Death & Co is celebrating it’s opening night on New Year’s Eve 2010! 

No cover charge on opening night, of course!  The dress code is “Whatever means party to you!” and there will be plenty of free food going around, as well as set up along the tables near the walls.  While New Year favors were handed out at the door, there will be champagne at midnight, complimentary of course, with the appropriate count down.  Additionally, free shots of house specialties will go around – the full size ones, however, are not free.  There is every kind of alcohol one could imagine in full stock and there are at least 10 kinds of beers and ales are on top, not to mention what is bottled.

In addition to the bar area, there will be a DJ playing records in the outdoor area.  The archway doors will stay open all night and the music will be easily heard inside or outside.  There is a dance area, billiards, and seats for people inside. Entry started at 8 PM, but the thread is starting around 10 PM, so feel free to be just arriving or have arrived earlier.  There is an age line at the door, to ensure the space is appropriately adult.  Feel free to make jump off threads or create your own!

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Margo had been nervous!  Wasn’t that completely insane?  She had become nervous over the opening of the bar for the first time.  The hours leading up to the opening were actually spent pacing around the floor, gesticulating with her right hand, and asking all of the questions Raul told her to ask of her staff a hundred times over.  It was finally Dorsey grasped her firmly by the shoulders and shook her a little: “It was going to be fine,” she had insisted.

As it turned out, about two hours after opening the doors, it was true!  Margo had nothing to worry about.  Outside of the very brief sound problem – fixed by some swift charm work (out of Logan, not her), which had amused (or titillated) the DJ, it was fixed.  Everyone just seemed… ready to do their jobs!

Probably more than Margo could say.  Despite that fact that everything seemed to be going well – she had more than a couple of drinks under her belt.  Swaggering around the crowd, she’d greeted everyone she could, danced with people, took drinks when they were offered… played the good hostess, or whatever.  She was just trying to have fun, even if she had to pretend everything was okay. 

Alcohol was starting to do that for her.  Tossing her hair over her shoulder, Margo brandished a drink in her single manicured hand (her glib question at the salon that Charlotte had introduced her to about whether the process would cost half now was not received well) and she smiled more easily.  “Oi! I’m so glad you could make it!” she shouted, seeing a familiar face in the crowd.  There had been so many people, she couldn’t remember if she greeted them yet.  Wouldn’t hurt to do it again! 

Having been the first to doctor Margo after her injuries, in addition to being a close friend, Jules was elated to see that she was bouncing back so quickly. Jules should have known that the fiery woman wouldn’t let the loss of a few limbs hold her down, but there had been some concern when Margo had been told that she couldn’t come back to work. Although that had been a huge loss for Margs, she had a new business endeavor up her sleeve.

New Year’s Eve felt like the perfect occasion for the grand opening of the place. The whole association the holiday had with renewal and redemption suited Margo’s new life. As Jules walked into the place, she couldn’t help but smile to herself at how truly Margo the place was.

Jules walked right up to her friend and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “This is fabulous, Marg,” she remarked, looking around at the decor. “Truly.” Margo’s turn-around was most extraordinary. There were still a few lingering patients from the explosion, but even as one of the most severely injured Margo wouldn’t stay down.

Margo swelled at the compliment of her friend.  She was proud of the event.  Even if a lot of her ideas had been edited down and everyone else seemed so on top of things while she was enjoying drinks – didn’t that mean she didn’t have to worry about any of it?  Margo wasn’t stupid, no one trusted her yet… it was like she was always starting from the bottom, no matter what she did. 

At least at this job, being at the bottom meant having fun.  So what if one hand had to be in her pocket virtually all night?  It looked better than hanging by her side, and the other could be filled with a drink at all moments.  “Thank you!” Margo grinned and put her good arm around the woman’s shoulder.  “M’brother did a lot of the work,” she downplayed her it, “But I like to say I gave it some flair.” 

She laughed, removed her arm and then took a swig of her drink.  “You got a drink right?” she asked – it had been one of the questions on her list of things to do during the evening, “or try the food?” she motioned to the side of the room where it was supposed to be.  It seemed like that was right and Jummal wanted to make sure the food really made an impression.   “You’ll probably want to make your way over there,” Margo motioned to the back doors, outside. 

“Fair share of good looking men out there,” she paused, “girls too – whatever you want.”  She took another drink.  Margo didn’t judge.    "But right now, I'm going to need another drink," she held up the mostly empty glass.  "Refill time?" she looked back at Jules.  Travel in pairs or travel alone, Margo was getting more to drink.

Nothing pleased a medical professional more than seeing one of their patients make a full recovery. Or at least close to it. Margo did not retain her hand, but she was in good spirits and was coping with it admirably. Margs found a way of literally spreading around the good spirits, by opening up Death & Co. When she heard the news, Jules had smiled at how perfect that career change was. If she couldn’t be rolling about with dragons, then she wanted some whiskey.

M’brother did a lot of the work… But I like to say I gave it some flair.”

Jules was sure that Margo had contributed more than she was letting on, but Jules didn’t pry. She sensed that Margo might be feeling just a little bit insecure about the loss of her hand. “I definitely see the flair,” Jules commended, smiling at the various trinkets and liquors decorating the walls.

“You got a drink right?”

