[FIN] Bottom of a Bottle

[Blood_Goddess]

It was clear that the answer surprised the other grunt, though he accepted it silently, nodding tot he bar tender who handed him a beer.
"Alright..."

"We was just talkin' bout what kinda screw up we are-" Jerome started, making a gesture to Luke for him to finish his conversation.
The meantime Bro, was busy ordering his own series of drinks, sliding random ones over to Luke and the other three Rockets whenever he decided to share.  

[Suudonym]

"I honestly wouldn't even know where to start," Luke said, his smile wry and self-deprecating. "Basically my life story is one screw up after another - or, the last three years at least." In surrender he accepted one of the offered drinks, passingly wondering if any of this stuff actually tasted good or if he would just have to burn the ability to taste off of his tongue before he'd be able to stomach it.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Two beers, and three shots in and Jerome was starting to feel it, he'd been more pleasantly buzzed through most of the conversation, he knew it was probably why he was being so forward in a conversation to begin with."Might need ta fill me in brotha' cause so far I ain't seein' it. What you do?"  

[Suudonym]

"Well hell, let's just go down the list," he said, counting off the points on his fingers. "Not being there to help when my friend's - now fiancee's - pokemon was stolen because I was too lazy to go with her, getting my own pokemon stolen because I was too self-righteous to consider the person an enemy, knowing that my mother literally worries herself sick but doing whatever I wanted anyway and--" The words stuck in his throat, and he shook his head, "and not being able to do anything about it when she died from it, being so stupid and careless that my brother wound up killing himself-- s**t." He balanced his forehead against his forefinger, using the rest of his hand to cover his face. "You can't really want to hear about this."  

[Blood_Goddess]

Luke was given a moment's break, just as Jerome lifted the bottle to his lips to take a brink.
Jaimee's dark eyes staying unmoving on Luke while she half hugged the bottle in her hands to her jacket.

"Hn, Keep goin' man." Jerome grunted in encouragement, gesturing to him.  

[Suudonym]

His shoulders rose and fell with a sigh, though his posture otherwise remained unchanged. "A year ago I was suffering from heart failure. I got shot trying to protect a friend, and the strain from the blood loss was too much for my heart to handle. My brother was in Team Rocket. He killed himself to provide a donor heart so the one of us that lived wouldn't be tied to the organization. I couldn't carry that weight and nearly wound up killing myself too." A breath. "Just as I started to get my bearings, I had the bright idea to tell my fiancee that her sister was involved in Team Rocket. She wound up shooting one of our friends, hurting others, would have killed my fiancee right in front of us if her partner hadn't interfered. I thought, you know, damn, coming to Kodo has only caused problems for everyone I care about, I should probably reconsider being here - but against my better judgment, I stayed." Resulting in his earlier sentiment on the matter of removing oneself from another's life without their knowledge or approval.

"Fast forward a bit and you come to the last month or so of my life in which I completely botched the job my father set up for me and singlehandedly wrecked the efficiency and productivity of the entire place so badly that they forced me to quit. That was yesterday, by the way - the same day that my father made it very clear to me that if I didn't want to succeed him politically, he didn't want to consider me family. And so here we are." He gestured vaguely with his empty hand.  

[Blood_Goddess]

"********." Jerome breathed "An how old are ya?"

That sounded like a bunch of terrible events, but Jerome was having a hard time picking out just what kind of mistakes that he made that were unforgivable, from the sounds of it, most of them had good intentions and just ended up bad.
Team Rocket seemed to play a bigger part in the kids life then Jerome realized as well.

"Man I ain't sayin' ya don't got no s**t on ya, but I ain't seein' how mosta that was yer fault, sounds like s'just havin' a bunch a back ********' luck."  

[Suudonym]

"Twenty. As of December." The words were almost biting, carrying a subtle flare of anger towards the fate he had been dealt. Sure, he had had his good experiences as well, but was that really the necessary trade-off? It seemed like happiness could only be earned by reaching blindly into a thorn bush and hoping for a rose.

He held up three fingers, "Three years ago I ran away from home in Grande Ile and came to Kodo because I was bored. Since then, I've been involved with more suffering than I could measure - friends, family, even strangers. Even if it's coincidence, that's just..." He furrowed his brow. "It's hard to brush off, knowing that it all could have been avoided if I hadn't been such a headstrong brat."  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Yeah well, life is sufferin'" Jerome added "And it don't end till ya finally die."
He downed the latest bottle, leaning back in his stool and running his hand over his shaved head again "Ya hold onto the good things ya get fer as long as ya can and get ready to be ******** s'more" He held his arms open "What ya ganna do bout it?"  

[Suudonym]

Luke folded his arms on the counter to lay against them, "b***h and moan and feel like crap, apparently."  

[Blood_Goddess]

"F'thats what ya wanna do." Jerome said. "Ain't really done s**t though, does it."  

[Suudonym]

"No." He remained that way, his voice slightly muffled. "Not really."  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Are we... having a heart to heart here or something?" Jamie, who was clearly still sober asked, having watched the two talk the entire time.

"Maybe." Jerome shrugged.
"hey-" Jerome suddenly barked, looking around to Luke again "Man ya wanna know somethin' bout family?"  

[Suudonym]

Yeah, this was probably really, really weird, but at this point Luke hardly cared anymore. Sitting at a bar with a bunch of Rockets that had left him for dead a short month earlier - whatever, at least they weren't making him feel more like trash than he already did.

He turned his head to a side at the sudden address, "What?"  

[Blood_Goddess]

Jerome wasn't a friendly looking person at first glance, his black eyes aside, his features looked weathered and aged, and he had a consistent predatory feel about him as mild as it seemed sometimes. It was a nature that he carried from his past, that through his calmness served as a reminder that that wasn't who he always used to be.

Whatever calm features he carried now snapped away as he adopted a scowl that he seemed to wear more easily then would be expected from his previous ******** em-" he said, leaning onto and elbow on the counter, and practically spitting the slur out.
"Family's what you ********' make of it, just cause you came from some pricks seed don't mean s**t when any 'a it comes down."
Jerome pointed to the Gengar who clacked his teeth "That- Thats ********' family, this-" He made a sloppy gesture to the two Grunts sitting by him "This is ********' family- family ain't ganna kick ya out, or leave ya hungry, throw ya t'the ******** wolves or not stop t'think that ya might need em sometime down the ********' road. They got yer back, they help ya up and help ya out and ya don't go wantin' fer ********' nothin'"

He downed another shot glass "******** em-"

"That was... very touching Jerome- a little scary... but touching." Jamie added to throw in a little humor to the silence that man's vulgar speech had made.
Bro- who was by now very drunk seemed to have the same sentiment, only genuinely, as he was suddenly on the gangster and hugging him whole heatedly with drunken laughter.
Jaimee, who had lowered her eyes, was looking up at Jerome and his Gengar, though through the ruckus glanced back and Luke, and giving a small nod before sipping her beer.