Doyleton Area Descriptions [1/3]
Bath and Beauty Shop
Bill's Hardware
Black Rock Inn
Appearance
Ever since Doyleton was founded there has always been an inn on the site where the Black Rock Inn now stands, though the current building is not the original one. The first building burned to the ground in a terrible fire almost sixty years ago and was entirely rebuilt up to modern (at that time) standards with care to preserve "the building's historical facade." It has been well tended since then, and it shows from the outside.
The building is a two-story brick structure surrounded by a carefully tended lawn and flowerbeds that are a riot of color in the right seasons. The large covered front porch has a wooden swing and a small table with a pair of matching chairs, for those who wish to sit outside in nice weather. Behind the building is an outdoor pool, open between mid-April and early October and covered the rest of the year, and a one-net tennis court. A small stretch of lawn separates the tennis court from a two-bedroom caretaker's cottage in the lot behind the Inn.
Inside, the lobby of the Black Rock Inn is plush and comfortable; to the left of the entryway is the front desk, with its polished wood counter behind which is the door to the Inn's office. To the right of the entry is a sitting area, with a crackling fireplace surrounded by a sofa and comfortable chairs upholstered in a dark green color that complements the patterned wallpaper.
Should anyone get past the front counter and into the office, they would find an almost obsessively neat area with every single piece of paper filed away and not a speck of dust allowed to rest on any surface. It contains a desk against the far wall, a row of file cabinets on the left-hand wall, and the right wall is lined with shelves with neat, matching plastic storage boxes. There is a monitor and a docking station for a laptop on the desk (though whether or not a laptop is there depends on the time of day and who is working).
Beyond the sitting area a half-wall of brass-trimmed glass delineates the dividing line to the Inn's bar; though it does have a classic bar counter with stools and a handful of high tables and chairs, the "bar" is in truth as much a small cafe with a good stock of alcoholic beverages. The townspeople who want dinner in a slightly classier establishment than the Tasty Burger or Twin Pines will visit the Inn's bar on weekend nights for a pretense at being cosmopolitan. The bar houses a small kitchen that can't produce a lot of food very quickly, but does well with the small steady business it usually sees.
An addition on the back of the Inn houses the maintenance and housekeeping facilities; there's a workbench on the far wall often littered with tools and projects from small appliances to the lawn mower's motor, an industrial-sized washer and dryer on the right-hand wall, and cabinets with cleaning supplies and tools for small repairs on the left. Larger tools, gardening equipment, and the lawn mower are kept in a separate shed by the caretaker's cottage.
There is a single suite on the ground floor of the Inn, accessible from a door around the back. It has one bedroom, a sitting room, a separate bathroom, and a tiny kitchenette area, and is referred to as the "honeymoon suite." It's decorated in white and cream with lavender accents, and boasts a double-size jetted tub in the bathroom.
The other rooms at the Inn are on the second floor, accessible from a slightly creaky elevator on the far side of the front desk, a stairway that opens out beside the elevator doors, or a stairway that goes up the outside of the building to a door that opens on the central hallway upstairs. Eight doors lead off to either side of the hallway, each one much like the rest; they all have a small bathroom with a tub/shower combination, a bed, a desk with an uncomfortable wooden chair, two night tables, and a dresser with a television on top. Six of the rooms have king beds, four have queen beds, and each one has a different color dominating the decor to distinguish them.
Room 1 is pale blues and cream, room 2 is light yellow and floral patterns, room 3 is dark red and brown with an autumn theme, room 4 is sage green and light brown, room 5 is dark greens and blues, room 6 is tan with a wild-duck theme, room 7 has a rose theme with greens and pinks, room 8 is navy blue and cream, room 9 is a rustic theme with a homemade quilt and embroidery samplers on the walls, and room 10 is pale gold and black.
Staffing
There is always one desk clerk at the front desk, usually Jennifer or Sarah, though Loreen and Jessica will fill in should one of them be sick or need a break. Trevor mans the bar while it's open (between 11 am and midnight on weekends) and Amber is there as the cook during lunch (11 am - 2 pm) and dinner (5 pm - 8 pm) hours; when Amber isn't there the bar only serves drinks or simple, easily prepared foods. In the mornings Sandra will be about cleaning the rooms, and Loreen is often in the back office going over the books. Jessica keeps her own hours, usually depending on what needs to be done, but normally comes in around 9 am and leaves somewhere in the late afternoon.
Exits
1) Front door: wooden door inset with glass panels. It has a lock on it, but has never been locked in anyone's memory. There is a bell on a cord above the door that rings when it's opened.
2) Office door: leads from the area behind the front counter into the Inn's office. It's a half-and-half split door, and the bottom half is always locked though the top half will be open when someone is working in the office.
3) Back door: wooden door with a window in the top half. A sign in the window advises that it is locked between 10 pm and 7 am and for the convenience of the guests other entrances are available.
4) Kitchen door: the kitchen area in the hotel bar has a door leading into the back yard by the garbage dumpster.
5) Windows: two large picture windows in the sitting area, two more in the sitting area of the bar, and two smaller windows on either side of the fireplace. Only the last two windows are actually designed to open (lifting vertically).
6) Stairs: open stairway that leads from the area beside the front desk/office up to the second floor.
7) Elevator: next to the staircase, goes up to the second floor. The elevator is a bit older and creaks ominously when used.
8) Outside stairs: covered stairway on the outside of the building that goes up to the second floor hallway.
9) Room doors: ten doors that lead from the second-floor hallway into the various rooms.
10) Room windows: each of the rooms has two windows on the outside wall, both of which are designed to open vertically but have nails in the tracks that prevent them from lifting more than three inches. The windows of rooms 1 and 7 are above the honeymoon suite and the addition for the housekeeping staff, respectively, and thus there's only a one-story drop from there onto the outbuildings.
Equipment/Supplies
There is a small, very old computer behind the front desk; it keeps track of the reservations and rooms, but can barely keep up with that and can't manage anything else. There are also some basic office supplies and a small cabinet with racks of keys under the counter.
The office, accessed through the door behind the counter, has file cabinets along one wall that contain records for the Inn; it's lots of boring invoices and records of stays and bills and maintenance reports and so on and so forth. The desk drawers will yield general office supplies and writing utensils, though the locked bottom drawer contains a .22 caliber handgun and a box of extra ammunition; the key to that drawer can be found in the cabinet under the front desk. The plastic storage boxes on the shelves are all neatly labeled: most contain more files, but others have tools and maintenance supplies (like light bulbs, fuses, screws, nails, etc).
Next to the fireplace is a wrought-iron rack bolted to the wall which contains a poker, a small broom, and an ash shovel, all made of heavy black iron.
The bar has a fairly good selection of alcoholic beverages, plus the general equipment one would expect to find in a bar. The kitchen behind the bar likewise has a refrigerator, freezer, and pantry stocked with food, and has the sorts of implements one would expect to find in a restaurant kitchen (pots, pans, cooking utensils, knives, dishes, etc).
The maintenance/housekeeping outbuilding will yield small tools from the workbench and cleaning equipment and supplies from the cabinets. There's a storage shed farther away (closed with an older padlock that wouldn't take much effort to break) that contains a lawnmower, a string trimmer, hedge clippers, gardening tools, fertilizer, weed killer, pesticides, and other such supplies.
The Inn's rooms are fairly standard hotel rooms, with solidly built furniture, small toiletries in the bathrooms, and a Bible in the drawer of one of the bedside tables.
Notes
TBA if questions arise
NPCs
Loreen Shaw
Loreen and her husband Andrew rebuilt the Black Rock Inn and ran it together for years, putting their children to work on various tasks appropriate for their age to "teach them the value of work." As they grew older, however, none of them seemed interested in taking over for their parents and when Andrew died, Loreen hired a manager from out of town to take over the Inn for her. His mismanagement nearly bankrupted the place and Loreen reluctantly took over again, but by this point she's old enough that she lets the other employees deal with most of the day-to-day affairs.
She was a great beauty in her day and some of that is still visible even though she's now in her early seventies. Loreen dresses neatly and professionally, even if some of the styles are somewhat dated, and she keeps her pure-white hair pulled into a braid that almost reaches her waist. She wears a pair of dark-rimmed half-moon glasses that often rest librarian-style at the tip of her nose to allow her to frown disapprovingly at anyone who "causes a ruckus" in the Inn, which could range from speaking too loud to treating the furnishings with less than proper respect.
In a fashion the Inn is one of her children and she cares for it very much. She lives in a small cottage on the grounds behind the building and will occasionally man the desk if someone needs to take a break, but if she's working she'll normally be hidden in the back office or out inspecting the building.
Jennifer Shaw
Jennifer is Loreen's granddaughter and the only member of her family who still works at the Inn. She's in her late twenties and bears a strong resemblance to her grandmother at that age, enough that the long-time residents of the town will comment on it. This means that she's of average height but highly attractive proportions, has natural blonde hair and blue eyes, and does not react in any noticeable way to attempts to flirt with her. In other words, she's entirely polite and professional to everyone.
Though she claims to have no ambition other than to take over management of the Inn and stay in Doyleton forever, she secretly dreams of working in a big city and the walls of her tiny studio apartment are covered with travel posters of skyscrapers and foreign cities. She lives alone and has never showed any real interest in dating, to the dismay of her mother and grandmother, and occasionally the topic of conversation at Pearl's will turn to which "nice young man" should be set up on a date with Jennifer. She has, however, turned down every offer of a blind date so far, because she thinks dating a Doyleton boy will interfere with her dreams.
Sarah Frazier
Sarah started working at the Inn in high school and when she graduated two years ago was promoted from a mere desk clerk to a shift supervisor. Given how few employees work at the Inn it wasn't much of a promotion, but she's quite proud of it nonetheless and is convinced she'll be the manager in no time. Though her family and friends are convinced that she could do well in college, given her grades, she's always shrugged off any suggestion of it and insists she's perfectly happy where she is.
She dresses fashionably, if a little conservatively, and keeps her bleached-blonde hair pulled into a neat updo or French braid depending on the day. She idolizes Jennifer a little and therefore Sarah tries to imitate her mannerisms; anyone who comes to the counter of the Inn, whether they be a paying customer or an Institute visitor, is treated with an air of cool professionalism, and she prefers to exude confidence and competence than friendliness.
Her twin sister Janice works at Pearl's Beauty Salon, and the two of them look similar enough that they've often been mistaken for one another.
Amber Chapman
Amber bears a strong resemblance to her maternal grandmother, who immigrated from India as a young woman; she keeps her dark hair long, only reluctantly pulling it back into a ponytail when she's at work, and is known as one of the great beauties of Doyleton. She works at the Inn part-time as the cook in the bar/restaurant, and will tell anyone who asks (and some who didn't) that she's only there long enough to save up money to go to a real city and attend culinary school. She thinks very highly of the food she produces, though anywhere else she'd be a fairly ordinary line cook.
As the bar only serves actual meals during lunch and dinner hours she isn't at the Inn very much and it isn't terribly likely an Institute visitor will find her there, and if they do it's even less likely she'll be at all helpful. She wouldn't be outright rude, but she isn't at all interested in talking to people she thinks are "below" her, and visitors from Landel's most definitely fall into that category.
Though at twenty-four she's quite a bit younger than Tam Scotch she's had a crush on the sheriff for years, entirely unaware that it's doomed. She's convinced that she can win his heart over somehow, and will often just happen to wander by the sheriff's office with some leftover food item from the Inn's kitchens when it closes after the lunch hour.
Trevor Cobb
Trevor is classically tall, dark, and handsome: he has a perfectly-tamed mop of curly black hair, dark eyes, and lashes long enough to suit any woman, and there are several young Doyleton ladies who visit the bar at the Black Rock Inn as much to flirt with the bartender as to enjoy the selection of alcoholic beverages. Despite all their efforts, however, he's been steadily dating Jessica Reid for the last three years, though they have yet to make it official enough to move in with each other.
