Cooper held the philosophy that you can always tell the quality of a party by the quality of the booze available. Anyone can dump a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon into a cooler, but your better parties will also have a table of the hard stuff along with some mixers. The very best parties actually included a bartender, of course, but in this crazy mixed-up world of ours you've got to take what you can get. At any rate, this one fell somewhere in the middle. A table with booze and mixers. The alcohol was good, too, not quite top shelf but definitely not bulk rate swill. And someone had put pour spouts on them! Did he own pour spouts? He couldn't remember. Probably not. At any rate, he felt rattled enough by what he had seen at the church that he felt he had earned a drink. Granted, he usually felt he had earned a drink by waking up in the morning

Coops was busy mixing himself a rum and coke in a red Solo cup, which he planned to lift up before he proceeded to party. However, he felt someone bump heavily and totally not accidentally into him. Cursing as his drink splashed onto his polo, he turned around to see some lady telling himself to watch where he was going. despite the fact that he was completely stationary and she was clearly drunk as a lord. Drunk as a lady? Not specific enough. Drunk as a countess? Are countesses known for getting drunk? Come to think of it, are lords? "I think maybe you've had enough, princess," he said mechanically, even as his brow creased looking at her. She looked familiar. He had seen her somewhere before. Maybe several different somewheres. 

He looked past her, trying to figure out where Lillith had gotten off to, saw her only a few feet away. Some dork had grabbed her shoulder and was whispering something in her ear. Cooper found his free hand slowly reaching for the AMT Backup stashed at the small of his back. Nobody picked on Lillith. Not while he was around.

The man stormed off towards the stairs, weaving his way through the gyrating crowd of partiers, as Lillith shouted to Cooper over the pounding music. "Care to back me up, this kid may have more info," she said to Cooper with a thumb jerked towards the stairs. Cooper nodded, gently pushed aside the annoying lady, and followed Lillith up the stairs.

It was quieter up here, though the floor literally shook beneath them from the sound of the music. Cooper saw the man waiting, arms folded, in the darkened hallway. "Hey, pal," he said to the man. "I understand you were wanting to talk about Maria. Let's do that. First things first, though, you were uncivil to my friend here," he said with a gesture to Lillith behind him. "So let's put that behind us. My little buddy here is going to be referee, just in case you get any stupid ideas." The pistol slid out of his belt and into his hand. While he didn't point it directly at the lanky nerd, Cooper didn't not point it at him either. With a smirk, Cooper took a sip of his rum and coke. "Let's talk, pal."