Mixing It Up

On a pleasant day in Burrowgatory, Tramp finds himself walking into the Rabbit Hole for a quick drink to start his morning. Once he enters, he spots Hops behind the bar, prepping a few of her specialty drinks for later in the day. Tramp catches her eye, leading them both to exchange pleasantries while Tramp approaches one of the bar stools closest to where Hops stands.

"What'll it be today, Tramp?" Hops says with a grin, her hands still moving to group together the supplies she needs for some of her specialty drinks, including her own secret ingredient.

"A Keratini if you could," Tramp replies, folding one leg atop the other and doing his best balancing act on his stool. He watches as Hops roots around in her supplies and then suddenly looks up at him.

"You know," she starts, "I've been offering some lessons lately to folks with the right price. I know you've got a bit of a hoard going yourself, and we aren't too busy this morning..." Hops seems to be watching for Tramp's reaction without looking directly at him, grasping the cocktail glass for the drink while simultaneously trying to keep a jar of olives on top of it. Tramp winces at the unsafe display.

"Tell you what, put down all the glass, and I'll gladly take a lesson. I've wanted to learn how to make my own Keratinis lately." Tramp hesitates, then rephrases his sentence, "Not that yours aren't amazing, of course, just beats the walk over."

Hops's face lights up, and she almost drops the jar of olives in her rush to put everything down, causing Tramp to cringe and tense up. As Hops rushes to find an apron for him, Tramp gingerly makes his way around the other side of the bar, taking in the sight of all the different alcohols against the back wall. Hops soon pops up with an apron for Tramp, handing it to him quickly and insisting that he put it on to avoid getting his nice clothes soaked by any stray vodka. He hesitantly puts it on, tying his ears back gently to avoid getting the fur dirty.

Hops grabs some vodka from the back wall and puts it with her other ingredients, then starts walking Tramp through the process one step at a time. Tramp struggles with the proportions at first, his first drink containing too much of the secret ingredient and making him feel sick after a single sip. Next, it was too much vodka, negating the secret ingredient's effects entirely, according to Hops, at least. Then, it was the olives, with Tramp adding so many olives that it could be considered an olive-pocalypse in the glass. After enough trial and error, a frustrated Tramp finally completes his first passable glass of Keratini.

Hops smiles after watching Tramp take a cautious sip and not turn green in the face. She claps her hands together and speaks, "There we go! Look at you, making your own drink! I will ask you to pay for all the olives you ate of course." She reaches over to the vodka and whips up a quick drink for herself, offering a toast to Tramp, who meets it with the Keratini glass. At the same time, Tramp feels his wallet let out a single tear.