He's friendly enough on the outside and highly charismatic, but underneath that he has the soul of a shriveled, rotten apple. There have been several "incidents" in which he lost his temper with someone else and ended up at the sheriff's office to answer to assault charges, but he's always managed to talk his way out of it in the end. As such Tam Scotch and his deputies watch Trevor with deep suspicion, and more than once have been seen taking Jessica aside to have a chat with her, but still nothing has come of it.
Trevor is also highly uncomfortable around anyone different, meaning that the residents of the Institute will meet a very chilly welcome from the Inn's bartender should they encounter him. He hates and fears anything and anyone that makes him uncomfortable, so will likely chase any strangers out of the bar with harsh words and, if necessary, violence. He'll be properly apologetic if any other employees catch him at it, of course, and confident that he can talk his way out of anything, but thinks "those crazy weirdos" should stay in the lobby and out of his way if they know what's good for them.
Sandra Wright
Sandra is a slightly plump, friendly-looking woman with greying hair kept confined in a tight bun. She's worked as a housekeeper at the Inn since she was in her mid-twenties, and since she's now just past fifty she knows every little nook and cranny in the place and isn't at all reluctant to talk about it. It doesn't matter if someone is a town resident or an Institute visitor, if someone asks her a question in a friendly manner she'll be more than willing to give more information than anyone ever might have wanted.
She lives in a house in the residential neighborhoods with her husband and two dogs, since her youngest (of two) just turned eighteen and moved out last year, a fact she'll also be willing to share with anyone who shows the slightest interest. She's perfectly content to keep working at the Inn ("for as long as my knees will let me," she'll say with a wink) and her home is just as neat and spotless as she keeps the guest rooms. Sandra is also fond of baking and will sometimes bring the fruits of her labors to the employees at the front desk.
Her younger sister is Hattie Fellows at Mountain Antiques, and she's more than happy to send business in her sister's direction.
Jessica Reid
Jessica was once a promising gymnast: she started taking lessons as a child and showed a great deal of potential, with talk of competing in the Olympics in a couple of years, but injuries sustained in a car accident at age 12 ruined her dreams of continuing. Now twelve years later she's still small and solidly muscled like one would expect an ex-gymnast to be (she started swimming for rehab after the accident and has stuck with it), but she walks with a slight limp, favoring her weaker right leg. She has dark hair that would reach to her waist if she didn't keep it confined to a thick braid, grey eyes, and a scattering of freckles across her cheeks. Her clothing is always casual, usually just jeans and a tshirt (with the addition of a hoodie in colder weather), but also always clean and in good condition.
She's officially in charge of maintenance and repair at the Inn, but she'll also fill in for Sandra or the desk clerks if there's a need. Her younger brother Brendan works part-time at the Monkey Wrench, and town rumor is that the two of them can fix anything that's broken. The maintenance workbench in the back of the Inn will often have small repair projects that she's taken on for townspeople (watches, toys, toasters, you name it) amongst the repair work she's doing for the Inn.
Visitors to the Inn might encounter her wandering about, fixing something, or filling in for a desk clerk who had to leave for a few minutes. She isn't very talkative but is never outright rude with anyone. The people from the Institute are just more people to her, neither good, bad, scary, nor weird. She's been dating the bartender, Trevor Cobb, for the last three years. Though she won't say much about their relationship to anyone else, there have been instances where she's showed up to work with odd bruises or injuries that she'll shrug off without comment.
Maps
First floor, second floor
The Bookworm
Appearance
The Bookworm is a fairly large building compared to some of the other establishments on Main Street. It's constructed out of wood and is much longer than it is wide. The exterior is plain, with only one set of windows at the front. The door leading in is made of glass and has some old newspaper clippings posted onto it, all with trivial details about the town itself: a bake sale, a summer job offered, and other similar things that don't give much useful information. There is also a sign on the front of the store in bubbly letters that alternate red and blue, spelling "BOOKWORM" with a design of a worm crawling through the two letter O's.
Inside, it is, of course, quiet -- feeling more like a library than a bookstore. There is an entrance area that has a metal stand holding copies of the local newspaper (which is weekly). A little past that is the front desk, where at least one of the workers will almost always be standing (unless the store is particularly crowded and both are busy with patrons). The front desk has some fliers on it advertising new books that have come in, but in reality almost all of the books are used and have been donated from one person or another. This means that they all generally show signs of having been read before, whether dog-eared or missing pages or whatever else.
Much like the outside, the inside is made up of wood, from the walls to the shelves to the floorboards. The floorboards creak when walked on, but in a pleasant sort of way. It makes it feel like the place is old rather than not cared for. The whole store is sort of dusty, in fact, since many of the sections don't get much in the way of traffic from the local townspeople.
Most of the store is taken up by shelves that stretch from floor to ceiling, packed so close together that sometimes it's hard to navigate through the cramped area. There are four aisles with books stacked on each side, giving a total of eight lengths of shelves to look through.
The aisle on the east side of the store has fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and romance novels. The one next to that has general fiction and literature. The one next to that has non-fiction, including textbooks, biographies, and other technical books. The final one, on the west side of the store, has religion, self-help, and inspirational books. Travel books, history texts, and anything else that would contain detailed information about the town or the world surrounding it seem to be missing.
At the very back of the store three are a few wooden benches where patients can sit and read, but in the event of those being filled up, there are a few stepping stools scattered around that could be used instead. There are also two carts that are used to hold books that need to be shelved and will also be scattered somewhere around the store.
At the back of the store there is a door that leads into a small staff area with a rarely-used office (meant for inventory and other paperwork) and a bathroom that is staff-only. Past that is a back door that is also barely ever used, but that was installed for safety reasons.
Staffing
The Bookworm is only staffed by two people, as the job is a fairly simple one. The owner of the store is Margaret Baum, and she is more or less there every single day from open to close. (The hours are 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, however, so she's not spending her entire life at the store by any means.) Her younger helper, Stephanie Masler, is usually there five days a week, though she's made sure to be present on Saturdays ever since the trips from Landel's have started.
Both of them will usually be standing at the front desk unless newly received books need to be shelved, in which case Stephanie will take on that task since Margaret isn't quite as able as she used to be in her older age. Stephanie is also the one who usually wanders around to answer questions or find books for people on request, whereas Margeret generally remains at the front desk to greet and also answer questions. Margaret handles inventory and most of the transactions performed at the store, few though they may be.
They are both happy to let customers wander the store or sit down to page through a book, understanding that the store is mainly treated as a library by most.
Exits
1) Front door: A glass door with a metal handle leading into the store from the street. This is the only entrance that can be used by customers.
2) Windows: There are only two paned windows that are on either side of the front door. They are large and could be broken/climbed through if need be.
3) Staff room door: The door at the back of the store that leads into the back area. Simple wood door with a knob.
4) Bathroom door: In the staff area; leads to the bathroom. Simple wood door with a knob.
5) Office door: In the staff area; leads to the office. Simple wood door with a knob.
6) Back door: The door that leads from the back of the staff area out into the alley behind the store. This exit is hardly ever used and so it is usually locked, though it could be broken through if need be.
Equipment/Supplies
The book store obviously has books, and lots of them. If your character is looking for a specific one, feel free to clear it with a mod. Most popular fiction would be allowed. The front desk contains some loose pieces of paper and a few pens that have been gnawed on and are halfway out of ink.
The office in the back has some more office supplies, but not as much as a place like the sheriff's office, for instance. Pads of paper, staplers, pens and pencils, white-out, etc. There's also a typewriter on the desk that looks like it doesn't get much use, and a safe tucked away in the corner of the room, used to lock up the store's earnings. The office also has a mini fridge where the two employees store their lunches, so various food items could be found in there.
NPCs
Margaret Baum
Much like Pearl, Margaret was born and raised in Doyleton and has never seen much reason for leaving. She is happy with her simple life, and more than that, she feels a strong attachment to the town ever since her husband died. All of her memories of him are from time they spent in Doyleton, and so she thinks it would be a disservice to him to leave it. Part of the reason she started up the Bookworm was because her late husband, Roger Baum, was a fan of reading despite the fact that he was a mechanic who worked at Monkey Wrench. For that reason, Margaret often talks to Joe, who was close to her husband due to working with him.
Margaret has extreme pride in her store, which is why if it's open, she's always there. She knows the location of every book and makes sure to read up on any new book that is donated or obtained for her store. When it's slow, she reads or talks to her helper, Stephanie, who in many ways is like a daughter to her (despite the fact that Stephanie has her own parents).
Part of this is because Margaret is a very motherly figure in general, despite having never had any children. She likes to take care of people, but not in a condescending way. She is simply a warm and helpful person who wants her customers to find the books they want and get as much joy out of them as she does. She sometimes even reads the romance novels, though she generally does this in secret, not even admitting it to Stephanie.
However, she realizes that the inventory at her store isn't the best, which she feels somewhat embarrassed about when it comes to the Landel's patients. They tend to ask her for things that she doesn't have, which upsets her because she'd like to give them what they want. She feels for the patients since they tend to bring out that motherly instinct in her, though she's more strict about giving away books than Stephanie is.
Margaret's closest friend is Miss Dwight who runs the Bath and Beauty Shop, and they'll often have "girls nights" together where they read, light candles, and try out beauty products while engaging in the usual town gossip.
Margaret stands at about 5'4", has short white hair, and is slightly overweight. She is always wearing bright colors and a bright smile.
Stephanie Masler
The oldest daughter of Hal (the same Hal who runs the used car shop), Stephanie has had quite the interesting life. She's spent most of it raising her six younger siblings, seeing how her parents couldn't handle all of that on their own. Due to this, she's actually rather mature and independent for her age despite that fact that she still lives with her family. She sees it as her obligation to stay and help, even if the house is always crowded and noisy.
For this reason, the bookstore is sometimes a sanctuary for her due to being so quiet. She's very close with Margaret, who gives her the attention that her parents often can't. The two of them are like close friends, always finding something to talk about when the store is slow (and if Margaret isn't busy reading).
Despite the way that Stephanie grew up, she's a kind girl with a surprisingly open mind. She's never breathed a word of it to anyone, but sometimes she wishes she could just leave the town and her family to see the world and go to college, but she knows that just wouldn't be possible. She has too many obligations to just up and leave.
Her open-minded nature means that she has a good amount of interest in the patients. Growing up in a small town means she's a bit sheltered, so she was wary of them at first. After some more interaction with them, she's become more and more willing to talk to them, and she can't help noticing how attractive some of the male patients are. She's much more likely to be talked into sneaking a patient a book or exchanging one for coupons, knowing that she can always talk her way out of it if Margaret finds out.
Stephanie is friends with Lindsey Peterson, who works at Pearl's Beauty Salon, but she doesn't spend as much time with her as she'd like because she's not fond of Lindsey's friend Janice and believes that Janice is using Lindsey. However, she'll sneak Lindsey a book every now and then, returning it to its spot in the store when the other girl has finished reading it.
Stephanie is thin as a rod and has straight brown hair that goes down to her shoulders. She's 5'6" and always has bright colors on. She's fond of skirts and bracelets, but wears little makeup.
Callahan's Grocer
Appearance
Located smack-dab in the middle of Main Street, Callahan's Grocer is one of the largest buildings in Doyleton. While it is two stories tall, the upper level is reserved for the offices of Dr. Richard Smith. The lower level is all taken up by the grocery store, however. The exterior of the building is made of white plaster, with some fresh fruit always on display up front to try and entice people in. The store's sign is prominent, with brown lettering in a rather dignified font. It has two automatic doors that allow people inside. To the right of the doors are two shopping carts and a large number of baskets to choose from to store groceries.
The whole floor is made out of linoleum in a typical black-and-white checkered pattern. It's always well-light inside and despite it being two floors, there is a high ceiling with a number of ceiling fans to keep the place cool during the summer. The walls are all painted a shade of white that borders on cream-colored. Thanks to a stereo that Callahan usually has set up at the register, there is often music playing, though it's not ever kept that loud. Generally he only plays country, folk, or soft rock.
