a light that never comes [closed]

Adrian had hit rock bottom. He had probably hit rock bottom some years ago, but never truly realized it. The stupid device on which he had spent a fortune was supposed to be the key to his breakout discovery - like many other stupid little widgets and tricks preceding it. Once again, he had quickly learned that the device was just about worthless to his efforts. It was designed to identify ultra space energy signatures in objects, which was a hint that that object had traveled through a portal from worlds unfathomed. For all he very well knew, the device worked, but to no end. He identified strange energy signatures in some random objects, but could make no further revelations regarding ultra space.

All of this haunted him as the second glass of whiskey and sour mix began to take hold. Adrian was planted in a stool, slumped over the bar, with his hair falling down from around his sullen face. He did not like the look of this bar, or rather the look of the people in it (there was nothing amiss about the establishment itself). Adrian was just about broke. He had chosen such a seedy location for his drink in the interest of spending as little money as possible. Sitting in his stool, face hidden behind a curtain of hair, the realization crept upon him uncomfortably that the better option was not to spend any money at all.

His thoughts suddenly scattered from his head as he heard shouting behind him. His face swirled up and around, and he saw a rather large man strangling a much smaller woman not ten feet away. Courageous, fierce - Adrian was neither of the two. He was, however, drunk, which for him was apparently enough. He reached across the bar and grabbed a recently emptied whiskey bottle which the bartender had neglected to discard. In one fluid motion, Adrian swiped the bottle off the bar, and with every ounce of strength and will in his body, he brought it down against the man's head. A crash silenced the room, as the bottle turned to shards against his skull. Adrian could scarcely even say what he had just done.

Mouth agape, Adrian's head swam as the atmosphere of the bar suddenly escalated into an uproar. His eyes saw the man hit the ground, but he did not process what had happened until he was already being pulled out of the bar by the same woman the man had been strangling. His mind fled his head, and in the moment he was but a hollow golem. He ran complacently behind her.

They reached the door and escaped the storm of fists and chairs. Adrian stumbled outside as the woman released him from her grip. Adrian blinked and shook his head as he returned to the present time and place. His heart desperately wanted to free itself from his chest. He was apparently drunk enough to knock a man unconscious, but still too sober not to be shaken.

"I can't believe I did that," he said as he checked the door for any drunkards in pursuit.

He ran his hands up and down his body to check for his belongings. He opened the flap of his bag and began to fish through it, his paranoia suggesting that he'd dropped something in the fray.

He looked back to her when he was sure no one was running after them, "Well, thanks for uh... that."

Adrian began to wonder what in the world would compel a man to attack a girl like that. She did not seem at all the type to even be found in such a seedy area. Her outfit alone looked to be worth more than the entire establishment. None of it made sense. Nonetheless, he still had his pokémon and his worthless gadgets. And as serendipity would have it, he never had to pay for his two drinks.

His nerves settled and he began to realize that the woman who was thanking him was quite pretty. It was an easy "Sure!" when she offered to buy him more drinks.

She began to walk away, and he caught up with her. Adrian was without friends in the Lona region, and mostly everywhere else too. Getting drinks with a girl was certainly a much better way to spend his night than anything he could have hoped to come up with on his own.

"I'm Adrian, by the way."