[PRP] The Truth Hurts

[Blood_Goddess]

Life in the outpost was becoming somewhat familiar to Jerome, after a month of living in the much smaller base, slowly being pieced back together in working condition and supplied with the necessitates of living, the Rockets were able to form something of a schedule while they waiting for further orders from the higher ups.
It was busy for the Agents, Jerome himself, was helping with shipments, this helped to get him out of the base a lot, something he rather appreciated, but for now, he was thinking that after his workout and shower, sometime to just chill in the room he was assigned to with a number of other rockets sounded like a good idea.

Jerome forced the heavy door to the quarters open, a white shirt slung over his bare chest, joined by a few strands of his dark dreadlocks, otherwise sprawled over his shoulder and back, wearing nothing but a pare of dark gray pajama pants.
The room was empty, a few Rockets already collected in their bed, reading, or interacting with their pokemon.
Jerome felt a bit relived knowing that there were other people in the room, He much preferred it this way.

A Gengar swooped past the freshly cleaned gangster, to reach the man's assigned bed first, plopping down on it.
"Get yer a** off" the man grunted, reaching a hand out to nudge the pokemon over.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie really didn't mind their new living arrangements too much. The outpost was teeming with interesting plants and he had always been fond of exploring old buildings. If he had to complain about one thing it would be that it was still a bit dirty. It seemed that no matter hard they scrubbed, the outpost remained grimy. It was likely due to the fact that the building had been abandoned for quite some time for he knew that Agent Frost had been meticulously cleaning. He would have been happy to assist in cleaning, for once, but as he was still watched pretty closely while his ribs finished healing there wasn't much he could do. Soon though, a week and a half at the most and he would be 'right as rain'. He couldn't wait to be able to go back to his regular activities.

And speaking of regular activities...

The teenager pocked his head out from beneath the blankets on his bed when he heard Jerome enter the room they shared with various other members. "Jerome!" He exclaimed excitedly, a large grin on his face as he greeted the older man. His hair stuck up at odd angles and his cheeks were flushed from the heat that had built up while he had been examining his latest project. "I'm not entirely sure how but I managed to make a dandelion glow in the dark!" He jerked a large jar from beneath the blankets to reveal a lone dandelion. "It fell into my serum for curing scar tissue while I was away and had been sitting there for who knows how long and this was the result."  

[Blood_Goddess]

Bro had rolled over enough, to allow Jerome to drop down and sit at the end of his bed, tossing the shirt to the side before his attention was drawn back up with the call of his name. Jerome looked up in time to see a purple haired boy sitting up from the covers in a bed that previously had no one in it. Apparently though, Zacharie had been hiding under the covers for some reason, huh.

"Sup Twitch." Jerome greeted back with a light jerk of his head, when suddenly a flower in a jar was pulled out and showed to Jerome.
leaning forward, with his elbows on his knees the gangster eyes the flower for a couple of seconds "Glows n'the dark huh?" his gaze shifted over to Zacharie as he explained how it happened, a light furrow of his brow creasing just over his eyebrows as he seemed to fail to understand. "Ya tryin' t'make scars glow too?"

Bro, who seemed done with taking up most of Jerome's bed floated up and over toward Zacharie, drifting right up to the jar and practically pressing an eye to the glass.  

[insidiousEnigma]

"Well...no." Zacharie said slowly, protectively pulling the jar away from Bro. "I'm trying to create a salve that will get rid of scars completely." He smiled sheepishly as he fully crawled out from beneath his blankets. "Perhaps glowing in the dark is a side effect. I will have to run a few more tests...." He trailed off, his hidden gaze thoughtful. After a moment he shook his head and shrugged. "The point is that I got a dandelion to glow without killing it!" He said excitedly, drawing himself up onto his knees and settling the jar into his lap. "Once I find out how exactly it happened I will have to replicate it, there must be some use for it." He nodded firmly while watching Bro from the corner of his eye. The Gengar had this horrible habit of snatching up his things and sometimes eating them to get a rise out of him and there was no way he was going to let him get a hold of his new experiment. "Did you do anything of significance today?" He asked curiously, cocking his head just slightly.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Bro clicked his teeth when the jar was pulled away, leaning back and crossing his arms as Zacharie spoke, glancing to Jerome as the man pushed himself to his feet and walked over to Zacharie, reaching a hand out to the jar in a silent question to see it.
"Hell yeah man, maybe ya should think bout makin' some ink that glows like Bro."

Bro clicked his teeth again with a smug grin at Jerome.

"Wouldn't mind sm' ink ya don't need a black light fo'."