There is only one check-out register set up, though it has a conveyor belt and bagging area like most grocery stores. Directly to the right upon entering the store is the butcher area, with a glass display case showing off a number of different kinds of meats, from beef to pork to lamb. One thing that the grocer is missing is fresh fish, though every now and then there will be a special due to Callahan going himself to fish out of the nearby river. Next to the meat counter is a generic ATM for anyone who needs to draw out cash or deposit money.
All of the produce is on the left hand of the store's entrance, including any fruit that isn't on display outside along with a number of vegetables. Produce is the thing that Callahan has the most variety of, so it's only rare or foreign fruits and vegetables that wouldn't be available.
The rest of the store is made up aisles with all the expected necessities. Bread, cheese, rice, yogurt, milk, boxed dinners, canned foods, etc etc. In terms of non-perishables, there's a lot to choose from. There isn't a huge variety for bread or cheese, but definitely enough to get by. A lot of fruits to choose from means that there is a lot of variety in juices as well.
At the very back of the store is where the refrigerated items are kept, and there is also a small freezer section that contains some TV dinners, ice cream, and so forth. Also at the back of the store is a swinging door that leads into the back storage area that contains all of the extra shipments of food. There are two walk-in refrigerators on the east wall that keep all the perishables, but the rest of it is all stacked in boxes. This area also has a garage door that opens up the back of the store so that the shipments can be easily moved inside from the delivery truck. A door on the west side of the store leads into a small office where all of the bookkeeping is done. A staff-only bathroom is accessible through the office itself.
There are both stairs and an elevator that lead to the second floor of the building; they are in the northeast corner of the main store area.
Staffing
Surprisingly enough, Callahan's Grocer is only staffed by two people: Aaron Callahan himself, and Ryan Hartman, the butcher. This is due to the fact that Callahan is something of a workaholic and also tends to not trust many people with caring for his store. Callahan works full hours (9:00AM - 5:00PM) every day of the week, though Ryan's hours are a bit more flexible. He works full-time on the weekends but only in the afternoons during the work week.
Stocking is something that both of them work on when the store is empty or customers are still browsing, but Callahan always manages to make it back to the front register in time to ring people up. He isn't generally worried about stealing, though there are security cameras set up in the event that something does happen.
Callahan is most commonly found at the register and Ryan behind the meat counter, but they are known to wander and if Callahan is bored enough he'll go out to the front of the store to chat with passersby.
Exits
1) Front doors: Two automatic sliding doors that work on a sensor and let people into the store. It is shut off after hours so no one can get in.
2) Windows: The store has two large windows on either side of the front doors, but they are not meant to be opened.
3) Swinging door: The door that leads from the main store into the back area. No one is allowed into the back area, and there is a sign attached to the door reading "Staff Only."
4) Office door: Leads from the back area into the office. Almost always locked; Callahan has the key.
5) Bathroom door: Leads from the office into a small bathroom. Staff-only, unless someone is having an emergency.
6) Garage door: Taking up most of the back end of the building, a large metal garage door that opens up to let deliveries in. It's only ever open when the truck is there, and the button to open is kept under lock and key.
Equipment/Supplies
The main thing that the grocery store has is, obviously, food. Produce, meat, and everything else that was listed in the Appearance section can be looted at night. Cigarettes are kept under lock and key by the register, but it's something that could be broken open easily enough with a blunt instrument. Butcher knives are left in locked drawers on the staff side of the meat counter, though once again, those could be broken open.
The office is the only other area that has anything of interest. There are a few office supplies scattered around, but the place is basically a mess, so trying to crack open the safe would be the most useful thing to do.
NPCs
Aaron Callahan
Callahan happens to be one of the most prominent figures in the town of Doyleton, mainly because almost everyone who lives there ends up seeing him at least once a week when they go to buy their groceries. Unlike some of the other store-owners, however, he is not much of a gossip. That doesn't meant that he won't lend an ear to any customers who are having troubles, but he doesn't dig for information. He enjoys chatting with people, but he tries to keep the topics of conversation simple and light. He's a bit of a joker, but also happens to be a decent guy who is generally willing to lend a hand to just about anyone.
This sometimes extends to the patients as well, though he won't be handing out favors to anyone who walks into his store. He's pretty good at judging people, so he'll get a feeling for someone first and then decide from there. Also, after an incident some weeks ago where a patient got drunk and actually attacked him, he's become a bit more wary overall; the attacks and vandalism on the town didn't help. He doesn't want to generalize and blame all of the patients for what happened, but he might take a little longer to warm up to someone. He is always extremely polite to women, though; he'll throw in a compliment, but it's always tasteful.
Callahan is extremely dedicated to his store. He's proud of the products that come in, and while it's true that he has no competition to worry about, that doesn't stop him from making sure that everything is as high quality as it can be, especially the produce. He's a workaholic, the sort of person who never misses a day of work (and couldn't, since then there would be no one to take care of the store if he did). He's so protective that he refuses to hire anyone other than Ryan, who got his position through pure persistence and because Callahan realized that dirtying his hands cutting meat while also trying to check people out just wasn't practical.
Seeing how he's known for being a bachelor, it's often joked that Callahan is married to his store, and that isn't entirely inaccurate. He lives alone with his bulldog, Max, and seems perfectly happy to do so even though he's in his late forties. When asked, he explains that he has a problem with commitment and enjoys his solitude, and he leaves it at that. He's had a few short-lived relationships over the years, but seems to have given it up by now. This doesn't stop the town gossips from trying to urge him to ask different ladies of the town out on a date, but Callahan is so used to this that he can laugh it off without a problem.
He has traveled out of town a number of times to find suppliers for his store and is a bit more knowledgeable about what's beyond Doyleton than some of the other townspeople, but that hasn't given him any wanderlust. He's perfectly happy with where he is and what he's doing.
A good-looking guy, Callahan is about 5'11" and has blue eyes and short brown hair that's going grey in places. Despite that, he's aged well. He's got rugged features and tends to always be sporting at least some stubble. He's in good shape because he goes for runs in the mornings before opening the store, and he's solidly built.
Ryan Hartman
The son of Perry Hartman, who runs the hardware store, Ryan had a fairly normal childhood up until his mother left when he was about five years old. He still doesn't quite understand the circumstances, but she left town and never came back, and Perry's unwillingness to explain much of anything meant that there was a large divide between them as Ryan grew up. About the only thing they could bond over was the fact that they both liked doing things with their hands. As a kid Ryan would explore his father's hardware store, learning how all the tools worked and quickly picking up an aptitude for it.
When he wasn't in the store, Ryan escaped out to the wilderness past the town and it was at that time that he started hunting small game. It was just for fun at first, but he realized he liked the sport of it -- and the fact that it meant that he could take something home for the two of them to eat. His father had to teach him how to properly skin and cook animals, but Ryan picked it up just as fast as he had the tools.
A very independent child out of necessity, when Ryan turned fifteen he decided that he wanted a job, and working as a butcher at the grocery store seemed like the best bet. Callahan wasn't interested in hiring a scrawny teenager, but Ryan literally went to the store every day in hopes of getting the man to agree. Callahan eventually caved, and Ryan has been working there ever since.
Now twenty-five, Ryan is as dedicated to his job as ever. He's turned out to be a very friendly, open young man despite his rough upbringing, and many of the townspeople admire him for this. He's not on the best terms with his father, but they've made their peace. He lives on his own in a small apartment and spends his free time with friends or out in the woods.
He will always greet customers warmly, patients of Landel's included, and is ready to give free samples of the cuts of meat to anyone who asks. (This sometimes gets him in trouble with Callahan if he overdoes it, though.) Despite his friendly demeanor, he won't often say that much about himself, preferring to focus on the meat and what everyone else has to say. He's inquisitive enough that he'll always have a question ready, however.
Ryan was scrawny as a boy and he's scrawny now, yet his arms are clearly toned enough to cut through thick slabs of meat with impressive precision. He's got red hair and his face is dotted with freckles. His eyes are green, and he's 5'8" tall.
Ryan's best friend is Bryce Tood who works at the Sheriff's Office (and also happens to be Callahan's nephew, which is how they got to know each other) and they often go for drinks at Crossroader's when their hours off coincide. He has a massive crush on Jennifer Shaw, but has never worked up the courage to say anything.
Crossroader’s Bar and Casino
Appearance
Crossroader’s is a Western-inspired bar and as such, it has a wood plank exterior complete with a wide wooden porch that runs the width of the building’s front. Two dark windows flank the heavy double doors that serve as the bar’s entrance. On the right window is the bar’s name emblazoned in gold lettering and a small, dusty flip-sign that indicates whether the bar is open or closed. Except for a few rare hours in the morning, the bar is almost always open. The left window is left bare, assumedly so the proprietor can more easily watch who is coming and going before his establishment. The double doors, capable of being barred from the inside in case of a lockdown, have no windows in them, and were once painted a forest green. Years of weathering have reduced the paint to a musky color and it’s difficult to tell the paint from the original wood apart. One door is usually propped open during business hours unless the weather outside doesn’t allow for it.
Inside, the bar continues with the Western theme with wood floors, tables, chairs, and a big wooden bar on the western wall where the proprietor, nicknamed Old Man Mathers, stands. The bar smells faintly of sawdust and the décor is in keeping with the rustic tone - yellowed light filters out from overhead stained glass lampshades, the three round wooden tables and their chairs are all made to look weathered, there’s even a bronze-colored spittoon at the northernmost end of the bar, and peanut shells are littered here and there. The bar is made of a deep mahogany and is backed by a large mirror, framed with shelves holding all manner of alcohol. Lined up below the bottles are glasses for said bottles, arranged from shortest in the front to tallest in the back along the wooden counter surface. All along the walls are printed signs that warn against rowdy behavior or guns on the premise and one sign that grants the bar owner rights to throw out anyone he deems unsavory.
The bar itself, however, is fairly modern. There is a beer tap with three handles (no labels, however), a separate spray tap for water, a stainless steel double sink, and a refrigerator for ice, milk, and other mixers hidden beneath the bar where customers can’t see. Above the north end of the bar hangs a Keno screen which, while on, is rarely actually used. The entrance to the bar is a swing door on the north end below the Keno screen. The bar features three stools on the south end, six along the eastern side, and two along the northern edge for a total of eleven available seats at the bar. The stools are wooden with worn red velvet cushion covers and no backs (http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/291792372/Wooden_bar_chair_CH_CH127.jpg).
In front of the bar sit three round tables and chairs. Three slot machines (the pull lever type) are lined up on the north wall besides the back exit, and three more (modern push button type) are on the east wall in the northeastern corner. Beside them stand one blackjack table and one billiard table, both with surprisingly clean and new green felt tabletops. There’s only one dealer for the entire casino, however, and he can usually be found sitting in his own seat behind the northernmost of the tables (the blackjack table), as far away from Mathers as possible.
In the back west corner of the bar is Mathers’ office and the restrooms, all three of which run parallel to the back wall. The male restroom is the northernmost room, with the female bathroom sandwiched between it and the office. The restrooms are unremarkable - two stalls each (with a urinal in the men’s room), yellow tiled with two white sinks each. Think of any public restroom you’ve been in and it’s the same. The wall signs in the bar are repeated here, including a sign saying that vandalism will be dealt with as a criminal offense. The bathroom doors open to the east.
The southernmost room, Mathers’ office, is locked at all times, but it contains the safe in the southeast corner, a desk with a typewriter sitting diagonal to face the door (one chair behind and two in front), a bookshelf in the northwest corner and a large, comfy looking sofa on the west wall. This door faces the bar and has a sign that reads “No unauthorized personnel allowed” on it in black and orange writing.
Behind the bar is a trap door that leads down into the basement. The stairs are wooden as well, and the basement itself is a small, cramped room that houses extra bottles of alcohol, a wine rack, cleaning supplies, glasses, cutlery, extra chairs and stools, cards and various things necessary upstairs. The tap system is on the eastern wall, the wine rack on the northern wall, while the other two are crowded with storage cabinets that house the extra stock for upstairs. Beneath the stairs are the extra stools, chairs and a replacement blackjack table still wrapped in plastic.
