Green is Good

## Content Information

"Ohhhh what will you do with a drunken sailor!" Arsling bellowed as best she could, it wouldn't be shocking to many if the girl was already drunk but this was her, sober today was saint Patrick's day and she was really really excited.

“What will you do with a drunken sailor!”  Xander followed suit from the driver’s seat of his car.  He was glad to be out and about in good company tonight, rather than back in his room where the atmosphere was a bit more tense.

"Early in the-" Arsling is cut off coughing and holding her ribs "ahh fuckin stupid ribs" Arsling says leaning back in her chair sunglasses apon her face and green suit jacket on her back "thanks for this Xander, I was terrified of missing this year" this was absolutely true, she'd been celebrating Saint Patrick's Day since she was a baby with her mother and Thier's no way in hell she'll stop celebrating, ribs or no

“Not a problem Arsling, honestly you’re doing me a bit of a favor here!  I don’t want to be anywhere near my room right now, and Tamzen’s working tonight, so I wouldn’t really know what to do with myself otherwise.”  Xander was wearing his special four leaf clover beanie, and a goofy grin on his face.  “So, any specific watering hole you want to visit?  Or are we just gonna see where the night takes us?”

"Well first year I'm allowed to drink in the USA unless we count all the illegal alcohol I've downed" Arsling smirks "how about the local Irish pub, their's gotta be one around here, if not I'll have to nuke Night Falls" Arsling says jokingly as she fiddles with the radio

“Hmm…” Xander ponders for a moment, “I’m pretty sure there’s an Irish pub on Main St, but getting in and out without cops on us may be tricky given what night it is.”  Xander pauses for a second then gets a confident grin.  “Aw fuck it, let’s go have some fun!”

"WOOOHOOOOO! Let's get drunk! Actually you're a serpentine, does alcohol effect you differently?" Arsling asks curiously as the radio lands on a station currently playing Drink till I Die

Xander starts getting into the song immediately and turns it up a bit.  “Well actually, funnily enough Serpentines react much the same as regular snakes do to alcohol… we completely detest the stuff.  I’ve never actually consumed a lot of alcohol, so I have no idea how I’d react if I was drunk… or if I even can get drunk, but the few times I’ve had it it made my whole mouth feel like lava and it tasted horrendous.”  Xander’s grin got even wider.  “Though I’d be willing to test it out sometime, I doubt I’ll be getting hammered tonight.  You do not wanna see a six foot tall drunken snake man running around a party.”

"Hmm be one hell of a story" Arsling smirks and puts on a stoner voice "yeah mannn like on saint Patrick's Day their was a giant snake around in the pub partying" Arsling snorts at the mental image of drunk as fuck snake dude stumbling about a pub

Xander laughs hysterically, slapping his steering wheel a bit.  “Well how about this one.”  Xander put on the same type of stoner voice, and faked as if he was puffing a joint.  “Bro like, there was this chick with a huge fucking sword running around last night.  She sliced a table in half, and then fell over.”  Xander’s eyes narrowed, and while still laughing a bit gave a side eye to Arsling.  “Just making sure, but you didn’t bring the sword did you?”

Arsling laughs just as hysterically "No course not, well I did bring one weapon" reaching into her jacket away from Xander before revealing...Botato! "His Majesty offered to guard the car while we were having fun"

Arsling puts on a silly voice as 'Botato' says "yes brave knight and jester you will venture as I your noble leader defend your belongings by claw!" Arsling makes Botato do a 'heroic' pose as she places him across her lap

“My liege,” Xander gives a playful salute to Botato, “I did not expect you’d be joining us.  I would’ve provided cleaner transportation!”  Xander chuckles some more as he pulls into a nearly full parking lot.  Finding an open space, he backs in and parks the car.  The sounds of drunken college students and loud music fill the otherwise dull spring air.  “Well we’ve arrived!”

"Sweet" Arsling lowers her glasses and looks Xander in the eyes, "let's kick ass" before sliding them up and getting out the car, leaving Botato in her seat

“Hell yeah!”  Xander follows, locking his car behind him.

The two weave through a sea of drunk frat boys and sorority girls congregating out in front.  The entrance is, surprisingly, without a bouncer, and there weren’t too many people actually in the pub itself.  Loud music was coming from inside though as the two saddled up to the bar.  A tall bald man turned to them with a friendly smile on his face, “You both 21 or over?”

"I'm Irish that good enough?" Arsling says smirking as she pulls out her passport showing her current age as she gets as comfortably in the seat as possible

The man lifts an eye brow and turns his gaze on Xander.

“I have no idea where a significant chunk of my family came from, so for all I know I could have Irish blood in me too.”  He gives a shrug, no use in lying about his age at this point.

