On-The-Job Training

Who: Geo and Alejandro
Where: The Babylon
When: Evening

After Friday night's near disaster with that...that guy, Geo barely wanted to come to work. But, seeing as he'd made it when there were shadow-bastards and everything falling to pieces, something told him dealing with an obnoxious, mannerless customer was not a valid reason to call in sick on his second night of work.

Just a hunch.

Not being able to call in sick, however, did not mean he couldn't cut it close. He kinda meandered his way in the general direction that he'd always found the Babylon in, but he didn't really hurry - until he wasted too many minutes dawdling outside the bikeshop, staring in the windows. Then he practically had to run, making it in a panting, out of breath mess three minutes before he was supposed to start.

He finger-combed his hair into some semblance of order, and hurried for the bar, hoping to high heaven that it wouldn't be his trainer from the other night.

Alejandro had, had a long day. He'd been working since two, and there had been more people in the bar than he'd anticipated for a Sunday night, just a day and a half after the whole damn town had been attacked, repeatedly and unrelentingly. Maybe they just all needed a drink? Alejandro sure did. Which didn't make having to serve them any more fun.

And to top things off, he was supposed to be shepherding around some kid who apparently didn't know his right from his left or his Jack from his Merlot. At least it was only for a couple hours before his replacement came on. Unfortunately, with someone else behind the bar with him, he couldn't just drop his block on a hidden shelf back where the customers couldn't see... because the kid could see, and he'd be damned before he started inviting questions about it.

So it was in his pocket, and the drink-spilling, uneducated kid could deal with having the babble-mouth disease whenever he got within four feet, or whatever. Alejandro didn't even see him come in, since he didn't actually know what he looked like-- he'd been a bit busy lately, and had gladly taken Eris's offered "time off"-- but he was quite obviously the only bartender there, limping around with glasses and bottles in his cast, finally-healing scratches on his face, and the various bandages under his clothes.

"Hey." Geo had been planning to start off with a simple, "Hi, I'm Geo, where do you want me to start?" And really, that was what he did say, assuming that the older guy behind the bar was the one training him. But that wasn't where he stopped. "I was supposed to be bartending the other night, kept screwing up, but it's not my fault really and-" Oh, no. No no no no. What the crap was this? This felt almost like the uncontrollable lying from the first time he'd met Dexter, except it wasn't lies. Somehow, that made it all the worse. "-I really just want to figure out how to not screw up so you guys don't have to babysit me for the next nine years or whatever."

So this was the kid. ... tall kid. Alejandro had to look up at him to meet his eye. He hated that. "Well, if you want to figure out how not to screw up," he began, noting the incipient panic at the uncontrollable babbling, "start by telling me what you know. And sit there while you do it." He pointed to the barstool behind the counter, that he'd been using to rest his broken foot, and discretely moved out of babbling range, nodding to a customer and pulling out a couple bottles. "You ever mixed drinks before?" It was as good a starting place as any.

Geo sat, still trying to get control of his mouth. He breathed a sigh of relief when the feeling faded away. "Uh. I did one or two the other night. Got t'one wrong, put too much coke in the guy's rum-and-coke." He grimaced. "But I got the locations for, like, almost everything memorized..." Give or take a couple of the scotch brands and most of the wines, but the beer was the biggest part, right?

"First things first, you put that memorization to work learning drink names, what goes in them, and how much of that. We have...." Alejandro stumped over to one of the stand-up menus on the counter and plucked it up, stumping it back and holding it out to Geo. "This is a list of the basics. Not everything we sell is on here, because if I've heard of it, I'll make it-- and there are some 'special needs' items we don't publicly advertise. It's a start." And Alejandro had no intent of letting the boy serve drinks until he knew at least a little about what he was serving.

"Special needs, won't specifically advertise?" Geo almost clapped his hand back over his mouth in horror when the feeling returned, but that would look even worse. "Like what? You get crazy non-humans in here, 'cuz the other night I thought I smelled a werecat and a couple of guys who smelled like blood and this place freakin' moves or it seems to and-" Ok, ok, looking bad was no longer a worry. He put the hand over his mouth, eyes wide and worried, trying to physically shut himself up.

Alejandro moved away again after dropping the drinks menu on Geo's lap. "We server anything from angels to demons to vampires in here, yeah," he said off-handedly, though the mention of angels made him want to twitch. He suppressed it and went to make another customer another drink, out of babbling range. "If you're smelling things like that, what are you? Werewolf or something?"

"Raven," Geo found himself saying back, though (thank goodness!) none of the other annoyed, confused thoughts came with it. Angels. He wondered why the though surprised him - there were demons, why not angels? What else existed, now that they had angels, demons, weres, vampires and...whatever the heck the shadow things had been? Dragons? Goblins? Elves? "What're you, then?"

