Elliott glanced back at Bryan, nodding. "Yeah, I suppose so. I think I spotted one not too far off from here," he said, pointing with his right hand.

He led the way, scoffing. "Well, considering we're getting closer to the spot, I don't know if that's worth the time..." He huffed, looking over as a rock got kicked off the side.

"Fuck me."

Elliott pulled himself into the cave, offering a hand to Bryan if he needed the help. Thunder echoed in the distance. "Hopefully this doesn't last long." Once they were settled, he dug through his bag, pulling out some food to eat as well as his alcohol.

Elliott noticed his companion pull out a flask of his own, unable to hide a smirk on his face. "You know, I knew there was something I liked about you," he said as he nodded toward the container in his hand, chuckling.

He raised his own bottle in a cheers to Bryan. "Cheers, to the shit show I always get put into." With that, he took a long swig before sighing.

Ah, money. Always a conversation starter.

Elliott shrugged, leaning back against his backpack and crossing his legs. "I lived dirt poor in Rustboro before modeling. Thieving only gets you so far, so these dumbass missions help out with sending home money to the folks." He didn't care what people knew about him. Rocket knew that he was a thief and good for nothing below his good boy surface.

"What about you? Got a sob story you like sharing with people?"

Elliott couldn't help a small smirk on his face. They sounded like they came from similar situations. So, Bryan probably understood some of the shit he did to get by day by day.

"Cheers to the little shits and being dirt poor," he said.

But, he had to agree. Rocket really was providing him opportunities to get some good payments to send back home. He couldn't complain much on that front.

"I can't complain. They give me money to do shit like this and a place to stay in the sub, so..." He shrugged as he took another sip.

"Even if I hate reporting to authority. I have to learn to keep my mouth shut some times."

Elliott nodded, nursing his bottle as he watched the Fennekin pop out from the ball. He snorted.

"Maybe it's more prepared than we were."

Sure, the packs that they carried had a shit load of things, but he supposed that no one anticipated that they would have to camp out in a cave during a freezing cold storm.

He sighed contently as the fire began to warm up the cave, slouching back against the rocky wall.

"Really? I just take whatever missions I can gather in my free time. They pay better than I originally though," Eli said, shrugging.

"So you've been in Rocket for a while, then. My parents were in for a while, but I recently only started being more involved."

"I don't remember having much connection to Rocket as a kid. Maybe more of just my parents leaving to do things at random times and showing up. Sometimes having to do weird things because that's what we were told to do. But that was how we got by."

Not to mention that's exactly where Eli's thieving started.

"I take it you don't mind being a member now, though?" he questioned, mostly out of curiosity. "I've met many people who've joined from necessity. I personally don't mind it now, since I'm older."

Another swig. A sigh.

"I thought I was strange as a kid though."

He listened, holding his bottle up to his lips and swallowing as he nodded along. It made sense. It really did. He felt almost the same way that Bryan had, before he joined.

"I do like this life. The get shit done and go do what I want. It makes it easy for me to work," he said.

Eli stared at the fire, like a glowing will-o-wisp that brought them warmth and safety in this torrential downpour. He was thankful that Bryan's Pokemon was able to start it.

He thought back to living in Rustboro, before being pulled out by that agent.

"Yeah. I remember the days of being looked down and scoffed at. No one was going to help the poor. They said they would. But it would never be done."

scowl crossed his lips.