The bartender lets out a thunderous laugh as he looks them both over.  “You two have some damned nerve not even trying to lie to me.”  He washes a pint glass with a rag and slams it on the counter.  “First round’s on the house for the both of you, for giving me a good laugh.  What’ll you be taking?”

"Guinness please, thank you very much bartender, I've had more issues trying to get service back in Ireland believe it or not" She says shoving her passport back into her coats inner pocket

“And I’ll take a… uh…” Xander fidgeted awkwardly in his stool, “Yknow what, just get me whatever she’s having for the rest of the night.  Except I’ll need two glasses of water with every drink.”

The bartender gave Xander a small nudge, “You’ve got it sir and madam.”  He turned to prepare the drinks, whistling a little tune as he did.

Xander turned to Arsling and let out a hefty sigh.  “I can’t believe how easy that was, so ythink this is some sort of trap or…?”

Arsling's eyes widen benief her sunglasses she hadn't thought about that, seemingly Didi's 'normalisation aura' was still affecting Arsling, she wasn't even thinking about any monsters other than the reptile Infront of her "I hadn't thought of that, I'd reckon most of the patrons are human or can't turn me, how many vampires or Werewolves end up as bartender"

“You’d be surprised Arsling, I got attacked by what I’m pretty sure is a cult and some… thing… at a career fair last week.”  Xander turned to her and gave a reassuring grin.  “Though I suppose at the end of the day my healthy paranoia may just be becoming a bit unhealthy in this instance.”  His eyes shift around the room, taking in all the fellow patrons still in the pub itself, settling on the bartender who’d nearly finished their drinks.  “It’s probably just a normal pub, and he’s a normal friendly bartender looking for tips, and we’re going to have a normal good time.”

"You were attacked by a cult? In my experience cult types would see someone like you as a god" Arsling says genuinely shocked "although I've met a few monster hunters, bloody nutjobs"

“Who’s a nutjob now, hope ya aren’t referring to me now.”  The bartender returned with the drinks, and plopped them down in front of the two.  “Also don’t be so stiff kid,” he gave Xander a knowing glance, “I don’t care if you’re ‘allowed’ to drink here, tonight’s about Ireland, so we do things the Irish way eh!”  He gives a huge thumbs up to Arsling as he saunters off to serve another patron.

As he left ear shot Xander’s demeanor relaxed.  “Now that is some service, he’s getting a big tip tonight.”  He takes a sip of the Guinness and hisses quietly.  “Damn that burnsss.  Anyways, they could’ve been monster hunters for all I know.  Two big tall dudes who looked almost identical wouldn’t let go of my roommate and tried to pull him off somewhere.  I scared them off with some help, and a little violence, but they all but disappeared after that.  Weirdest part is, nobody really noticed them until I loudly pointed them out, only folks who did were… well fellow monsters.”

"Hmmm might be some kind of illusion magic, make all the humans ignore the obvious until it can't be ignored" Arsling sips her Guinness "if you see them let me know, I know I have a... reputation but I don't stand for this kind of bullshit"  Arsling downs a large gulp of alcohol "damn that's good"

“Thanks Arsling, I’ll keep you in the loop.”  Xander takes another sip, hissing again but a bit quieter this time.  “I wish I could share the sentiment, but gods this stuff is like absolute lava to me.”

"I wouldn't be against taking your glass of lava if you don't want it" Arsling says smiling warmly at Xander "although like I said, a drunk snake sure would be hisssssteryical" Arsling says snorting at her awful pun

Xander gets a bit of a gleam in his eyes as he laughs along with her.  “Oh no you don’t, it may be lava but it’s my lava.”  Feeling his competitiveness getting the better of him, Xander takes a big swig from the glass.  He almost gags a bit, but keeps it down to hold appearances.  “Now that hitsss the ssspot.”  Xander’s tongue took on its snake like appearance, and hung from his front teeth for a second.  Then, realizing it was there, he quickly retracted it, getting a little flustered.

Arsling smirks at Xander, teasingly sticking her own tounge out at him "awww, you embarrassed?" She then downs her glass before putting it down and grinning "I think I won this duel Mr fencer"

Xander gets a fire in his eyes, and chugs down his glass as quickly as possible.  He doesn't care how much it burns, he’s not about to be bested so easily.  “You may have won thisss battle Broganson, but you won’t win the war.  Crossman’s don’t lose that easily!  Bartender, another round!”  Xander rifles through his pockets, pulls out a bill, and slams it on the counter.  “Actually, make it another nine!”

The bartender looks down, pockets the bill, and gives a sly smile.  “You’re speaking my language kid, coming right up!”

As the bartender rushes off to prepare more drinks, Xander gives Arsling a confident grin.  “Ready to tesst that drunken sssnake theory?”