"None of your damn business," Alejandro said, but it didn't actually hold a lot of venom or defensiveness. "Never met a raven before, though. You fly, and shit?" There was that little desire to twitch again, this time in envy. He wondered if there was a line of cursed wereravens like there were werewolves, and if he could manage to get bitten. Or... beaked. Or whatever.

Stupid thought, he told himself sourly.

Eh, fair enough. He'd figure out eventually. "Yeah, sometimes." Geo shrugged. "Can't usually during the day, gets ya in trouble, yanno? And there's only so much you can do when what passes for hands are, like, this big." He held his thumb and pointer finger about an inch apart, and then picked up the drink menu, flipping it open and scanning the names.

"I'd think it'd be worth it sometimes," Alejandro muttered, mostly to himself. He missed flying. He missed his wings. Fucking Mourning Star. He shook his head, and went to set the drink he'd been putting together in front of the 40-something woman who ordered it. She thanked him then insulted him in the same breath, and looked horrified, but he moved out of babbling range before she could start rambling further. "So what did you think of Eris? I hear she hired you direct." Like, he expected, she hired everyone. And evidently not for their skills at actually working in a bar-slash-whorehouse.

Geo left his trainers' mutter alone, though he couldn't help but hear it. "Eris? She's..." Intense and creepy and something feels off about her? He kept his eyes on the menu. "She's...I mean, she seems alright, I don't...I didn't actually talk to her that much." He glance up at Alejandro with a one shouldered shrug. "I wasn't...I wasn't so sure they'd actually hire me, I thought she'd, like, find out if I actually knew anything first, yanno? I just said bartender, 'cuz, I mean, come on. They get the awesome job in all the movies and stuff." And that was natural Geo babbling to the surface. "I wasn't expecting anything to be this quick."

"She hardly even asked after what all I knew how to do," Alejandro shrugged in agreement. He'd even agree with the intense and creepy and off, if Geo had said it. "I think she hires people on a whim, just because she thinks they're interesting, or whatever." The fact that he was perfectly qualified had been, at best, like a nice bonus. "It's a wonder people keep coming here-- I bet half the staff doesn't know what the fuck they're doing." He shot the kid a dry, mostly-humorless grin. He wasn't actually intending to insult Geo with the statement, just sharing the fact that he didn't think Geo was alone in the not thinking he'd be hired.

"Must be the winning personalities and pretty faces." Geo said, dryly, plunking his elbows down on the bar. The point being, of course, that between the two of them he didn't really think either of them had either. Fortunately he didn't blurt that out. It was a relief, though, to know that his easy-hiring wasn't a one-time thing - it took some of the pressure off. "So wait, what would, like, angels drink different? Demons?" He already knew what the vampires would drink - and ew that was not a nice thought.

"Angels, nothing, really. Demons... depends on the demon. Some of them like human flesh and blood." And if Alejandro ever came across one who he was sure was a demon, he wasn't sure if his fallen status or his boss's non-violence rules could keep him from strangling the bitch. Scowling, he waved Geo back off the stool. "You keep that and read it between drinks. I'm putting you on the beer tap. Should be easy enough, they're all labeled."

Geo hopped off the stool, still clutching the menu, though now he was staring at Alejandro, eyes wide once again. "Wait, wait, we actually...you don't...I mean, we wouldn't have...that here, would we?" Maybe Peyton was right, maybe this was a stupid, stupid idea...maybe Eris was some sort of tentacled thing or other...

"Flesh-- not that I know of, but it's possible," Alejandro smirked, though there wasn't much humor in it. "Blood, yes. A lot of it, actually. We get fairly regular orders. Mostly for the vampires. You good for doing this, or not?"

"...I'm good." He managed, almost weakly, after a moment's thought. Blood bank. They could get it from a blood bank. Or willing donors. Or something. "Or I will be. In a minute." There were things about being a wereraven that were gross, anyways, right? Something was nagging him, that if he needed this much rationalizing, he shouldn't be here in the first place. He tried to shut that part of his mind up right quick. "So. Uhm. Beer tap." He waved the menu. "I got most of those down ok...I think."

"Anything that requires mixing, you get me for," Alejandro said firmly. "Anything that's not labeled right on this tap--" He pointed to the set of seven spigots. "--you get me for. All right?" Only an hour more of this shit, and he was gone. Only an hour more....

"...alright." Big step from the other night, but at a job like this? That was perfectly fine. "I think ," He put a slightly sarcastic drawl on 'think', "That I can handle that."

"Good," Alejandro said shortly. "Get to work, then. Call me if you need anything." And he quite contentedly let the boy pour people beer while he went back to mixing things. He'd just better not hog any of Alejandro's tips....