Maps
Ground Floor Basement
Staffing
There are only two people on staff at the bar - Mathers himself and the dealer, his son in law. Mathers is always behind the bar, regardless of whether there are customers in or not and the dealer sits at the blackjack tables, trying to keep out of his father-in-law’s way.
Exits
1) Front door - Southern wall, heavy double doors capable of being barred from the inside, no windows.
2) Two windows - Southern wall on either side of the front door. These are the only windows in the place.
3) Back door - North wall, straight across from the front doors. It’s a single door, wooden with a turn knob and a bolt lock. It is never locked when the place is open because it serves as the emergency exit.
4) Trap door behind the bar on the floor - It leads to the basement. Locked at all times. Mathers has the key.
Equipment/Supplies
The bar itself has a rifle underneath it, which is Mathers’ own personal weapon. It’s well known around town that he keeps it, despite the “no gun” policy for his customers. There is a box of shells beneath the counter as well next to the rifle. In Mathers’ office is another rifle, decommissioned above the sofa, and three extra boxes of ammunition in a locked desk drawer. The safe contains money from both the bar and the coin earned at the slots and the blackjack tables. Otherwise, anything you might find at a bar can be found here, including shakers, ice picks, stirrers, tongs, etc. Despite Mathers’ appearance, he’s actually quite good at making mixed drinks.
The office has a typewriter on the desk and a more modern laptop hidden in the lap drawer. The top drawer of the desk is locked and has three boxes of ammunition along with extra keys to the bar. The bottom drawer contains files and tax papers in manila folders. The bookshelf has three shelves and has books on cooking, wine-tasting, how to make your own microbrews, novels and history books on the Old West, a single interior decorating book, and several books on how to make mixed drinks.
NPCs
Old Man Mathers
His real name is Jeremy Aaron Mathers, but hardly a soul in town remembers that anymore. He earned the nickname Old Man Mathers long before he was old because he went grey around the age of 24. Now at a respectable age of 54 and standing at a hefty 6’2, Mathers has someone earned his nickname. He has the build of a retired football player and sports a short, grizzled gray beard to go along with a crop of short gray hair. He tends to dress down at the bar, wearing jeans beneath the long black half apron tied at his waist, but his shirts can be anything from a flannel shirt over a wifebeater with the sleeves rolled up to old dress shirts and ties.
Oddly enough, it isn’t Mathers who has an obsession with the Wild West, but his late wife Miranda. She passed on many years ago from illness and Mathers has rarely gone home since, preferring to sleep on the couch in the office than go back to an empty house. He started working the bar when he and Miranda got married (it belonged to her family), and has since kept it as she would have wanted. Most people, however, wouldn’t know he had ever been married as he doesn’t wear a wedding ring and there are no photographs of his family anywhere.
Mathers did have a child at one time, though - a daughter by the name of Sandra. Sandra married an out of towner, but moved back home when she began having complications with her first pregnancy. Unfortunately, much like her mother, she passed away young, leaving Mathers with a son-in-law he barely knew and a grandson he couldn’t bear to look at for the resemblance he bears to his lost family. His son-in-law and his grandson live in his house, which Mathers visits to shower, eat and change clothes before he goes back to the bar.
One might think it’s because of the tragedies in his life that Mathers is so gruff, but he’s actually been that way his entire life. Miranda, like Sandra, had always been the soft touch to his grating personality, and so without them, his flaws are much more apparent. Mathers smokes cigars, drinks whiskey, chews tobacco on occasion, and has a peculiar habit of cleaning the glasses of his bar even when they don’t need to be cleaned. He’s taciturn and extremely sarcastic, but he’s a damn good bartender and can eventually warm up to a person if they become a long time patron. Despite his rough edges, he generally gets on with the people in Doyleton so long as they don’t speak ill of the bar or his habits. On his off hours, when he’s not sleeping, Mathers usually goes out into the surrounding woods and goes shooting. He smokes his own meats from what he kills and will sometimes gift them to people around town, albeit without any prior notice or messages saying who it’s from.
Steven Enrique Williams
One of the few new people to the town in awhile, Steven married Sandra Mathers and moved to the town when she became pregnant. Sandra had always said Doyleton was a nice place and she didn’t want to leave her father alone. Having come from out of town, Steven had never met his father-in-law and had no idea what to expect. Now with Sandra gone and him taking care of their son, Matthew Evans, he’s gotten to know Mathers quite well - and is thoroughly terrified of him. Even if Mathers has done little to provoke such reactions, his general nature is so opposite of Sandra, that Steven has no idea what to do with him.
Steven is a young 28 year old single father, half Hispanic, half Caucasian, with stronger resemblances to his Spanish heritage. His skin is tanned and his hair dark and swept back. He wears a nice dealer’s suit to work, but tends to hang out by the tables away from Mathers as much as possible, usually reading a book. He can only be found at the bar during school hours, otherwise he’s at home with his son. Unlike his father-in-law, Steven is mild-mannered, polite, soft-spoken, doesn’t smoke, drink or go hunting. He does most of the Crossroad’s taxes (his job before coming to Doyleton was as an accountant) and it’s his laptop that is in the office.
When not at work, Steven is with his son and can be seen taking the 6 year old around town. They often visit the park and the toy store, but can also be found at Twin Pines Restaurant where Steven treats his son to a root beer float once every two weeks.
Hal’s Used Cars
Hearth and Home Handcrafted Furniture
Kitchin' Fixins'
Appearance
The space rented out to Kitchin' Fixins' consists of a two-story building made of red brick, a six-car parking lot in the front, and a fenced area toward the back. A green-and-black dumpster is set at the right side of the building with a sign "For Kitcin' Fixins' Use Only" and a list of penalties and fines associated for misuse of the dumpster. The building holds six huge windows: four in the front and two in the back. All the second story windows are covered and cannot be seen into from the outside. The storefront sign gives off a happy, homey feeling and is set above the two first-story windows at the front. The entrance consists two glass doors. The store's name and the hours of operation are set on the right door in white letters.
Inside, the homey motif is emphasized. The interior is laid out in polished wooden flooring and pretty creme country-themed wallpaper. The store has four aisles, each lined with shelves that reach just above six feet. Shelves are also lined against the side and back walls. Every inch of shelving space is dedicated to Kitchin' Fixins' products.
The register is located on the middle of the right wall from the entrance. The cutlery is stored behind the register in a large glass case. To prevent the careless from tampering with sharp things, the glass case is locked securely and is made of shatterproof glass. The only ones with access to the cutlery are Terrance, the manager, and Vanessa, the senior cashier. A sign saying that unauthorized individuals who are caught tampering with the glass case will be banned from the store for a year is taped onto the front of the case.
Toward the back of the store contains more shelves and two doors: one leading to the back area and the other leading toward the stairs to the second floor. Both doors are always locked, though the locks for both doors can be broken with enough force. The back area is surprisingly empty, consisting of nothing but dusty asphalt and a green wired fence surrounding the perimeter. There is a gate, but that, too, is shut tight with a padlock. Unfortunately, no one has the key to the padlock.
Upstairs, the interior is bleak. And dark. The manager seems to hate the light and has made it policy to keep the windows in the second floor covered. A desk is situated toward the center of the room and above it is the solitary ceiling light. Surrounding the desk are piles upon piles of inventory and record-keeping books. Compared to the warmth of the first floor, the second is a chaotic black hole. Only the manager seems to enjoy being in there for more than an hour.
Staffing
More likely than not, customers will see and interact with Vanessa and David, the stocker. Terrance, the manager, remains upstairs unless there is a problem Vanessa and David cannot handle or one of them is absent. Teenage girls like to hangout in the store after school and on the weekends, where they either giggle, talk to David, or help David shelve inventory.
Exits
1) Front door
2) Back door
3) Gate
Equipment/Supplies
Anything related to the kitchen and BBQ can be found here, except for appliances and furniture as Doyleton's storefront is not large enough to house those items. Those have to be ordered via catalog for mail delivery. Upstairs, you can find papers, notebooks, ledgers, sticky notes, pens, pencils, erasers, tape (invisible, masking, and duct), scissors, a stapler, and tacks in the desk drawers. You can also find lots of boxes full of inventory in the second floor. If you like garbage, head for the dumpster on the side of the building.
Notes
Those who have been in the store since Night 42 might notice a difference in the organization of the store's interior. Everything has been rearranged. Patients would need to take note of any changes. Also, those who have made it onto the roof that night might have done so via climbing on the dumpster.
NPCs
Tennessee Blake
A kitchen is normally thought of as a place for warmth and comfort, a constant presence in the home. Tennessee, unfortunately, is the antithesis of this concept in nearly every conceivable way. Often described as a heartless miser by employees (and a heartless bastard by former employees), the manager of Doyleton's Kitchin' Fixins' franchise runs his store with a dictator's attitude and a sociopath's light touch. Although highly intelligent and shrewd, Tennessee seems to take an amoral, utilitarian approach to life and is far from hesitant in belittling anyone--customers, employees, and visitors alike--if they happen to violate his cardinal rules. Many are often shocked to find that the seemingly cozy locale is managed by what is likely an emotionally disturbed individual, and yet no one has seen it fit to put in a formal complaint. This may be due to the manager's propensity to stay in the back office during normal business hours.
His personal life and history are a bit of a mystery to the denizens of Doyleton, though it is a common fact that he is Kitchin' Fixins' first and only manager. Those who have been in the town for more than twenty years would claim that at one point, Tennessee was married. He also supposedly graduated with honors from a big-name university. Sadly, no one can seem to recall either the name of his wife or the school he attended. Because the man never divulges, most dismiss these as rumors.
Tall and lanky to the point of emaciation, Tennessee maintains thin brown hair and pale blue eyes with sunken lids. His skin is an unhealthy white, likely from his time spent in windowless rooms. Despite being in his early forties, the man appears at least ten years older, though some of his features suggest he might have been handsome in his younger days. He dresses rather conservatively: dark sweaters and beige slacks tend to be the norm. Whenever he is working (which is always), he can be seen wearing Kitchin' Fixins' signature red apron.
Vanessa Richards
The sole cashier and sales clerk of Kitchin' Fixins', Vanessa is a native to Doyleton. Due to an early marriage and subsequent divorce, she never had the chance to further her life outside of the town, and as a result, the woman can be rather naive to the rest of the world. Regardless, she is a sweet, friendly woman and likely the primary reason the store maintains a warm, culinary atmosphere. Unsurprisingly, Vanessa is the only employee who managed to stay for more than a week.
At the age of 28, brown-eyed Vanessa is relatively petite in height and a bit pudgy around the torso area. She keeps her waist-length strawberry blond hair in a tight French braid. To better fit the atmosphere, she dresses like a picturesque suburban wife--right down to the warm, bright colors and random apple-print scarves. In the store, she wears Kitchin' Fixins' red apron. When amused, the woman laughs with a distinctive, high-pitched giggle, which tends to border on being annoying to the right (or wrong) people. On her downtime, she enjoys making various cakes. The hobby has been significant enough for her to run a little side business (which her boss pointedly ignores).
She has a five-year-old daughter named Quinn.
David Harper
The part-time stocker of Kitchin' Fixins', David is a high school student working at store to help pay for his upcoming college career. He is the running back for the high school football team and consequently, has a muscular (at times, frightening) build. Even-tempered and unassuming for a jock, the young man is a hard worker, to the point where he often comes in on school nights to cover the lack of help. When the store is extremely busy, he will take over the duty of cashier for Vanessa.
With copper-toned hair, baby blue eyes, and handsome features, David is a popular target for teenage girls. As a result, females between the ages of fifteen and seventeen like to hang out in Kitchin' Fixins'. Tennesse takes advantage of this from time to time by making them work, which they are more than happy to oblige if it means more time with David.