"Let the science begin" Arsling says staring Xander in the eyes, confident in her inevitable victory

The bartender returns with a whole tray full of Guinness, and hands each of them nine glasses.  “Now just so you know, I ain’t liable for anything you two do.  If anything happens, I’m disavowing I ever saw, heard, or did anything.  That being said, good luck you two.”  He leaves the two of them alone, each intensely staring at the other.

Xander reaches for a glass, “On the count of three.  One… two…”  He stares hard at Arsling, his eyes narrowing tightly, forming into the icy blue eyes of a serpent, “Three!”

~~Several pints later~~

Arsling slams her glass down in victory her face almost as red as her hair "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!" She shouts as loud as possible the patrons and the bartender applauding the compatition as Arsling grins drunk as fuck

Xander finishes the last bit of his glass, mouth numb and tastebuds number.  He was still almost entirely sober, the faintest hint of a buzz finally starting to creep in.  He slams the glass down and starts slapping his hands together in applause.  He pauses, lifts Arsling’s arm into the air, and points at her.  “There you have it folks, LONG LIVE THE CHAMP!”

"YEAH!" Arsling smiles and begins 'strutting' confidently out of the pub backed by by cheering

Xander slaps another bill on the counter and

gives the bartender a nod.  “Thanks for the service, good sir,” and with that he rushes out of the doors after Arsling.  “Hey Champ come back, you can barely walk straight!”

"I can walk straight enough!" She proceeds to collide rib first into the car "OW Fuck!" She doubles over clutching her ribs

“Yup, straight enough alright.”  Xander pops his trunk open and pulls out a jug of water.  Closing his trunk he turns back to Arsling and checks on her.  “Let’s not have you fuck up those ribs any further eh?”  He offers her the water and opens the passenger side sort.

Arsling downs some of the jug before picking up Botato and sitting down "why'd you have a jug if water in your trunk?" She says this spilling some of the jugs content on her legs

Xander slides into the driver's seat and starts up the car.  “I come prepared for any emergency, some of those emergencies require a gallon jug of water.”  He chuckles a bit and gives Arsling a big grin.  “So, I think we can safely say I can drink, but I’m never going to get the least bit drunk.  So feel lucky I kept it at ten,” the fiery look in his eyes returns as his grin turns a bit feral, “or I would’ve drank you under the table.”  Just like that though, his more affable demeanor returns and he sticks his tongue out at Arsling playfully.

Arsling sticks her tounge out back "snake liver or no snake liver I still would've won" She chuckles as she lifts up and hugs Botato leaning back in her chair "so how's Tamzen doing with her fencing stuff?"

Xander’s face gets the slightest bit red as he puts the car in motion.  “Well for two lessons in, both of which she only was able to half participate in, I’d say she’s doing really well honestly.  Wish I’d met her sooner, she definitely has a lot of potential.”  Xander rubs the back of his neck sheepishly.  “Honestly I feel like she’s got more natural talent for it than I did when I started.  Give her the years of experience and all the lessons, and she’d probably be kicking my ass at it.”

Arsling bursts out laughing "I'm sorry it's just, Tamzen, shy nervous bookworm as a fighter is adorable and funny" She regains some of her composure, lifting up the jug and taking a swig

“I honestly think the mask helps a lot for her.  She’s pretty fierce when people aren’t bearing their attention down on her.”  Xander rolled down his window to enjoy the night’s air.  “So, how’re things going for you and Didi?  I saw her carrying you bridal style in that twit a few days ago, it was really cute.”

Arsling blushes "I love her so much, she cares for me, she treats me so well, I don't know what I did to deserve her but she's the best thing to happen to me for years, she's wonderful" Arsling smiles "she brings something out of me, this playfulness and 'why not' energy that I love to feel, she makes everything feel... normal, like I'm not cursed or that the world is simple and nice" Arsling has a massive grin on her face "and the sex is great" she says drunkly as she sips more water

Xander’s face turns beet red with embarrassment as he navigates the streets full of drunk college students.  He composes himself a tad and lets out a small sigh.  “That all sounds rather lovely honestly.  I’m glad she’s making you happy, you deserve some security with everything going on recently.”  Xander chuckles a bit, “I think Tamzen has a similar effect on me.  She reminds me that I’m my own person, not just some extension of my family or it’s reputation.  She’s like... a breath of fresh air honestly.”  He grins wide as he stops to let a drunk army of frat bros cross the street.  “It doesn’t hurt that she’s smart, interesting, talented, and… well attractive as well.”

