The Undead Dive Bar

On an unremarkable street in Aberdeen, Scotland, there is an old fashioned tiki dive bar. Built about 500 years ago, the bar, which was originally called The Moorings and is now called Krackatoa, fell into a state of operational disrepair when tiki bars fell out of fashion. It was kept alive by regular pub traffic from the local neighbourhood. Eventually, even that was insufficient to keep it going, so a blue-collar victory manifested itself when the local community formed a collective and seized the means of alcoholic production. The bar is owned by the staff now, and all profits go back into the bar. One of the local community association members, Jamie the Pirate, became the bartender.   Occasionally there would be calls from the association to "spruce the place up" and bring it into the 21st century, but these calls were largely ignored, in part due to limited funds, and in part because the community liked the bar exactly the way it was, thank you very much. Some never even stopped calling it The Moorings.   When the zombie apocalypse arrived in The First Word War, custom declined a bit, but for the most part, the bar just went on exactly the way it had been, until the liquor ran out. Then they switched to illegal "peatreek" and "white whiskey" until the supply chains were restored.   But in 2024, Krackatoa truly came into its own when AttorraRu became the Night Monarch and made her stronghold in her homeland of Aberdeen. Krackatoa was her drinking hole of choice, and Jamie was one of her favourite people, and she thought it might be a great idea to make him into a Zombie.   For whatever reason, Jamie the Pirate maintained his intelligence when he was turned, and he decided he rather liked being undead. Thus, when Queen TaraFaeBelle claimed The Iron Tome and ended The Fourth Word War, he refused Resurrection.   As a result, he found he was bound to the bar, and could not leave it. This suited Jamie just fine. He went right on tending the bar, no longer troubled by the need to sleep.   AttorraRu continued to watch over him, feeling responsible, and over the bar as well. She put a Ward on the bar to prevent any undead in it from getting the urge to bite. But nobody else seemed to notice or care that Jamie the Pirate was a zombie. They just went right on hanging out at their favourite pub. Now known as Jamie the Undead Pirate, he never lost a beat.   When AttorraRu again found herself among the undead in The Fifth Word War, she naturally saw it as a place of refuge to take The Undead Horde under her successor, The Bard with No Names.   As much as the Bard had a "base of operations," being the leader of the Wild Hunt, Krackatoa was it. He immediately recognized the benefit of the warding that had been put on the bar, especially when AttorraRu (now called Roarabryn) added to it in order to prevent anyone in the bar from attacking anyone else. Krackatoa, now unofficially dubbed "The Undead Dive Bar," became a sort of Casablanca (neutral territory) for Tome Zombies and Tome Knights to speak to one another during wartime, especially after the Undead Karaoke Night.   This status continued into The Sixth Word War as well as The Fifth, with the Kitsune-gumi also using it as a base of operations.   Tome Knights who have been undead claim that even Queen Sable Aradia, known to be adamantly opposed to the Undead, was seen drunk on fae wine, hanging out at Krackatoa, during 6WW. They even claim she was responsible for the colourful flower mural that has been painted on the wall next to the bar.   None of this is admitted to publicly, however. While this is an open secret among Literomancers, as far as anyone else knows, Krackatoa continues to remain a run-down neighbourhood pub tiki bar in a working class Scottish neighbourhood.   A number of notable musicians and filkers have performed on Krackatoa's shabby stage, including The Undead Folk Band, Clockwocket, Lee O'Hawk, Morgen the Many, and even Queen Sable herself.