“That I did not,” Jules confessed. “What’s the house specialty?” Margo had gone on to talk about the elite ‘back’ of the pub, where there were apparently boys (and girls), ripe for picking. After the horrors that had gone on at work in the last few weeks, Jules needed to let out some steam. She scanned the room and followed Marg to the bar. Jules planned to let Margo pick their poison, a rare treat from control-freak Jules.

Flynn just had to check out Margo's new bar. They were going to be cat-grandparents together, so he had to put some of his old hurts aside for the sake of the grandkittens. Mildred was due any time now, so while he wanted to support Margo as a new business owner, he didn't want to stay for long. He wanted to keep an eye on his cat.

He approached the bar, where Margo and Jules were chatting.

"It's a beautiful place." He complemented Margo, "Very you."

Flynn looked over at Jules and greeted her with a genuine smile. He was glad to see that she was getting out and hopefully getting her mind off of all the disasters that St Mungos had been dealing with. He wasn't going to order anything alcoholic-- he would need to apparate home, and did not have a designated apparator tonight. "I'll have a butterbeer, Margo." He said, and glanced at Jules. "I'll buy her next drink."

“No drink?!” Margo sneered in mock incredulity, happily starting toward the bar.  “That’s just…” she shook her head – they were at a bar and she didn’t have a drink?  And it wasn’t even just any old bar, it was Margo’s bar!  It was like the alcohol capital of London (or at least Margo was going to try to make it that way).  Edging through the crowd, Margo was determined to change that immediately. 

She had to pick something good – something that would really bite.  Margo was usually into a simple and neat firewhiskey.  That didn’t seem like the house specialty though, and Dorsey was a whiz with mixed drinks.  She made a hell of a lot of shots… good ones too.  But, maybe a drink would be better? 

The question was interrupted by a voice she didn’t expect to hear – one, because it was loud and two because she although she extended the invite – she didn’t think Hughes would come!  He was busy and the whole pregnant cat thing… Her smile widened and after she put her empty glass on the bar she embraced him (a few drinks in and keen to hug anyone).  “Thank you!” she gave him a squeeze and grinned. 

“Butterbeer?” she confirmed with a confused sort of expression.  What was with her healers?  They were lagging on their alcohol game.  “But I got you,” she remembered her brother’s advice – whatever the customers wanted, and she waved Jesse down, since he was closest.  “C’mon,” Margo urged and scooted some space around the bar.  It helped she wasn’t afraid to throw elbows and she owned the place.  Jesse looked a little ragged, but it was a busy night. 

She pretty much shouted the order at him and he returned quickly with a butterbeer, a whiskey, and a Chinese Dragon (a signature red with something that made sort of gold-dust looking sparkles).  There were quite a few creature inspired drinks on the menu, just to honor the inspiration.  Plus, like their counterparts, they were rated on the Ministry of Magic Classification system: X to XXXXX. It was sort of an inside joke with the department, but you knew what were getting based on the order.  She figured it'd be a good start for Jules.  Margo, on the other hand, preferred a straightforward drink and grabbed the whiskey.  She figured the other two would get it. 

“Drink up!” she lifted her glass, “And cheers!” 

It was a little after 10pm and Hayes was on her way to being drunk. It was just sort of something that had happened. She hadn't been actively trying to get herself pissed, but she wasn't going to say no to the patrons of Death & Co. buying her, the bartender, shots. So maybe she had had a pint or two before arriving early to help set up, and a cocktail Dorsey insisted she try once she arrived. Even though she was at work, Hayes was completely in control. And it was New Year's Eve, for Merlin's sake. She was tired. She was stressed. Her day job was one disaster after another. It was fine. She was fine. Even Margo, the owner herself, seemed to be getting drunk (or she was drunk on life, it was difficult to tell). And Hayes had been working in pubs for years now, and could bartend in her sleep at this point.

Hayes liked bartending. She liked getting to know the regulars, lending an ear to anyone who was alone and nursing a broken heart, and becoming friends with her fellow staff members (and sneaking shots when no one was looking). There was something almost therapeutic about pulling pints or stirring up the perfect mixed drink. It wasn't always a fun time, though. No job is always enjoyable. It was never easy cutting off a drunk patron, or breaking up a fight, or getting dragged into a fight, or being on her feet for hours on end until the wee hours of the morning. But she could already tell that Death & Co. would have less fighting than Smithy's, the last pub she worked in, had. Working at Smithy's had been dismal, but her drunkenness there had been encouraged. But she wasn't like that any more. She was an adult.

Man, it was getting warm inside. Hayes shook the hair out of her eyes and handed a woman wearing far too much glitter then should be legal an Antipodean Opaleye (a charmed absinthe the colour of an Antipodean Opaleye's opal eye mixed with champagne, classed XXXX). "Here you go, enjoy," Hayes said with a lopsided grin and a wink. The woman beamed and dropped a few sickles in the Will Give Kisses For Tips jar she and Dorsey had snuck out onto the bar earlier that evening. Hayes blew the woman a kiss, and watched her get swept up into the crowd. It was packed in here, although quite a bit of party-goers were in the beer garden. Lucky devils.

She felt a hand on her back as Dorsey walked past her. "Hey, can I take a smoke break real quick?" the older girl asked.

Hayes shot her a grin and nodded. "Come back soon! And you owe me a fag, which I'll be redeeming when you return." Dorsey smiled and headed out the back, and the cool air from the outside world felt nice on Hayes' bare arms.

"What can I get ya?" Hayes asked to no one in particular, twirling around back to the bar and seeing the wave of people who were now crowding round.