Another Bar Day (Diana,Doku)

The blonde Quincy heard everything Doku had told her about what it took to become a bartender. His words were short and to the point, something Diana appreciated because she did not care much for drawn-out explanations. At any rate Diana found his explanation to be informative and noted that if she ever took up the bartending trade she would have to ask each and every patron for identification verifying that they old enough to partake of alcohol. While on the subject of his trade Diana asked another question of her host.

"Aside from the legal requirements such as obtaining the appropriate licenses and going through the bureaucracy to get them, what else would you say is necessary to be a good bartender?" Diana asked Doku what else he thought was something anyone aspiring to enter the trade needed to have. If he paid close enough attention he might be able to deduce that the blonde was asking because she had an interest in his occupation that went beyond idle curiosity. In the meantime Diana thought about what she had just been told and wondered if becoming a bartender to supplement her income was right for her.

While Doku claimed that the point he was trying to make might not be easy to decipher right away because of the difficulty in putting it into the proper words, Diana more or less got what he meant. Flexibility and good observation skills were strongly recommended if one wanted to become a successful bartender. That was sound advice, but unfortunately for the blonde she did not have very good people skills, which would probably help her develop the ones Doku had listed. It would do her no good if she went to all the trouble to get a license and learned numerous drink recipes but had no one to make them for because her personality repelled people, after all.

Diana kept quiet as she always did when others were speaking and watched Doku get a beverage for himself. It did not look like anything she would drink, but the blonde said nothing and kept her mouth shut until he spoke again. From his latest statement she learned that bartending was about more than just memorizing drink recipes, developing an award-winning personality that made patrons want to return to one's establishment time and time again, and the bureaucratic hoops that had to be jumped through to get started in the first place. It was also about completing mundane tasks as they came up, which sounded a lot like any job.

"You do a good job of describing what it takes to be successful in your trade, Doku. " Diana informed him that he was successful in imparting the information he was trying to give her. Her tone of voice was sincere, but like the case had been so many times before, whether her host believed her or not was up to him. Hopefully he had caught onto the fact that any praise the blonde offered was genuine.

Again Doku was being modest when Diana offered him praise. Diana did not mind... humble people were a lot easier to deal with than those prone to bragging or who otherwise had an inflated view of themselves. She was quick to answer the first question he had asked of her.

"Yes, Doku. You reduced what sounds like a complex subject to its simplest parts and made it easily understandable. Prior to speaking with you I had no idea what it took to be a bartender, but thanks to you I have a fairly good idea of the basics necessary to make it in the business... should I ever choose to go that route." Diana informed him why her praise was given and dropped a hint as to the beginning of her interest in possibly taking up bartending as a job. She would still need to do some research into it and would need to find a bar that was hiring, but the blonde Quincy needed a steady and reliable source of income and bartending might be what she needed. It sounded like it could be a lot more reliable than being a hunting guide, which was prone to changes like weather and the population of game animals. Diana let those thoughts drift away when she heard Doku's next question, which may or may not have been rhetorical.

"Really? What do you mean by that?" Diana asked him with interest that was not faked. Again he might have been simply asking a rhetorical question out loud, but she had asked him what he had meant anyway. She found the conversation to be interesting and wanted to converse with Doku for as long as they had something to talk about.

With his statement about the competition Doku had imparted more information on the realities of being a bartender. Diana figured that she would be far from the only bartender anywhere she chose to work, but the news that there was a lot of competition in the field was something she needed to hear from someone who actually worked in the trade. That was another factor she needed to consider before spending the money and time necessary to become a bartender. Once again Doku had helped her by putting a complex reality in terms that were easy for someone who was not in his field to understand.

"I can understand you looking for new ideas in numerous different places, Doku. It sounds like complacency in owning a bar is riskier than complacency in other jobs because you will always have competition. If you do not update your offerings to take into account the tastes of your clientele the competition will not hesitate to capitalize on that mistake." Diana confirmed that she understood what Doku was doing by going to other bars and trying their wares. She had read between the lines and gathered that her host was always looking for ideas so that he could change his offerings to keep up with what his clientele wanted and remain competitive with other bars. There was always the possibility that she had misinterpreted his remarks, but if she had Doku was likely to correct the misunderstanding.

"Being able to adapt to ever-changing tastes while not alienating your regulars sounds like quite a balancing act." Diana made a comment on Doku's situation. It sounded like he was far from the only one who had to work hard on keeping his drink selection up-to-date. He faced the unenviable task of deciding which new offerings were most likely to bring in new customers and then go to the time and expense of adding them to the bar while keeping enough of the old favorites for regulars who enjoyed them. It was a balancing act Diana would have trouble with because she was not very sociable and thus did not know what bar patrons liked.

When Doku expressed his gratitude for having a solid base of repeat customers it sounded like he was lamenting his situation, a sound that prompted Diana to ask a question.

"Are you all right, Doku?" Diana asked him. She was not sure how he would answer that question, but she was going to ask anyway. Doku had made her coffee despite his stock and trade being alcohol and had answered a lot of her questions, even the ones that likely sounded sort of dumb, so she was going to reciprocate and be kind to him. The blonde might be totally wrong, but it seemed like offering a bit of kindness after hearing his last remark might be a good idea.