pocket a marker and added a little note to the bottom of EZ's.

A new EUI AAR is just beginning and looks interesting. It's Portugal - IGc AAR . It's sure to be good so why not head on over and get in on it from the start.

Duke was beginning to settle into the bAAR. This place sure did seem great.

The door opens silently, closing being the man in a black duster, work shirt, jeans, and black boots. He looks around in approval at the changes and notices his picture on the wall with a grimace. It had more hair than he does now. A shame, really. But getting older with children will do that to a man. He strolls up to the bAAR and leans upon it.

"You missed a spot. Over there," he points," I'll take Bacardi 151. Leave the bottle. It's been a hard day in RL, and eight more to go. I'll get to recommending things after that. I WILL state that the EUII OscAARs Redux for past acccomplishments is ongoing. There are some wonderful works that are in need of votes. So go over there and get to voting!"

He nods over to LD and downs his drink before pouring another.

GhostWriter drifts into the bAAR through the mirror behind the bAAR. looking over the packed room, he spots an empty chair at a table at the side wall. picking up a root beer as he passes the bAAR, GhostWriter takes out his copy of " Cat War – Alternate USA AAR, By Amona ", reading it as he sits down. it is not long before coz1 is looking over his shoulder. having read it already, he offers it to coz1, who accepts it with a big smile. with a knowing wink, GhostWriter leaves the bAAR through the wall behind the table.

Cat nodded with a smile as the baar filled up. The place had a certain power, a certain mystique that could bring people together across radically different times, places and even timelines.

Listening to Estonian and DoW, Cat turned in his seat. "They're right, EU1's undergoing something of a Renaissance. I can't explain it, but it's great to see. You can round out your reading with Scotland Forever by CitizenPaul. It's an older AAR, somewhat narrative in nature and looks like a good read!"

Jestor pushes open the door with his beard, so thick and strong it is. Alas that his hair is limp and thin, particularly for one of his relatively young years. A once narrow body, now thickening with too many years of insomniac nights and bad diets.

He shuffles his way through the crowd, jerky and self-conscious nods given to those he knows, furtive glances to those he has heard of. Tonight, his arm is empty of book, as his green eyes peer over the rims of tortoise spectacles, surveying the hallowed shelves and breathing in the bAAr's aura.

"I knew it existed, but never came here before.. or maybe I did, once or twice, in a season I've long since forgotten." His accent is as thick as his voice is deep, the volume low and more of a mumble than a declaration.

"History and possibility both live here", he murmurs, finding his way to a secluded corner where all are visible.