The Furious Sound is a nightclub in downtown Kyoto. It is colloquially referred to as The Airlock because of the way its entranceway is designed with two sets of heavy metal pressurized doors between which is a space that can be depressurized to prevent sound leakage while live bands are playing.

The Furious Sound opened as a bar and venue for live performances in YE 38. It struggled financially for some time, unable to draw headlining talent to their venue. The venue quickly became known for letting practically anyone perform on its stage. This made it a popular venue for unknown performers, but notably less so for clientele. As a response to this, management dropped the price of drinks during live performances but charged enough of a cover fee to make up for it on average. This successfully attracted the kind of crowd who would drink heavily and steadily through any kind of live performance. The largest percentage of whom were Kodians, Anthros, and other Random Aliens who were particularly tolerant of alcohol.

In YE 39, not long after The Furious Sound began to enjoy its newfound popularity, noise complaints began pouring in from its neighbors. Management managed to acquire a set of scrap bulkhead doors from salvage and decided to install them in the main entranceway with a pressure chamber in between. During each set of a live performance, the doors would be sealed and a vacuum created in the pressure chamber. This prevented any sound at all leaking through the main entranceway, and along with sound-deadening insulation along all the walls largely prevented further noise complaints. This led people to begin referring to the venue as The Airlock.

In YE 40 a complaint was lodged that the door might prevent efficient egress during an emergency, which led to a policy of regular fire drills. The pressure chamber was investigated and found to fail safely in the case of power loss and any other malfunction they tested, allowing both pressure doors to open and everyone to escape safely. In the same year, another complaint was raised about the air quality in the establishment, prompting them to install highly-efficient air filtration and conditioning units.

By YE 41 the venue began to shed its reputation as a noisy dive bar with cheap drinks. Instead, its popularity with Kodians, Anthros, and Random Aliens led to a wider popularity with species who didn't look obviously human, including Delsaurians, My'lekes, Phods, Separa'Shans, and Shukarens, among others.

In YE 42 management made the deeply unpopular decision to increase the price of drinks. Crowds dwindled and the bar was suddenly struggling again. They eventually reversed their decision, but patrons were slow to return.

Notable performers include Kwabba-an Ternifac-xuralkhi who took advantage of the fact that they let anyone perform and felt like she fit in among the other Anthros and Random Aliens, even though she was still attending the Kyoto Academy for the Arts as a secondary student at the time.

Just after the stroke of midnight on 45.1.1, the floor beneath the stage caved in. While nobody was injured more than usual, there was still a gaping chasm where there once was a stage. The club re-opened the same night, but the stage chasm was cordoned off. Since then, there have been unconfirmed sightings of something lurking in the shadows in and around the club.

The external doorway is guarded by a particularly large Kodian who, as a pacifist, would never start a fight but is happy to step in to stop one. The main entranceway is a pair of huge pressurized doors, tall enough to let a Kodian enter without bending over. The doors were salvaged from a derelict spaceship and now provide a basic means of soundproofing the entranceway much to the relief of the venue's neighbors. These doors are sealed during each set of a live performance, but the performers are encouraged to take frequent breaks to let patrons come and go.

Just inside the doors is the upper floor of the venue with a balcony overlooking the dancefloor and the stage. The walls may have once been painted black, but have faded to a deep purple over time, but the walls are only visible here and there between layers of posters for performers. Rather than taking down old posters, each performer simply pastes theirs over the last one. This gives the impression that the posters are like newspapers plastered to the walls of a building undergoing renovations. The upper floor has plenty of space for people to stand and talk and watch the performance, as well as booths for groups who want to sit and listen with some amount of privacy. There is also a private room with a video and audio feed of the performance. This private room is kept locked except when big spenders or famous people are visiting.

A grand staircase leads down to the main floor, in the middle of which there is a dance floor. In one corner opposite the entrance, there is a slightly raised area that forms the stage. Opposite this by the foot of the staircase is the bar. Finally, all around the walls of the room are tables and stools. From the stage, there is a door that leads to a backstage area that also adjoins to the bar. In this backstage area, there is a green room where performers can hang out before they go on stage, as well as storage areas for the drinks. All food is ordered by a delivery service from the kitchen of the nearby Ypperlig Café and Izakaya.

J'dompal Gruk'mirr, the usual bartender, is a human-sized intelligent Random Alien octopus who speaks fluently in Trade and Yamataigo.

There is also a curious architectural feature where the bathrooms are also split-levels and contain giant naked marble statues of particularly well-endowed aliens who shower water down into fountains on the lower level.

The Furious Sound is located in downtown Kyoto and is accessible through its excellent transportation network.

While humans are by no means excluded, they are a visible minority among the people in this venue. Most of the people here are Kodians, Anthros, Random Aliens, Delsaurians, My'lekes, Phods, Separa'Shans, and Shukarens.

This list automatically shows all characters currently listed as being in this place.

This is an excellent place to go on a loud date, go dancing, pick up non-human escorts, or just hang by the bar and meet people.

• If you ask the bartender, they can hook you up with whatever combination of gender and species suits your fancy for a fee.
• The building used to be a bomb shelter.
• There is a gang of semi-feral Kodians who use the place as their headquarters when the venue is closed.
• When the stage collapsed in early YE 45, something crawled out of the gaping chasm beneath. That something now lurks in the shadows.

Hyralt created this article on 2021/02/04 16:24.

This was approved by Andrew in this thread.

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