Shaking his head lightly to knock some of the dreadlock strands out of his face "Naw, ain't got any runs I needed t'do today, just helped out round the base then got some Parkour in."
Jerome let out a breath through his nose, looking around the cramped room, mostly piled with people's belonging and bags. "Guess we're gettin' a place t'store sm'a this s**t soon." He told Zacharie "Agent's workin' on it."  

[insidiousEnigma]

"Some...." Zacharie's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he tried to decipher just what it was Jerome had said to him. "...There are some writing utensils that have ink that glows in the dark to some extent. There are also quite a few paints that, when held up to the light for extended periods of time, will glow as well." He said slowly, his head cocked ever so slightly. Surely the older man knew that, to him it seemed like universal knowledge. He remembered owning a pen that's ink would glow in the dark when he was much younger and found such things entertaining. Pale eyes searched the others heavily inked face for....oh! Oh course!

"Oh!" He exclaimed when it finally hit him. "You are referring to tattooing ink." Of course that had been what the taller male had been talking about. Why in the world would he care about glowing pens and paint? "I'm sure that with some refining and testing I could indeed make tattooing ink that would glow in the dark." He nodded thoughtfully, lost in his own thoughts for a moment. "I would require a sample of the ink used so I could compare molecular structures and be sure that the glow ink wouldn't be toxic though and....wait, did you say something about ink that glows under black lights?"  

[Blood_Goddess]

Jerome stood in silence as Zacharie went off about pens, his teeth lightly chewing on the inside of his lip piercing as he patiently waited for an opening to tell Zachaire that he was thinking of the wrong kind of ink.

Bro was not helping by throwing himself back onto Zacharie's bed, cackleing and just watching the kid as he continued on.

Jerome cracked a grin when before he even had to say something Zacharie managed to get to the kind of Ink that Jerome meant.
"Yea" He grunted with a chuckle, Zacharie going further into a topic that Jerome knew nothing about, but listened anyway.
At the question of black lights though Jerome arched his eyebrows and nodded "Yeah man, had it for a while." holding a hand out and spreading his fingers he made an indication with his other finger to trace over his hand and up his arm "Ya can't see it much if ya look at it."  

[insidiousEnigma]

The teen quietly stared at the hand held out before gingerly taking the hand into both of his own for a closer inspection. His gaze flickered up to make sure that Jerome wasn't angry before lowering his head to peer closely at the other's arm. Very faint, he could just barely make out the design against the older man's dark skin. "Interesting..." He murmured, eyes raking over the marking. "Did it hurt more than a normal tattoo? How about the healing time? Did it take longer to heal than a tattoo with normal ink does?" Gently, he prodded at the skin and made a thoughtful hum. "Is there a way that I could possibly get some regular, black tattooing ink and some black light ink?" He wondered briefly if Jerome would be able to get him a skin sample, someone deceased or perhaps willing to spare the skin, so he could observe the way it interacted with the skin. That would be a question for another time though.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Zacharie would find as he glanced up that the man looked as indifferent about his hand being touched as he usually did. busy himself with spotting out the slight discoloration of where the tattoos were. Unless you were looking for them, it just looked like natural different tones of skin.

"Naw" Jerome grunted in reply "Didn't bother me none." He added with a shug "jus' 'nother Tattoo."
When asked if he could get some ink Jerome nodded "Sure it ain't hard t'get, bet ya could go to any place that does Tattoos."

Board with everything, Bro decided he would roll around on Zacharie's bed, before reaching out to the boy's bag and start to peek through it.  

[insidiousEnigma]

"I see. Hm, that is indeed very interesting." He mused aloud as he turned Jerome's hand palm up so inspect the skin there. "I wonder if it didn't seem particularly different to you because you have a high pain tolerance." He muttered, prodding at the lighter skin on the underside of the other's arm. "No way to know that though without conducting a full study." He scowled slightly before shrugging it off. He'd have to see if he could get to a tattoo parlor, or whatever they were called, to acquire some.

When he caught sight of Bro going through his things from the corner of his eye, he dropped the older man's hand and turned to swat at the Gengar. "Bro, ask before you go through other people's things!" He scolded, trying tug the bag away from the pokemon. All that he succeeded in doing was knocking a few of his things from said bag. Among the pens, rubber gloves, and a jar was a small, white box. "Ah!" He let go of his bag in favor of gingerly picking up the box. "I had nearly forgotten." A quick peak inside the box assured the teen that the contents had not been horribly damaged. "...Happy birthday, Jerome." He muttered, holding the box out to the older man. "I...made it myself." Inside the box was a cupcake, the frosting was a bit squished and messy now but it was still edible. "This is what you do, right? Give gifts to your friends?"  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Well I'll tell ya that now, yeah I go a high pain tolerance, ya build one up after a while, though s'mostly the will ya got for it."
He explained. with as many fights as he was in, the life he lead, the Parkour spills he was in, you don't walk away from those without building some kind of tolerance to it.

