<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/tcy1ck7.jpg)</div><strong>"You got it!  I think you guys are going to like the place."</strong>Bunny beamed, dancing back to the edge of the overhang and tugging up her hood once again.<strong>"You guys stay here, and I'll get us a truck."</strong><br/><hr/>The traffic in C-Town wasn't the fastest or most efficient example of city driving Cotton had ever seen, but it helped that she was taking the group to a spot close to the wall's main gate.  Concrete City certainly lived up to its name, everywhere they looked, the uniform gray of pavement surrounded them, broken up only by the warm lights hanging from the walls.  It looked like someone had taken the metaphor of a castle to heart, office buildings replaced by modern keeps that bristled with point defense weaponry.  The grunge of industrial smoke streaked and stained the factory district, and workers bustling to or from the area regularly sported rebreathers.<br/><br/>It was a statement of modern living that an industrial hub looked so besieged.<br/><br/>Still, Cotton navigated the broad streets of cracked pavement confidently, like she knew where she was going as she passed between dozens of nearly identical storefronts.  Closer to the gate, colors broke out as people painted their storefronts to try and attract the attention of tourists and merchants alike.  There was a more sedate breed of blue collar restaurant closer to the factories themselves, serving people on their way home from a long, hard day.  Mizuki took them out beyond that stretch because she knew the clientele there tended to be insular.<br/><br/><strong>"Here we are!"</strong>Mizuki declared cheerfully, swinging the truck into an empty lot off of the main road.  A sign had been cast in iron and pressed into the wall, a shield with verticle bars and a big fat lock in the center.  No lettering announced the place, illiteracy was rampant since the Last War after all, so iconography and audial AR had stepped in to fill the gap.<br/><br/>The door was recessed from the sidewalk, a short tunnel slanting downward leading to a heavy steel door that was painted with black bars like the sign.  The place looked like it could take a direct shelling and the people inside might not even notice enough to stop their revels.  An eye built into the archway scanned over the group, as grating along the walls kept the rainwater from pooling up.  Things were utterly silent ... at least, until the door opened (https://i.imgur.com/p6Dnzfi.jpg).  Then the sounds of laughter, rowdy conversation, and a bouncing quick-paced music hit them like a wall.<br/><br/><strong>"So, this is the place!"</strong>Mizuki said proudly, the hard stone exterior clashing hard with the darkly stained wood and warmth of the interior.  As she'd said, it was happy hour, and the bar was flush with people, waitstaff scurrying towards the mainfloor with trays overfilled with thick brown Guinness, and plates full of steaming chow.<br/><br/><strong>"Seriously."</strong>Cotton said, backing into the establishment so she could look back at the rest of the crew,<strong>"Try the blueberry crumble here.  The berries are cloned, sure, but it's the <em>best</em> dessert for a hundred miles."</strong>