How First Cohort does New Years

Laurel arrived at the party fashionably late. Except she was only kinda late, she was there for the setup but then had gone back to the barracks to change, and then took her time on the return. Thankfully by the time she got back to the top of the aqueduct nobody had really started drinking yet so there wasn't much of a catch-up. Well, except for her co centurion who had started to do shots.

"If you get drunk who the hell is going to be cleaning this mess up?" Laurel asked him, choosing instead to drink beer. When getting drunk she liked to do it a little at a time, so she can enjoy the buzz before she makes some bad decisions. Beer was basically water, especially the stuff the opitos had chosen to buy. She could take shots later.

Laurel was caught off guard by happy fun Liam. She couldn't remember the last time she saw him, he was so serious all the time. "Who are you and what have you done with Liam Davenport?" She asked, playfully poking him. "Seriously you're never his happy." She hated to think that tonight she might be the serious one. It scared her, like a bad nightmare where she was absolutely no fun. Then again, it was pretty fun seeing her co-centurion out of his element.

Laurel winced at his comment, "Ugh, now I have to take a shot." She grabbed a bottle from someone, only checking the bottle after pouring the shot. "Who the fuck brought absinthe?" Still, she already poured the shit so now she had to drink it. She took it like a champ, although couldn't help but cough afterward.

"Holy shit that was a bad idea."

Laurels head spun and for a moment she knew she had fucked up. "It's really not." She gave Liam a look, "If I throw up it's gonna be your fault. And the fault of whoever brought absinthe. What, is it 1926? Are we literary geniuses trying to hallucinate? Ugh, I need to drink something else to get this taste out of my mouth." Laurel took a shot someone was handing her and downed it. Then she grabbed a bottle of champagne and walked to the edge of the aqueduct, taking a seat. She let her legs dangle off the side, thinking about how they were really stupid to host a party on a place that was so high up with no railings.

"Yes, you did you told me I was going to be serious and boring if I didn't take a shot. I can't stand serious or boring." Laurel paused, "Except on you, you really make it work." She could never do serious or boring. She was meant for bright colors and upbeat songs and karaoke. Serious didn't compliment that well. It was a mystery on why she was chosen to help lead the first cohort.

"I'm good" She said, holding up her bottle of champagne. She might as well keep it classy now. She fiddled with the seal, trying to get it off. "Besides its New Years we should be having champagne, it's a New Years drink. Not fucking absi-" Laurel was cut off by the cork of the champagne flying off, followed by some foam that dripped down onto her legs. Somewhere behind her some kids cheered at the sound that it made.

"Fuck I'm going to reek of champagne now." She said, trying to wipe the excess off. That didn't stop her from taking a swig of it from the bottle.

Laurel took another sip of the champagne, "Yeah but I didn't look and by then it was too late." she whined. She looked over at Liam and laughed, "You're just hitting all the bases tonight, huh? Well if you wanna end the night with some absinthe to wash the shots, beer, and tequila down, I highly recommend it."

She looked out at the lights of New Rome and sighed. It was pretty, except the lights were starting to look a little blurry.

"Do it." Laurel insisted, "feel my pain." She needed someone else to experience the green drink of satan. Even though Liam was far more drunk than she was, she didn't care at that point. He was like twice her size so it couldn't be that bad for him.

Laurel took a long sip of champagne, and somewhere in the back of her head, she thought 'maybe I should stop drinking now'. However, Laurel didn't listen to that voice and took an even longer sip. That was her downfall.

Drunk Laurel found Liam's attempt at drinking absynthe absolutely hysterical. She wasn't even sure why, because she had probably looked the same when she had tried to drink it. But she was at that point in the night where everything was the funniest thing ever, even things that weren't even supposed to be funny. She continued giggling as Liam stumbled back over to her place on the ledge.

"Don't fall off." She said, between laughs, "or else you'll be like that dude from the roadrunner animated thingies. Y'know the guy that just goes- splat! He holds up signs too. What's his name? Todd? Crayon? Its the same name as a character from Frankie and Grace. Wait, no Grace and Frankie, that's the show. I got the names mixed up." Then she fell back into a pile of giggles. She gave Liam a little poke on the cheek.

"It was, actually. But it's not your fault you're all responsible and stuff. It's pretty fun to see you out of your element. Party Liam is very different from Regular Liam." She didn't specify whether that was good or bad. To be fair, Drunk Laurel wasn't good at making much sense.
"Grace and Frankie is about two women who find out their husbands are in love with each other and so they move in together but one is a former businesswoman and the other is a new age hippy and they learn to get along and deal with their dysfunctional life. It's very good it's on Netflix. When you think about it we're kind of like them, except no gay husbands."