Streighting back up and crossing his arms over his chest as Zacharie moved to get his bag away from Bro, the Gengar snarking back at the boy before letting the bag go, causing some of the contents to slip out onto the bed.
Disappointed that his snooping got interrupted, the Gengar floated back next to Jerome, before he faded completely out of sight, his long tongue lulling out at Zacharie.

"Lil' s**t." Jerome snorted in amusement, feeling a hand slack his shoulder.
Looking back at Zacharie at the boy's exclamation, a look of confusion crossing his face when the boy said happy birthday.
Happy birthday? what? who's birthday was it. what... wait what day was it?
Jerome stood in completely silence or a couple of seconds before it clicked. <********' s**t man." Jerome blinked at the box handed to him.
Taking it uncertainly, as if he wasn't really used to being given anything, probably becasue he wasn't.

Opening it, he stared in at the slightly battered cupcake for longer than a few moments, before dark eyes shifted up just barely to glance back at Zachaire.
"Uh- yeah, I guess s'somethin ya do. ******** man, I forgot bout that." He let out a chuckle, reaching up to run a hand over the shaved half of his head as he looked back down at the cupcake.  

[insidiousEnigma]

"If you don't want it you can give it to Bro." Zacharie muttered, shoulders hunching slightly. "I made a lot today and I thought that perhaps you'd like one. It's not a big deal or anything..." He huffed, turning his face away to hide his embarrassed expression. To be honest, he'd made one single cupcake. It hadn't been hard (cooking was just chemistry for the hungry after all) but he'd taken time to make it all the same. "I..I'm not even sure if you like sweets." He added quietly, nervously biting his bottom lip. He'd never felt particularly compelled to give anyone a gift. Not that he ever really had anyone to give one to mind you. "Nevermind, it was a stupid idea." He held his hand out for Jerome to give it back though he didn't turn back to face his friend. What had he been thinking? Of course the older man wouldn't want a cupcake, he should have tried to find something more suitable. He was such an idiot.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Instead of finding the box back in his hand, Zacharie would find another hand clap into the boy's hand and grip it firmly, though not painfully.
"Who n'there ********' mind don't like sweet s**t."
clasping the boys hand in a brotherly grip, Jerome leaned down sot hat he could reach around to bump Zacharie's back with his other fist. then pulled away, still holding the box.
"Respect Twitch, fo real, ain't gotten somethin' for by birthday in... hm... long a** time."
Jerome dropped down to sit down next to Zacharie, tearing the side of the box open to pull the cupcake out, tearing a half off to offer it to Zacharie, while he bit off a large portion of the icing himself.
"What I get for gettin' old, huh?"  

[insidiousEnigma]

Zacharie startled as his hand was taken up into a firm grip. "I'm...not sure." He stuttered out at the other's not quite a question. He wasn't entirely sure what the older man was doing, but he soon found himself in a hug of sorts. His first hug from someone that wasn't a nanny. ...He might faint. The purple haired male returned the bump with a light pat of his own. "Ah yes well...a-as I said, it's what friends do and well..." He gave Jerome an awkward, little smile as the other sat down next to him. "we are friends." He muttered, gingerly taking the offered half of cupcake. "I like to think of celebrating birthdays as celebrating another year of life." Quite an optimistic way of thinking for him, but it was true. "But besides that, thirty isn't old." He assured his friend before taking a bite of the cupcake.  

[Blood_Goddess]

The older man glanced to the boy as he took a seat by him, keeping his hand up until the other piece of the cupcake was taken.
A small grunt voiced the man's acknowledgment of Twitchy's words, that they were friends.
A few years ago and Jerome would have probably not have given the kid a second glance. Too wrapped up in the world of his gang, and the day to day that got him what he wanted.
Dark eyes shifted over to look at the purples haired Rocket next to him, not surprised that since he joined Rocket, he had been making friends of all kinds of different people, most people he would have never even had a chance with interacting with.

Reaching a hand out to pat his shoulder, "Yeah," He squeezed his hand gently, before letting it fall back into his own lap "We're friends."

With a deep chuckle, the gangster nodded "I guess it ain't, but M'bein' honest kid, I ain't never thought I would get t'thirty."