Maps
Overview, First Floor, Second Floor, Gate and Backdoor, Office Door, Register Area
Lil’ Tyke Toys
Magus Park
Megahit Movie Rentals
Bill's Hardware
Black Rock Inn
Appearance
Ever since Doyleton was founded there has always been an inn on the site where the Black Rock Inn now stands, though the current building is not the original one. The first building burned to the ground in a terrible fire almost sixty years ago and was entirely rebuilt up to modern (at that time) standards with care to preserve "the building's historical facade." It has been well tended since then, and it shows from the outside.
The building is a two-story brick structure surrounded by a carefully tended lawn and flowerbeds that are a riot of color in the right seasons. The large covered front porch has a wooden swing and a small table with a pair of matching chairs, for those who wish to sit outside in nice weather. Behind the building is an outdoor pool, open between mid-April and early October and covered the rest of the year, and a one-net tennis court. A small stretch of lawn separates the tennis court from a two-bedroom caretaker's cottage in the lot behind the Inn.
Inside, the lobby of the Black Rock Inn is plush and comfortable; to the left of the entryway is the front desk, with its polished wood counter behind which is the door to the Inn's office. To the right of the entry is a sitting area, with a crackling fireplace surrounded by a sofa and comfortable chairs upholstered in a dark green color that complements the patterned wallpaper.
Should anyone get past the front counter and into the office, they would find an almost obsessively neat area with every single piece of paper filed away and not a speck of dust allowed to rest on any surface. It contains a desk against the far wall, a row of file cabinets on the left-hand wall, and the right wall is lined with shelves with neat, matching plastic storage boxes. There is a monitor and a docking station for a laptop on the desk (though whether or not a laptop is there depends on the time of day and who is working).
Beyond the sitting area a half-wall of brass-trimmed glass delineates the dividing line to the Inn's bar; though it does have a classic bar counter with stools and a handful of high tables and chairs, the "bar" is in truth as much a small cafe with a good stock of alcoholic beverages. The townspeople who want dinner in a slightly classier establishment than the Tasty Burger or Twin Pines will visit the Inn's bar on weekend nights for a pretense at being cosmopolitan. The bar houses a small kitchen that can't produce a lot of food very quickly, but does well with the small steady business it usually sees.
An addition on the back of the Inn houses the maintenance and housekeeping facilities; there's a workbench on the far wall often littered with tools and projects from small appliances to the lawn mower's motor, an industrial-sized washer and dryer on the right-hand wall, and cabinets with cleaning supplies and tools for small repairs on the left. Larger tools, gardening equipment, and the lawn mower are kept in a separate shed by the caretaker's cottage.
There is a single suite on the ground floor of the Inn, accessible from a door around the back. It has one bedroom, a sitting room, a separate bathroom, and a tiny kitchenette area, and is referred to as the "honeymoon suite." It's decorated in white and cream with lavender accents, and boasts a double-size jetted tub in the bathroom.
The other rooms at the Inn are on the second floor, accessible from a slightly creaky elevator on the far side of the front desk, a stairway that opens out beside the elevator doors, or a stairway that goes up the outside of the building to a door that opens on the central hallway upstairs. Eight doors lead off to either side of the hallway, each one much like the rest; they all have a small bathroom with a tub/shower combination, a bed, a desk with an uncomfortable wooden chair, two night tables, and a dresser with a television on top. Six of the rooms have king beds, four have queen beds, and each one has a different color dominating the decor to distinguish them.
Room 1 is pale blues and cream, room 2 is light yellow and floral patterns, room 3 is dark red and brown with an autumn theme, room 4 is sage green and light brown, room 5 is dark greens and blues, room 6 is tan with a wild-duck theme, room 7 has a rose theme with greens and pinks, room 8 is navy blue and cream, room 9 is a rustic theme with a homemade quilt and embroidery samplers on the walls, and room 10 is pale gold and black.
Staffing
There is always one desk clerk at the front desk, usually Jennifer or Sarah, though Loreen and Jessica will fill in should one of them be sick or need a break. Trevor mans the bar while it's open (between 11 am and midnight on weekends) and Amber is there as the cook during lunch (11 am - 2 pm) and dinner (5 pm - 8 pm) hours; when Amber isn't there the bar only serves drinks or simple, easily prepared foods. In the mornings Sandra will be about cleaning the rooms, and Loreen is often in the back office going over the books. Jessica keeps her own hours, usually depending on what needs to be done, but normally comes in around 9 am and leaves somewhere in the late afternoon.
Exits
1) Front door: wooden door inset with glass panels. It has a lock on it, but has never been locked in anyone's memory. There is a bell on a cord above the door that rings when it's opened.
2) Office door: leads from the area behind the front counter into the Inn's office. It's a half-and-half split door, and the bottom half is always locked though the top half will be open when someone is working in the office.
3) Back door: wooden door with a window in the top half. A sign in the window advises that it is locked between 10 pm and 7 am and for the convenience of the guests other entrances are available.
4) Kitchen door: the kitchen area in the hotel bar has a door leading into the back yard by the garbage dumpster.
5) Windows: two large picture windows in the sitting area, two more in the sitting area of the bar, and two smaller windows on either side of the fireplace. Only the last two windows are actually designed to open (lifting vertically).
6) Stairs: open stairway that leads from the area beside the front desk/office up to the second floor.
7) Elevator: next to the staircase, goes up to the second floor. The elevator is a bit older and creaks ominously when used.
8) Outside stairs: covered stairway on the outside of the building that goes up to the second floor hallway.
9) Room doors: ten doors that lead from the second-floor hallway into the various rooms.
10) Room windows: each of the rooms has two windows on the outside wall, both of which are designed to open vertically but have nails in the tracks that prevent them from lifting more than three inches. The windows of rooms 1 and 7 are above the honeymoon suite and the addition for the housekeeping staff, respectively, and thus there's only a one-story drop from there onto the outbuildings.
Equipment/Supplies
There is a small, very old computer behind the front desk; it keeps track of the reservations and rooms, but can barely keep up with that and can't manage anything else. There are also some basic office supplies and a small cabinet with racks of keys under the counter.
The office, accessed through the door behind the counter, has file cabinets along one wall that contain records for the Inn; it's lots of boring invoices and records of stays and bills and maintenance reports and so on and so forth. The desk drawers will yield general office supplies and writing utensils, though the locked bottom drawer contains a .22 caliber handgun and a box of extra ammunition; the key to that drawer can be found in the cabinet under the front desk. The plastic storage boxes on the shelves are all neatly labeled: most contain more files, but others have tools and maintenance supplies (like light bulbs, fuses, screws, nails, etc).
Next to the fireplace is a wrought-iron rack bolted to the wall which contains a poker, a small broom, and an ash shovel, all made of heavy black iron.
The bar has a fairly good selection of alcoholic beverages, plus the general equipment one would expect to find in a bar. The kitchen behind the bar likewise has a refrigerator, freezer, and pantry stocked with food, and has the sorts of implements one would expect to find in a restaurant kitchen (pots, pans, cooking utensils, knives, dishes, etc).
The maintenance/housekeeping outbuilding will yield small tools from the workbench and cleaning equipment and supplies from the cabinets. There's a storage shed farther away (closed with an older padlock that wouldn't take much effort to break) that contains a lawnmower, a string trimmer, hedge clippers, gardening tools, fertilizer, weed killer, pesticides, and other such supplies.
The Inn's rooms are fairly standard hotel rooms, with solidly built furniture, small toiletries in the bathrooms, and a Bible in the drawer of one of the bedside tables.
Notes
TBA if questions arise
NPCs
Loreen Shaw
Loreen and her husband Andrew rebuilt the Black Rock Inn and ran it together for years, putting their children to work on various tasks appropriate for their age to "teach them the value of work." As they grew older, however, none of them seemed interested in taking over for their parents and when Andrew died, Loreen hired a manager from out of town to take over the Inn for her. His mismanagement nearly bankrupted the place and Loreen reluctantly took over again, but by this point she's old enough that she lets the other employees deal with most of the day-to-day affairs.
She was a great beauty in her day and some of that is still visible even though she's now in her early seventies. Loreen dresses neatly and professionally, even if some of the styles are somewhat dated, and she keeps her pure-white hair pulled into a braid that almost reaches her waist. She wears a pair of dark-rimmed half-moon glasses that often rest librarian-style at the tip of her nose to allow her to frown disapprovingly at anyone who "causes a ruckus" in the Inn, which could range from speaking too loud to treating the furnishings with less than proper respect.
In a fashion the Inn is one of her children and she cares for it very much. She lives in a small cottage on the grounds behind the building and will occasionally man the desk if someone needs to take a break, but if she's working she'll normally be hidden in the back office or out inspecting the building.
Jennifer Shaw
Jennifer is Loreen's granddaughter and the only member of her family who still works at the Inn. She's in her late twenties and bears a strong resemblance to her grandmother at that age, enough that the long-time residents of the town will comment on it. This means that she's of average height but highly attractive proportions, has natural blonde hair and blue eyes, and does not react in any noticeable way to attempts to flirt with her. In other words, she's entirely polite and professional to everyone.
Though she claims to have no ambition other than to take over management of the Inn and stay in Doyleton forever, she secretly dreams of working in a big city and the walls of her tiny studio apartment are covered with travel posters of skyscrapers and foreign cities. She lives alone and has never showed any real interest in dating, to the dismay of her mother and grandmother, and occasionally the topic of conversation at Pearl's will turn to which "nice young man" should be set up on a date with Jennifer. She has, however, turned down every offer of a blind date so far, because she thinks dating a Doyleton boy will interfere with her dreams.
Sarah Frazier
Sarah started working at the Inn in high school and when she graduated two years ago was promoted from a mere desk clerk to a shift supervisor. Given how few employees work at the Inn it wasn't much of a promotion, but she's quite proud of it nonetheless and is convinced she'll be the manager in no time. Though her family and friends are convinced that she could do well in college, given her grades, she's always shrugged off any suggestion of it and insists she's perfectly happy where she is.
She dresses fashionably, if a little conservatively, and keeps her bleached-blonde hair pulled into a neat updo or French braid depending on the day. She idolizes Jennifer a little and therefore Sarah tries to imitate her mannerisms; anyone who comes to the counter of the Inn, whether they be a paying customer or an Institute visitor, is treated with an air of cool professionalism, and she prefers to exude confidence and competence than friendliness.
Her twin sister Janice works at Pearl's Beauty Salon, and the two of them look similar enough that they've often been mistaken for one another.
Amber Chapman
Amber bears a strong resemblance to her maternal grandmother, who immigrated from India as a young woman; she keeps her dark hair long, only reluctantly pulling it back into a ponytail when she's at work, and is known as one of the great beauties of Doyleton. She works at the Inn part-time as the cook in the bar/restaurant, and will tell anyone who asks (and some who didn't) that she's only there long enough to save up money to go to a real city and attend culinary school. She thinks very highly of the food she produces, though anywhere else she'd be a fairly ordinary line cook.
As the bar only serves actual meals during lunch and dinner hours she isn't at the Inn very much and it isn't terribly likely an Institute visitor will find her there, and if they do it's even less likely she'll be at all helpful. She wouldn't be outright rude, but she isn't at all interested in talking to people she thinks are "below" her, and visitors from Landel's most definitely fall into that category.
Though at twenty-four she's quite a bit younger than Tam Scotch she's had a crush on the sheriff for years, entirely unaware that it's doomed. She's convinced that she can win his heart over somehow, and will often just happen to wander by the sheriff's office with some leftover food item from the Inn's kitchens when it closes after the lunch hour.
Trevor Cobb
Trevor is classically tall, dark, and handsome: he has a perfectly-tamed mop of curly black hair, dark eyes, and lashes long enough to suit any woman, and there are several young Doyleton ladies who visit the bar at the Black Rock Inn as much to flirt with the bartender as to enjoy the selection of alcoholic beverages. Despite all their efforts, however, he's been steadily dating Jessica Reid for the last three years, though they have yet to make it official enough to move in with each other.