"Oh you're dating Tamzen? Congrats, she needs someone like you in her life, i think, I don't know I'm fuckin hammered" Arsling says downing the rest of the jug before dropping it by her feet

“Oh yeah, that’s a thing now,” Xander rubs the back of his neck furiously.  “Sorry I thought one of us had told you by now, but I guess it is a recent development.”  He goes quiet for a bit, and then notices the frat bros have finally fully crossed.  Starting to go again, he lightens up a bit.  “Yeah, you’re pretty damn plastered.  We better get you home before anything stupid happens.  Tamzen and Didi would both probably kill me if I let you get into too much trouble.”

"I'll be honest, too late we've already done so much dumb" Arsling says wrapping her coat around her "guess our girlfriends will just have to kill you" Arsling giggles at the idea of Tamzen trying to kill anything, less about Didi, Arsling would let Didi kill her if given the opportunity

“I suppose you’re right, I guess I’ll just accept my fate.”  Xander playfully begins humming some kind of Gregorian tune.  “Oh lord, I know we’ve never seen eye to eye, but I’ll be on my way to you soon.  So sorry for all the shit I’ve done that pissed you off, and all the shit I planned to do to piss you off further.”  Xander chuckles loudly, “There I’ve made my peace, now you should probably make yours.  I doubt they’d kill just me if they were privy to tonight’s shenanigans!”

"Death by Didi? That sounds like a great death" Arsling says laughing her ass off dropping Botato and letting him tumble to Xanders side

“Whoa my liege, don’t fret I’ve got you!”  He reaches one hand down to grab Botato, and sets the little plush in his lap.  “There we go nice and sa- oh shit!”  Xander swerves, just barely avoiding a drunk girl who’d stumbled into the middle of the road.  As he steers the car back into his own lane he lets out a loud agonizing sigh.  “That… that was too fucking close.”

Arslings whipped around wacking her head against the window and sending her even loopier a bruise quickly forming above her eyebrow "ahhh fuuck" she holds her ribs and head

“Aw dammit, sorry Arsling, some idiot jumped into the road right in front of us.  Here we’re almost back at the dorm.  I’ve got an ice pack in my room you can use.”  Xander keeps his eyes glued to the road, as he watches for any other hapless drunks testing fate.

"Yeh yeh that would be nice" Arsling rolls down the window before sticking her head out and puking, she was already super drunk and that sudden whip did not help her

“Oh shit, well my car really needed a wash anyways.  Thank everything I can’t get drunk…”  Xander pulls into a space next to the dorm, quickly getting out with Botato in tow.  He jogs around to the other side of the car, and offers a hand to help steady Arsling while he gets the dirt open.

Arsling gets up stumbling and leaning against Xander her legs like jelly "thanks...I gotta stop finding myself being carried like this" she says coughing up a bit more sick onto the ground

“Well my friend, I doubt that’ll change for awhile, what with how injuries keep finding their way to you like moths drawn to a flame.”  Xander tried to crack a smile of encouragement.  “Besides, at least this time it was mostly just the alcohol.  I hope you’ve learned your lesson tonight... never go drink for drink against a Serpentine!”  Xander chuckles as they made their way inside the dorm.  “So plan is I’m gonna drop you off at your room, then I’ll be back with an ice pack, ok?”

"Yeah that sounds good, just throw me on my bed with Botato, oh and put on some music, I should have a CD on my desk" Arsling clings as best as she can to Xander so she doesn't fall down

Xander maneuvers through the halls, keeping Arsling as steady as he can without losing his own balance.  He gets Arsling back to her room, and gets her to the bed with Botato in tow.  Once he’s sure she won’t roll back out, he grabs the trash can and slides it next to her.  “Just in case you need it.”  He flips the lights on, and finds the CD and CD player.  Xander turns it on, pops the CD in, and lowers the volume a bit.  “Ok I’ll be right back,” he says before disappearing out into the hallway in a hurry.

"Thanks dude" Arsling leans her head back against the pillow booping botato on the nose and hugging the plushie "today was a good day"

Xander comes back in quietly a bit later, and gently places the ice pack on Arsling’s bruising forehead.  He whispers, “Still awake?”

A loud snoring rings out as Arsling squeezes Botato in her sleep mumbling "Didi" as she rests looking peaceful

Xander gives a soft chuckle as he turns to the door, flipping off the lights and going to leave.  He turns back, seeing Arsling comfortably in bed and sighs, “I can’t just leave you alone like this.”  He carefully walks over to the couch and lays out on it, getting comfortable himself, taking off his hoodie and using it as a pillow.  “Can’t believe the same girl who has to beat the shit outta monsters on the daily,” he whispers quietly to himself, “can also be that damned adorable after dropping all that beer.  You sure are one of a kind Arsling, sweet dreams.”  With that Xander turns his attention towards the door, and keeps it there until he too drifts off to sleep.