The SpookEasy Lounge, owned and operated Kat and Evan Traver, is the most haunted kratom and kava bar in the city.
Seriously, this place is like Vincent Price's party room - a perfect temporary lair for all manner of the darkly inclined. The article is accurate, but I've included additional pics of their current location since they better capture how goth af this place really is:
Their potions are excellent, plus they're happy to make mods to the concoctions. And I can confirm, per the bartender I chatted with last weekend, they are indeed moving - they're just waiting on the usual bureaucratic red tape. This is excellent since their current space is so tiny. According to my source, the new space is 10 times bigger, has balconies, will be able to stay open super late (5 am or so), & is just a block from The Castle, so it'll be an easy stroll from one to the other - even while completely hammered.
With these two powerhouse dark sanctuaries right next to each other, Tampa will officially be the goth epicenter of Florida. Perhaps it's time for Convergence to swing back through Ybor City?
I had such an amazing night with these glorious ladies! Thank you for all the talks and catching up! We had a blasty blast at the #spookeasy @nerdslikeus event last night and explored and discovered so much at @cliftonsrepublic ! We will absolutely be back! I must first learn how to swing dance though XD @misskitquinn @thekrystalmethod #party #friends #catchingup #strengthinnumbers #cliftons
Blonde for the night! A 1920's kind of night! #spookeasy #scareLA #roaring20s #smirk #redlips #blondeforanight #smokeyeye #selfie #selfiesaturday #blondebombshell
#5 - matter of fact (562w, Hyana belongs to @holyja)
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The plate shot out of her hands and smashed into a wall.
Aoife stared for a moment at the spot between her hands where her dinner had been, and then at the north wall where her dinner was now, but she didn’t dare take another moment before pushing her chair back to run up the stairs. For all its idiosyncrasies the house was not usually in the habit of breaking things, and this meant that whatever was distressing it to the north needed to be taken care of,
right now,
immediately.
*
The north side of the house had a group of trees. The group of trees normally had a group of squirrels, which the house seemed to like, but currently the group of trees had a single sleeping Au Ra woman, which was the most easily-identified problem Aoife’d had all week.
She climbed, making sure to pick a perch out of reach of the spear strapped to the other woman’s back, and began tossing twigs. Or rather, twigs-plural had been her intention, but as the very first one hit the Au Ra’s face she was awake and on Aoife’s own branch with a spear to her throat before Aoife could raise her hand to throw the second twig.
The leaves rustled cheerfully in the tense silence, and after a moment Aoife lifted her hand in greeting. The other woman simply frowned and brought the spear closer to the skin. Aoife swallowed.
“Howdy,” she offered weakly. “I’m unarmed and I didn’t get dinner, so I’m not much sport. I don’t think this is necessary.”
“You’re telling me I shouldn’t be wary of an unarmed woman alone in my tree in the middle of the East Shroud.”
“Well, wait a moment there - first, what’s your name?”
There was a beat of silence. “Hyana.” Saying this, Hyana brought the spear as close as it could be without breaking skin, as though the mere question were purchased with part of Aoife’s lifespan. She’d have to explain this succinctly.
“Right. Hyana, technically speaking, this isn’t your tree--”
“It’s my tree. I’m in it.”
“Just, listen! The elementals don’t care if you’re tied to it, it’s their tree.”
The spear came back a fraction of an inch. The other woman didn’t look away, but it was plain that her senses were now tensed on more than just Aoife, who took this as encouragement to continue.
“So, elementals, right. Thing is, when they get riled, my house gets riled. I’m not saying you can’t sleep in a tree, you’re a free woman who can rile whatever elementals you want, I just need you to pick a tree at least three stone throws away from my hous--”
“What house?!”
That froze everything, for a moment. For the first time in the encounter Aoife dared to turn her gaze a bit left. She wheezed.
“Bloody fucking hell.”
The house had hidden itself, and she was left bowless in a tree to explain natural Gridanian ownership to a woman who now--
--was walking away on the forest floor?
“S’too much work. I’m getting an inn room, and if you follow me, I’ll put the spear through the rest of the way,” Hyana called over her shoulder.
As she watched the Au Ra’s retreating back, Aoife felt the familiar aether of the house reappearing from wherever-the-fuck it went when it felt like it.
I’m still working out details but have a lore dump on Spookeasy:
I still don’t know exactly what its problem is
Aoife has the house in every verse because she “won” it from the former master way back while she was working at Buscarron’s Druthers; he hated it and wanted out from under it but also felt horribly guilty for “cursing” her with it.
He comes back like a year later determined to help her and is flabbergasted to find out she’s fine because she mostly gets along with it
It’s only a tavern in Adventurer-verse, in the Scion AU she still has it but mostly lets Popola use it for crime as a residence in exchange for taking care of it, but in either case Popola shrugs off most of the weirdness because it’s still easier than the Bloodsands.