He's friendly enough on the outside and highly charismatic, but underneath that he has the soul of a shriveled, rotten apple. There have been several "incidents" in which he lost his temper with someone else and ended up at the sheriff's office to answer to assault charges, but he's always managed to talk his way out of it in the end. As such Tam Scotch and his deputies watch Trevor with deep suspicion, and more than once have been seen taking Jessica aside to have a chat with her, but still nothing has come of it.
Trevor is also highly uncomfortable around anyone different, meaning that the residents of the Institute will meet a very chilly welcome from the Inn's bartender should they encounter him. He hates and fears anything and anyone that makes him uncomfortable, so will likely chase any strangers out of the bar with harsh words and, if necessary, violence. He'll be properly apologetic if any other employees catch him at it, of course, and confident that he can talk his way out of anything, but thinks "those crazy weirdos" should stay in the lobby and out of his way if they know what's good for them.
Sandra Wright
Sandra is a slightly plump, friendly-looking woman with greying hair kept confined in a tight bun. She's worked as a housekeeper at the Inn since she was in her mid-twenties, and since she's now just past fifty she knows every little nook and cranny in the place and isn't at all reluctant to talk about it. It doesn't matter if someone is a town resident or an Institute visitor, if someone asks her a question in a friendly manner she'll be more than willing to give more information than anyone ever might have wanted.
She lives in a house in the residential neighborhoods with her husband and two dogs, since her youngest (of two) just turned eighteen and moved out last year, a fact she'll also be willing to share with anyone who shows the slightest interest. She's perfectly content to keep working at the Inn ("for as long as my knees will let me," she'll say with a wink) and her home is just as neat and spotless as she keeps the guest rooms. Sandra is also fond of baking and will sometimes bring the fruits of her labors to the employees at the front desk.
Her younger sister is Hattie Fellows at Mountain Antiques, and she's more than happy to send business in her sister's direction.
Jessica Reid
Jessica was once a promising gymnast: she started taking lessons as a child and showed a great deal of potential, with talk of competing in the Olympics in a couple of years, but injuries sustained in a car accident at age 12 ruined her dreams of continuing. Now twelve years later she's still small and solidly muscled like one would expect an ex-gymnast to be (she started swimming for rehab after the accident and has stuck with it), but she walks with a slight limp, favoring her weaker right leg. She has dark hair that would reach to her waist if she didn't keep it confined to a thick braid, grey eyes, and a scattering of freckles across her cheeks. Her clothing is always casual, usually just jeans and a tshirt (with the addition of a hoodie in colder weather), but also always clean and in good condition.
She's officially in charge of maintenance and repair at the Inn, but she'll also fill in for Sandra or the desk clerks if there's a need. Her younger brother Brendan works part-time at the Monkey Wrench, and town rumor is that the two of them can fix anything that's broken. The maintenance workbench in the back of the Inn will often have small repair projects that she's taken on for townspeople (watches, toys, toasters, you name it) amongst the repair work she's doing for the Inn.
Visitors to the Inn might encounter her wandering about, fixing something, or filling in for a desk clerk who had to leave for a few minutes. She isn't very talkative but is never outright rude with anyone. The people from the Institute are just more people to her, neither good, bad, scary, nor weird. She's been dating the bartender, Trevor Cobb, for the last three years. Though she won't say much about their relationship to anyone else, there have been instances where she's showed up to work with odd bruises or injuries that she'll shrug off without comment.
Maps
First floor, second floor
The Bookworm
Appearance
The Bookworm is a fairly large building compared to some of the other establishments on Main Street. It's constructed out of wood and is much longer than it is wide. The exterior is plain, with only one set of windows at the front. The door leading in is made of glass and has some old newspaper clippings posted onto it, all with trivial details about the town itself: a bake sale, a summer job offered, and other similar things that don't give much useful information. There is also a sign on the front of the store in bubbly letters that alternate red and blue, spelling "BOOKWORM" with a design of a worm crawling through the two letter O's.
Inside, it is, of course, quiet -- feeling more like a library than a bookstore. There is an entrance area that has a metal stand holding copies of the local newspaper (which is weekly). A little past that is the front desk, where at least one of the workers will almost always be standing (unless the store is particularly crowded and both are busy with patrons). The front desk has some fliers on it advertising new books that have come in, but in reality almost all of the books are used and have been donated from one person or another. This means that they all generally show signs of having been read before, whether dog-eared or missing pages or whatever else.
Much like the outside, the inside is made up of wood, from the walls to the shelves to the floorboards. The floorboards creak when walked on, but in a pleasant sort of way. It makes it feel like the place is old rather than not cared for. The whole store is sort of dusty, in fact, since many of the sections don't get much in the way of traffic from the local townspeople.
Most of the store is taken up by shelves that stretch from floor to ceiling, packed so close together that sometimes it's hard to navigate through the cramped area. There are four aisles with books stacked on each side, giving a total of eight lengths of shelves to look through.
The aisle on the east side of the store has fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and romance novels. The one next to that has general fiction and literature. The one next to that has non-fiction, including textbooks, biographies, and other technical books. The final one, on the west side of the store, has religion, self-help, and inspirational books. Travel books, history texts, and anything else that would contain detailed information about the town or the world surrounding it seem to be missing.
At the very back of the store three are a few wooden benches where patients can sit and read, but in the event of those being filled up, there are a few stepping stools scattered around that could be used instead. There are also two carts that are used to hold books that need to be shelved and will also be scattered somewhere around the store.
At the back of the store there is a door that leads into a small staff area with a rarely-used office (meant for inventory and other paperwork) and a bathroom that is staff-only. Past that is a back door that is also barely ever used, but that was installed for safety reasons.
Staffing
The Bookworm is only staffed by two people, as the job is a fairly simple one. The owner of the store is Margaret Baum, and she is more or less there every single day from open to close. (The hours are 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, however, so she's not spending her entire life at the store by any means.) Her younger helper, Stephanie Masler, is usually there five days a week, though she's made sure to be present on Saturdays ever since the trips from Landel's have started.
Both of them will usually be standing at the front desk unless newly received books need to be shelved, in which case Stephanie will take on that task since Margaret isn't quite as able as she used to be in her older age. Stephanie is also the one who usually wanders around to answer questions or find books for people on request, whereas Margeret generally remains at the front desk to greet and also answer questions. Margaret handles inventory and most of the transactions performed at the store, few though they may be.
They are both happy to let customers wander the store or sit down to page through a book, understanding that the store is mainly treated as a library by most.
Exits
1) Front door: A glass door with a metal handle leading into the store from the street. This is the only entrance that can be used by customers.
2) Windows: There are only two paned windows that are on either side of the front door. They are large and could be broken/climbed through if need be.
3) Staff room door: The door at the back of the store that leads into the back area. Simple wood door with a knob.
4) Bathroom door: In the staff area; leads to the bathroom. Simple wood door with a knob.
5) Office door: In the staff area; leads to the office. Simple wood door with a knob.
6) Back door: The door that leads from the back of the staff area out into the alley behind the store. This exit is hardly ever used and so it is usually locked, though it could be broken through if need be.
Equipment/Supplies
The book store obviously has books, and lots of them. If your character is looking for a specific one, feel free to clear it with a mod. Most popular fiction would be allowed. The front desk contains some loose pieces of paper and a few pens that have been gnawed on and are halfway out of ink.
The office in the back has some more office supplies, but not as much as a place like the sheriff's office, for instance. Pads of paper, staplers, pens and pencils, white-out, etc. There's also a typewriter on the desk that looks like it doesn't get much use, and a safe tucked away in the corner of the room, used to lock up the store's earnings. The office also has a mini fridge where the two employees store their lunches, so various food items could be found in there.
NPCs
Margaret Baum
Much like Pearl, Margaret was born and raised in Doyleton and has never seen much reason for leaving. She is happy with her simple life, and more than that, she feels a strong attachment to the town ever since her husband died. All of her memories of him are from time they spent in Doyleton, and so she thinks it would be a disservice to him to leave it. Part of the reason she started up the Bookworm was because her late husband, Roger Baum, was a fan of reading despite the fact that he was a mechanic who worked at Monkey Wrench. For that reason, Margaret often talks to Joe, who was close to her husband due to working with him.
Margaret has extreme pride in her store, which is why if it's open, she's always there. She knows the location of every book and makes sure to read up on any new book that is donated or obtained for her store. When it's slow, she reads or talks to her helper, Stephanie, who in many ways is like a daughter to her (despite the fact that Stephanie has her own parents).
Part of this is because Margaret is a very motherly figure in general, despite having never had any children. She likes to take care of people, but not in a condescending way. She is simply a warm and helpful person who wants her customers to find the books they want and get as much joy out of them as she does. She sometimes even reads the romance novels, though she generally does this in secret, not even admitting it to Stephanie.
However, she realizes that the inventory at her store isn't the best, which she feels somewhat embarrassed about when it comes to the Landel's patients. They tend to ask her for things that she doesn't have, which upsets her because she'd like to give them what they want. She feels for the patients since they tend to bring out that motherly instinct in her, though she's more strict about giving away books than Stephanie is.
Margaret's closest friend is Miss Dwight who runs the Bath and Beauty Shop, and they'll often have "girls nights" together where they read, light candles, and try out beauty products while engaging in the usual town gossip.
Margaret stands at about 5'4", has short white hair, and is slightly overweight. She is always wearing bright colors and a bright smile.
Stephanie Masler
The oldest daughter of Hal (the same Hal who runs the used car shop), Stephanie has had quite the interesting life. She's spent most of it raising her six younger siblings, seeing how her parents couldn't handle all of that on their own. Due to this, she's actually rather mature and independent for her age despite that fact that she still lives with her family. She sees it as her obligation to stay and help, even if the house is always crowded and noisy.
For this reason, the bookstore is sometimes a sanctuary for her due to being so quiet. She's very close with Margaret, who gives her the attention that her parents often can't. The two of them are like close friends, always finding something to talk about when the store is slow (and if Margaret isn't busy reading).
Despite the way that Stephanie grew up, she's a kind girl with a surprisingly open mind. She's never breathed a word of it to anyone, but sometimes she wishes she could just leave the town and her family to see the world and go to college, but she knows that just wouldn't be possible. She has too many obligations to just up and leave.
Her open-minded nature means that she has a good amount of interest in the patients. Growing up in a small town means she's a bit sheltered, so she was wary of them at first. After some more interaction with them, she's become more and more willing to talk to them, and she can't help noticing how attractive some of the male patients are. She's much more likely to be talked into sneaking a patient a book or exchanging one for coupons, knowing that she can always talk her way out of it if Margaret finds out.
Stephanie is friends with Lindsey Peterson, who works at Pearl's Beauty Salon, but she doesn't spend as much time with her as she'd like because she's not fond of Lindsey's friend Janice and believes that Janice is using Lindsey. However, she'll sneak Lindsey a book every now and then, returning it to its spot in the store when the other girl has finished reading it.
Stephanie is thin as a rod and has straight brown hair that goes down to her shoulders. She's 5'6" and always has bright colors on. She's fond of skirts and bracelets, but wears little makeup.
Callahan's Grocer
Appearance
Located smack-dab in the middle of Main Street, Callahan's Grocer is one of the largest buildings in Doyleton. While it is two stories tall, the upper level is reserved for the offices of Dr. Richard Smith. The lower level is all taken up by the grocery store, however. The exterior of the building is made of white plaster, with some fresh fruit always on display up front to try and entice people in. The store's sign is prominent, with brown lettering in a rather dignified font. It has two automatic doors that allow people inside. To the right of the doors are two shopping carts and a large number of baskets to choose from to store groceries.
The whole floor is made out of linoleum in a typical black-and-white checkered pattern. It's always well-light inside and despite it being two floors, there is a high ceiling with a number of ceiling fans to keep the place cool during the summer. The walls are all painted a shade of white that borders on cream-colored. Thanks to a stereo that Callahan usually has set up at the register, there is often music playing, though it's not ever kept that loud. Generally he only plays country, folk, or soft rock.
