[FIN] Bottom of a Bottle

[Blood_Goddess]

"Hn..." He grunted in understanding "Can't help ya wit that one, man." He let out a heavy breath through his nose and straightened his back "er jus keep goin' till ya don't care"  

[Suudonym]

Well, that was disappointing; he'd been half hoping to hear that he was just doing something wrong. He exhaled a quiet breath, his brow knit with the weight of a hundred negative thoughts. In a halfhearted effort to escape, even if only briefly, he pursued an absent curiosity, "I have a question. I mean, it's not like it really matters as this point, but what the hell did you take my pokegear for?" It had been bothering him for a while and the opportunity to address it was before him, so hey, why not.  

[Blood_Goddess]

His pokegear? Jerome sat up a little, his brow knit at the question the kid had asked, and for a moment wondering if he had heard him wrong. Then glancing around as if to see if there was someone else he might have been talking to.
Seeing no one else, Jerome returned a frown to the boy
"What?"  

[Suudonym]

Luke returned the frown in kind. "What what? Don't tell me you don't remember. I almost ******** died out there."  

[Blood_Goddess]

Died out there? Pokegear? Well, there was something to be said about the feeling that Jerome's seen this kid somewhere before, and now it was becoming glaringly obvious that the kid knew Jerome.
And with that realization along with what the red head was saying it didn't take long for it to click with Jerome.
"Red." The man said with a sudden dawning, the man drawing himself up into a taller sitting position.
"Hn... well-"
This was probably pretty bad, Jerome admitted.
With not much more to say he downed the shot he had sitting in front of him. "Ya- so ya made it back aight?" he continued, this time a bit more awkwardly.  

[Suudonym]

And that was another thing: Was he really such a generic person that the first name people went to was the color of his hair? Ray called him that from time to time as well, though this was the first time he ever felt annoyed by it.

That was the beside the point, though. He shrugged, "More or less. Alive, at least." His thoughts returned to the original curiosity. "But no, the pokegear thing. It even had my compass on it. I nearly froze to death trying to get back."  

[Blood_Goddess]

Jerome shrugged, turning the shot glass in his hands while keeping his attention on it. "Simple reason." He replied "Tell em ya were in the woods, they spend that time lookin' fer ya, not us."  

[Suudonym]

He opened his mouth to give a retort but found that he wasn't sure what the reasonable alternative would have been. Snow gave great cover, but only if enough time passed that it could cover one's tracks. Of course, that probably also made him a fair bit harder to find, since his own tracks had been blanketed just as efficiently. He frowned, settling against his palm once more. "Well, that's what it means to be worthless to someone. I guess I can be grateful that you bothered to give me a chance, at least, but it would have been real nice to at least have my compass..."  

[Blood_Goddess]

Well this certainly took an odd twist... the kid Kyle shot out of the sky and dragged back to base with a busted face was sitting at the same bar...
"Din't even notice it was there." Jerome replied honestly, placing the glass down onto the counter and reaching up to rub a hand over the shaved side of his head
"S'that why yer in here?" He asked, making a gesture to the bar.  

[Suudonym]

He made a light, breathy sound, "No. I'm not that eaten up over it; it's not like it was the first time I almost died." Despondency crawled into his features. "I was just sick of thinking."  

[Blood_Goddess]

Alright, well seemed like he wasn't the kind to really hold grudges, not that Jerome wasn't surprised that he wasn't reacting worse about the whole situation, Given the options the kid got off pretty easy, but it was still probably not a pleasant situation.

The man didn't really say much more, but his eyes never left the younger trainer, taking note especially of him saying this wasn't the first time he nearly died before.
"So ya come to a hole like this?"  

[Suudonym]

He folded his arms on the counter, shrugging. "Well, I'm not 21. It's kind of my only option."  

[Blood_Goddess]

"... What you fakin' IDs kids? But Naw, S'not what m'sayin'." Jerome continued shaking his head and taking another swig of his beer "They're all holes."  

[Suudonym]

"No, they-- It's an exception." The full explanation was just too many words, especially if he'd taken the question the wrong way in the first place. "Well... I go home feeling like this, acting like I feel like this, that'll just make my fiancee worry. She always puts up with my bad moods. It just makes me feel even worse, thinking that I can't keep it together enough for her to relax and be happy."  

[Blood_Goddess]

A moment of silence past through Jerome, where he sat staring at his hands, and chewing on the inside of his lip piercing.
"'fraid I ain't really know what that's like. Ya worry bout her worryin' a lot though don't ya. Or she just worries a lot. and I known ya for what... an hour?"