There is only one check-out register set up, though it has a conveyor belt and bagging area like most grocery stores. Directly to the right upon entering the store is the butcher area, with a glass display case showing off a number of different kinds of meats, from beef to pork to lamb. One thing that the grocer is missing is fresh fish, though every now and then there will be a special due to Callahan going himself to fish out of the nearby river. Next to the meat counter is a generic ATM for anyone who needs to draw out cash or deposit money.
All of the produce is on the left hand of the store's entrance, including any fruit that isn't on display outside along with a number of vegetables. Produce is the thing that Callahan has the most variety of, so it's only rare or foreign fruits and vegetables that wouldn't be available.
The rest of the store is made up aisles with all the expected necessities. Bread, cheese, rice, yogurt, milk, boxed dinners, canned foods, etc etc. In terms of non-perishables, there's a lot to choose from. There isn't a huge variety for bread or cheese, but definitely enough to get by. A lot of fruits to choose from means that there is a lot of variety in juices as well.
At the very back of the store is where the refrigerated items are kept, and there is also a small freezer section that contains some TV dinners, ice cream, and so forth. Also at the back of the store is a swinging door that leads into the back storage area that contains all of the extra shipments of food. There are two walk-in refrigerators on the east wall that keep all the perishables, but the rest of it is all stacked in boxes. This area also has a garage door that opens up the back of the store so that the shipments can be easily moved inside from the delivery truck. A door on the west side of the store leads into a small office where all of the bookkeeping is done. A staff-only bathroom is accessible through the office itself.
There are both stairs and an elevator that lead to the second floor of the building; they are in the northeast corner of the main store area.
Staffing
Surprisingly enough, Callahan's Grocer is only staffed by two people: Aaron Callahan himself, and Ryan Hartman, the butcher. This is due to the fact that Callahan is something of a workaholic and also tends to not trust many people with caring for his store. Callahan works full hours (9:00AM - 5:00PM) every day of the week, though Ryan's hours are a bit more flexible. He works full-time on the weekends but only in the afternoons during the work week.
Stocking is something that both of them work on when the store is empty or customers are still browsing, but Callahan always manages to make it back to the front register in time to ring people up. He isn't generally worried about stealing, though there are security cameras set up in the event that something does happen.
Callahan is most commonly found at the register and Ryan behind the meat counter, but they are known to wander and if Callahan is bored enough he'll go out to the front of the store to chat with passersby.
Exits
1) Front doors: Two automatic sliding doors that work on a sensor and let people into the store. It is shut off after hours so no one can get in.
2) Windows: The store has two large windows on either side of the front doors, but they are not meant to be opened.
3) Swinging door: The door that leads from the main store into the back area. No one is allowed into the back area, and there is a sign attached to the door reading "Staff Only."
4) Office door: Leads from the back area into the office. Almost always locked; Callahan has the key.
5) Bathroom door: Leads from the office into a small bathroom. Staff-only, unless someone is having an emergency.
6) Garage door: Taking up most of the back end of the building, a large metal garage door that opens up to let deliveries in. It's only ever open when the truck is there, and the button to open is kept under lock and key.
Equipment/Supplies
The main thing that the grocery store has is, obviously, food. Produce, meat, and everything else that was listed in the Appearance section can be looted at night. Cigarettes are kept under lock and key by the register, but it's something that could be broken open easily enough with a blunt instrument. Butcher knives are left in locked drawers on the staff side of the meat counter, though once again, those could be broken open.
The office is the only other area that has anything of interest. There are a few office supplies scattered around, but the place is basically a mess, so trying to crack open the safe would be the most useful thing to do.
NPCs
Aaron Callahan
Callahan happens to be one of the most prominent figures in the town of Doyleton, mainly because almost everyone who lives there ends up seeing him at least once a week when they go to buy their groceries. Unlike some of the other store-owners, however, he is not much of a gossip. That doesn't meant that he won't lend an ear to any customers who are having troubles, but he doesn't dig for information. He enjoys chatting with people, but he tries to keep the topics of conversation simple and light. He's a bit of a joker, but also happens to be a decent guy who is generally willing to lend a hand to just about anyone.
This sometimes extends to the patients as well, though he won't be handing out favors to anyone who walks into his store. He's pretty good at judging people, so he'll get a feeling for someone first and then decide from there. Also, after an incident some weeks ago where a patient got drunk and actually attacked him, he's become a bit more wary overall; the attacks and vandalism on the town didn't help. He doesn't want to generalize and blame all of the patients for what happened, but he might take a little longer to warm up to someone. He is always extremely polite to women, though; he'll throw in a compliment, but it's always tasteful.
Callahan is extremely dedicated to his store. He's proud of the products that come in, and while it's true that he has no competition to worry about, that doesn't stop him from making sure that everything is as high quality as it can be, especially the produce. He's a workaholic, the sort of person who never misses a day of work (and couldn't, since then there would be no one to take care of the store if he did). He's so protective that he refuses to hire anyone other than Ryan, who got his position through pure persistence and because Callahan realized that dirtying his hands cutting meat while also trying to check people out just wasn't practical.
Seeing how he's known for being a bachelor, it's often joked that Callahan is married to his store, and that isn't entirely inaccurate. He lives alone with his bulldog, Max, and seems perfectly happy to do so even though he's in his late forties. When asked, he explains that he has a problem with commitment and enjoys his solitude, and he leaves it at that. He's had a few short-lived relationships over the years, but seems to have given it up by now. This doesn't stop the town gossips from trying to urge him to ask different ladies of the town out on a date, but Callahan is so used to this that he can laugh it off without a problem.
He has traveled out of town a number of times to find suppliers for his store and is a bit more knowledgeable about what's beyond Doyleton than some of the other townspeople, but that hasn't given him any wanderlust. He's perfectly happy with where he is and what he's doing.
A good-looking guy, Callahan is about 5'11" and has blue eyes and short brown hair that's going grey in places. Despite that, he's aged well. He's got rugged features and tends to always be sporting at least some stubble. He's in good shape because he goes for runs in the mornings before opening the store, and he's solidly built.
Ryan Hartman
The son of Perry Hartman, who runs the hardware store, Ryan had a fairly normal childhood up until his mother left when he was about five years old. He still doesn't quite understand the circumstances, but she left town and never came back, and Perry's unwillingness to explain much of anything meant that there was a large divide between them as Ryan grew up. About the only thing they could bond over was the fact that they both liked doing things with their hands. As a kid Ryan would explore his father's hardware store, learning how all the tools worked and quickly picking up an aptitude for it.
When he wasn't in the store, Ryan escaped out to the wilderness past the town and it was at that time that he started hunting small game. It was just for fun at first, but he realized he liked the sport of it -- and the fact that it meant that he could take something home for the two of them to eat. His father had to teach him how to properly skin and cook animals, but Ryan picked it up just as fast as he had the tools.
A very independent child out of necessity, when Ryan turned fifteen he decided that he wanted a job, and working as a butcher at the grocery store seemed like the best bet. Callahan wasn't interested in hiring a scrawny teenager, but Ryan literally went to the store every day in hopes of getting the man to agree. Callahan eventually caved, and Ryan has been working there ever since.
Now twenty-five, Ryan is as dedicated to his job as ever. He's turned out to be a very friendly, open young man despite his rough upbringing, and many of the townspeople admire him for this. He's not on the best terms with his father, but they've made their peace. He lives on his own in a small apartment and spends his free time with friends or out in the woods.
He will always greet customers warmly, patients of Landel's included, and is ready to give free samples of the cuts of meat to anyone who asks. (This sometimes gets him in trouble with Callahan if he overdoes it, though.) Despite his friendly demeanor, he won't often say that much about himself, preferring to focus on the meat and what everyone else has to say. He's inquisitive enough that he'll always have a question ready, however.
Ryan was scrawny as a boy and he's scrawny now, yet his arms are clearly toned enough to cut through thick slabs of meat with impressive precision. He's got red hair and his face is dotted with freckles. His eyes are green, and he's 5'8" tall.
Ryan's best friend is Bryce Tood who works at the Sheriff's Office (and also happens to be Callahan's nephew, which is how they got to know each other) and they often go for drinks at Crossroader's when their hours off coincide. He has a massive crush on Jennifer Shaw, but has never worked up the courage to say anything.
Crossroader’s Bar and Casino
Appearance
Crossroader’s is a Western-inspired bar and as such, it has a wood plank exterior complete with a wide wooden porch that runs the width of the building’s front. Two dark windows flank the heavy double doors that serve as the bar’s entrance. On the right window is the bar’s name emblazoned in gold lettering and a small, dusty flip-sign that indicates whether the bar is open or closed. Except for a few rare hours in the morning, the bar is almost always open. The left window is left bare, assumedly so the proprietor can more easily watch who is coming and going before his establishment. The double doors, capable of being barred from the inside in case of a lockdown, have no windows in them, and were once painted a forest green. Years of weathering have reduced the paint to a musky color and it’s difficult to tell the paint from the original wood apart. One door is usually propped open during business hours unless the weather outside doesn’t allow for it.
Inside, the bar continues with the Western theme with wood floors, tables, chairs, and a big wooden bar on the western wall where the proprietor, nicknamed Old Man Mathers, stands. The bar smells faintly of sawdust and the décor is in keeping with the rustic tone - yellowed light filters out from overhead stained glass lampshades, the three round wooden tables and their chairs are all made to look weathered, there’s even a bronze-colored spittoon at the northernmost end of the bar, and peanut shells are littered here and there. The bar is made of a deep mahogany and is backed by a large mirror, framed with shelves holding all manner of alcohol. Lined up below the bottles are glasses for said bottles, arranged from shortest in the front to tallest in the back along the wooden counter surface. All along the walls are printed signs that warn against rowdy behavior or guns on the premise and one sign that grants the bar owner rights to throw out anyone he deems unsavory.
The bar itself, however, is fairly modern. There is a beer tap with three handles (no labels, however), a separate spray tap for water, a stainless steel double sink, and a refrigerator for ice, milk, and other mixers hidden beneath the bar where customers can’t see. Above the north end of the bar hangs a Keno screen which, while on, is rarely actually used. The entrance to the bar is a swing door on the north end below the Keno screen. The bar features three stools on the south end, six along the eastern side, and two along the northern edge for a total of eleven available seats at the bar. The stools are wooden with worn red velvet cushion covers and no backs (http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/291792372/Wooden_bar_chair_CH_CH127.jpg).
In front of the bar sit three round tables and chairs. Three slot machines (the pull lever type) are lined up on the north wall besides the back exit, and three more (modern push button type) are on the east wall in the northeastern corner. Beside them stand one blackjack table and one billiard table, both with surprisingly clean and new green felt tabletops. There’s only one dealer for the entire casino, however, and he can usually be found sitting in his own seat behind the northernmost of the tables (the blackjack table), as far away from Mathers as possible.
In the back west corner of the bar is Mathers’ office and the restrooms, all three of which run parallel to the back wall. The male restroom is the northernmost room, with the female bathroom sandwiched between it and the office. The restrooms are unremarkable - two stalls each (with a urinal in the men’s room), yellow tiled with two white sinks each. Think of any public restroom you’ve been in and it’s the same. The wall signs in the bar are repeated here, including a sign saying that vandalism will be dealt with as a criminal offense. The bathroom doors open to the east.
The southernmost room, Mathers’ office, is locked at all times, but it contains the safe in the southeast corner, a desk with a typewriter sitting diagonal to face the door (one chair behind and two in front), a bookshelf in the northwest corner and a large, comfy looking sofa on the west wall. This door faces the bar and has a sign that reads “No unauthorized personnel allowed” on it in black and orange writing.
Behind the bar is a trap door that leads down into the basement. The stairs are wooden as well, and the basement itself is a small, cramped room that houses extra bottles of alcohol, a wine rack, cleaning supplies, glasses, cutlery, extra chairs and stools, cards and various things necessary upstairs. The tap system is on the eastern wall, the wine rack on the northern wall, while the other two are crowded with storage cabinets that house the extra stock for upstairs. Beneath the stairs are the extra stools, chairs and a replacement blackjack table still wrapped in plastic.
Maps
Ground Floor Basement
Staffing
There are only two people on staff at the bar - Mathers himself and the dealer, his son in law. Mathers is always behind the bar, regardless of whether there are customers in or not and the dealer sits at the blackjack tables, trying to keep out of his father-in-law’s way.
Exits
1) Front door - Southern wall, heavy double doors capable of being barred from the inside, no windows.
2) Two windows - Southern wall on either side of the front door. These are the only windows in the place.
3) Back door - North wall, straight across from the front doors. It’s a single door, wooden with a turn knob and a bolt lock. It is never locked when the place is open because it serves as the emergency exit.
4) Trap door behind the bar on the floor - It leads to the basement. Locked at all times. Mathers has the key.
Equipment/Supplies
The bar itself has a rifle underneath it, which is Mathers’ own personal weapon. It’s well known around town that he keeps it, despite the “no gun” policy for his customers. There is a box of shells beneath the counter as well next to the rifle. In Mathers’ office is another rifle, decommissioned above the sofa, and three extra boxes of ammunition in a locked desk drawer. The safe contains money from both the bar and the coin earned at the slots and the blackjack tables. Otherwise, anything you might find at a bar can be found here, including shakers, ice picks, stirrers, tongs, etc. Despite Mathers’ appearance, he’s actually quite good at making mixed drinks.
The office has a typewriter on the desk and a more modern laptop hidden in the lap drawer. The top drawer of the desk is locked and has three boxes of ammunition along with extra keys to the bar. The bottom drawer contains files and tax papers in manila folders. The bookshelf has three shelves and has books on cooking, wine-tasting, how to make your own microbrews, novels and history books on the Old West, a single interior decorating book, and several books on how to make mixed drinks.
NPCs
Old Man Mathers
His real name is Jeremy Aaron Mathers, but hardly a soul in town remembers that anymore. He earned the nickname Old Man Mathers long before he was old because he went grey around the age of 24. Now at a respectable age of 54 and standing at a hefty 6’2, Mathers has someone earned his nickname. He has the build of a retired football player and sports a short, grizzled gray beard to go along with a crop of short gray hair. He tends to dress down at the bar, wearing jeans beneath the long black half apron tied at his waist, but his shirts can be anything from a flannel shirt over a wifebeater with the sleeves rolled up to old dress shirts and ties.
Oddly enough, it isn’t Mathers who has an obsession with the Wild West, but his late wife Miranda. She passed on many years ago from illness and Mathers has rarely gone home since, preferring to sleep on the couch in the office than go back to an empty house. He started working the bar when he and Miranda got married (it belonged to her family), and has since kept it as she would have wanted. Most people, however, wouldn’t know he had ever been married as he doesn’t wear a wedding ring and there are no photographs of his family anywhere.
Mathers did have a child at one time, though - a daughter by the name of Sandra. Sandra married an out of towner, but moved back home when she began having complications with her first pregnancy. Unfortunately, much like her mother, she passed away young, leaving Mathers with a son-in-law he barely knew and a grandson he couldn’t bear to look at for the resemblance he bears to his lost family. His son-in-law and his grandson live in his house, which Mathers visits to shower, eat and change clothes before he goes back to the bar.
One might think it’s because of the tragedies in his life that Mathers is so gruff, but he’s actually been that way his entire life. Miranda, like Sandra, had always been the soft touch to his grating personality, and so without them, his flaws are much more apparent. Mathers smokes cigars, drinks whiskey, chews tobacco on occasion, and has a peculiar habit of cleaning the glasses of his bar even when they don’t need to be cleaned. He’s taciturn and extremely sarcastic, but he’s a damn good bartender and can eventually warm up to a person if they become a long time patron. Despite his rough edges, he generally gets on with the people in Doyleton so long as they don’t speak ill of the bar or his habits. On his off hours, when he’s not sleeping, Mathers usually goes out into the surrounding woods and goes shooting. He smokes his own meats from what he kills and will sometimes gift them to people around town, albeit without any prior notice or messages saying who it’s from.
Steven Enrique Williams
One of the few new people to the town in awhile, Steven married Sandra Mathers and moved to the town when she became pregnant. Sandra had always said Doyleton was a nice place and she didn’t want to leave her father alone. Having come from out of town, Steven had never met his father-in-law and had no idea what to expect. Now with Sandra gone and him taking care of their son, Matthew Evans, he’s gotten to know Mathers quite well - and is thoroughly terrified of him. Even if Mathers has done little to provoke such reactions, his general nature is so opposite of Sandra, that Steven has no idea what to do with him.
Steven is a young 28 year old single father, half Hispanic, half Caucasian, with stronger resemblances to his Spanish heritage. His skin is tanned and his hair dark and swept back. He wears a nice dealer’s suit to work, but tends to hang out by the tables away from Mathers as much as possible, usually reading a book. He can only be found at the bar during school hours, otherwise he’s at home with his son. Unlike his father-in-law, Steven is mild-mannered, polite, soft-spoken, doesn’t smoke, drink or go hunting. He does most of the Crossroad’s taxes (his job before coming to Doyleton was as an accountant) and it’s his laptop that is in the office.
When not at work, Steven is with his son and can be seen taking the 6 year old around town. They often visit the park and the toy store, but can also be found at Twin Pines Restaurant where Steven treats his son to a root beer float once every two weeks.
Hal’s Used Cars
Hearth and Home Handcrafted Furniture
Kitchin' Fixins'
Appearance
The space rented out to Kitchin' Fixins' consists of a two-story building made of red brick, a six-car parking lot in the front, and a fenced area toward the back. A green-and-black dumpster is set at the right side of the building with a sign "For Kitcin' Fixins' Use Only" and a list of penalties and fines associated for misuse of the dumpster. The building holds six huge windows: four in the front and two in the back. All the second story windows are covered and cannot be seen into from the outside. The storefront sign gives off a happy, homey feeling and is set above the two first-story windows at the front. The entrance consists two glass doors. The store's name and the hours of operation are set on the right door in white letters.
Inside, the homey motif is emphasized. The interior is laid out in polished wooden flooring and pretty creme country-themed wallpaper. The store has four aisles, each lined with shelves that reach just above six feet. Shelves are also lined against the side and back walls. Every inch of shelving space is dedicated to Kitchin' Fixins' products.
The register is located on the middle of the right wall from the entrance. The cutlery is stored behind the register in a large glass case. To prevent the careless from tampering with sharp things, the glass case is locked securely and is made of shatterproof glass. The only ones with access to the cutlery are Terrance, the manager, and Vanessa, the senior cashier. A sign saying that unauthorized individuals who are caught tampering with the glass case will be banned from the store for a year is taped onto the front of the case.
Toward the back of the store contains more shelves and two doors: one leading to the back area and the other leading toward the stairs to the second floor. Both doors are always locked, though the locks for both doors can be broken with enough force. The back area is surprisingly empty, consisting of nothing but dusty asphalt and a green wired fence surrounding the perimeter. There is a gate, but that, too, is shut tight with a padlock. Unfortunately, no one has the key to the padlock.
Upstairs, the interior is bleak. And dark. The manager seems to hate the light and has made it policy to keep the windows in the second floor covered. A desk is situated toward the center of the room and above it is the solitary ceiling light. Surrounding the desk are piles upon piles of inventory and record-keeping books. Compared to the warmth of the first floor, the second is a chaotic black hole. Only the manager seems to enjoy being in there for more than an hour.
Staffing
More likely than not, customers will see and interact with Vanessa and David, the stocker. Terrance, the manager, remains upstairs unless there is a problem Vanessa and David cannot handle or one of them is absent. Teenage girls like to hangout in the store after school and on the weekends, where they either giggle, talk to David, or help David shelve inventory.
Exits
1) Front door
2) Back door
3) Gate
Equipment/Supplies
Anything related to the kitchen and BBQ can be found here, except for appliances and furniture as Doyleton's storefront is not large enough to house those items. Those have to be ordered via catalog for mail delivery. Upstairs, you can find papers, notebooks, ledgers, sticky notes, pens, pencils, erasers, tape (invisible, masking, and duct), scissors, a stapler, and tacks in the desk drawers. You can also find lots of boxes full of inventory in the second floor. If you like garbage, head for the dumpster on the side of the building.
Notes
Those who have been in the store since Night 42 might notice a difference in the organization of the store's interior. Everything has been rearranged. Patients would need to take note of any changes. Also, those who have made it onto the roof that night might have done so via climbing on the dumpster.
NPCs
Tennessee Blake
A kitchen is normally thought of as a place for warmth and comfort, a constant presence in the home. Tennessee, unfortunately, is the antithesis of this concept in nearly every conceivable way. Often described as a heartless miser by employees (and a heartless bastard by former employees), the manager of Doyleton's Kitchin' Fixins' franchise runs his store with a dictator's attitude and a sociopath's light touch. Although highly intelligent and shrewd, Tennessee seems to take an amoral, utilitarian approach to life and is far from hesitant in belittling anyone--customers, employees, and visitors alike--if they happen to violate his cardinal rules. Many are often shocked to find that the seemingly cozy locale is managed by what is likely an emotionally disturbed individual, and yet no one has seen it fit to put in a formal complaint. This may be due to the manager's propensity to stay in the back office during normal business hours.
His personal life and history are a bit of a mystery to the denizens of Doyleton, though it is a common fact that he is Kitchin' Fixins' first and only manager. Those who have been in the town for more than twenty years would claim that at one point, Tennessee was married. He also supposedly graduated with honors from a big-name university. Sadly, no one can seem to recall either the name of his wife or the school he attended. Because the man never divulges, most dismiss these as rumors.
Tall and lanky to the point of emaciation, Tennessee maintains thin brown hair and pale blue eyes with sunken lids. His skin is an unhealthy white, likely from his time spent in windowless rooms. Despite being in his early forties, the man appears at least ten years older, though some of his features suggest he might have been handsome in his younger days. He dresses rather conservatively: dark sweaters and beige slacks tend to be the norm. Whenever he is working (which is always), he can be seen wearing Kitchin' Fixins' signature red apron.
Vanessa Richards
The sole cashier and sales clerk of Kitchin' Fixins', Vanessa is a native to Doyleton. Due to an early marriage and subsequent divorce, she never had the chance to further her life outside of the town, and as a result, the woman can be rather naive to the rest of the world. Regardless, she is a sweet, friendly woman and likely the primary reason the store maintains a warm, culinary atmosphere. Unsurprisingly, Vanessa is the only employee who managed to stay for more than a week.
At the age of 28, brown-eyed Vanessa is relatively petite in height and a bit pudgy around the torso area. She keeps her waist-length strawberry blond hair in a tight French braid. To better fit the atmosphere, she dresses like a picturesque suburban wife--right down to the warm, bright colors and random apple-print scarves. In the store, she wears Kitchin' Fixins' red apron. When amused, the woman laughs with a distinctive, high-pitched giggle, which tends to border on being annoying to the right (or wrong) people. On her downtime, she enjoys making various cakes. The hobby has been significant enough for her to run a little side business (which her boss pointedly ignores).
She has a five-year-old daughter named Quinn.
David Harper
The part-time stocker of Kitchin' Fixins', David is a high school student working at store to help pay for his upcoming college career. He is the running back for the high school football team and consequently, has a muscular (at times, frightening) build. Even-tempered and unassuming for a jock, the young man is a hard worker, to the point where he often comes in on school nights to cover the lack of help. When the store is extremely busy, he will take over the duty of cashier for Vanessa.
With copper-toned hair, baby blue eyes, and handsome features, David is a popular target for teenage girls. As a result, females between the ages of fifteen and seventeen like to hang out in Kitchin' Fixins'. Tennesse takes advantage of this from time to time by making them work, which they are more than happy to oblige if it means more time with David.
Maps
Overview, First Floor, Second Floor, Gate and Backdoor, Office Door, Register Area
Lil’ Tyke Toys
Magus Park
Megahit Movie Rentals