In a way, this much action in the morning wasn't the worst that could have happened, even if the actual cause for this was pretty horrible, and having been here for like two weeks still wasn't enough to really prepare Jerome for what cruelties They were happy to impose on them. He had already experienced how they have been taken away together to some place, or how three women of the group were returning from what they had considered only a day away from the mansion when it had been more than that. And there was Jack, who had been stuck inside the mansion all alone while they were having some sort of summer getaway. But taking people, hiding them inside the town, probably either unconscious or confined in any kind of space so that they wouldn't be able to return by themselves, and yet again, making a ridiculous game out of it with forced participation on cost of these people's safety or at least mental sanity, was absolutely disgusting, and while his brain processed the situation rather fastly, he still could barely grasp the reality of this nonsense, wondering how many times more They could expand his expectations of what to anticipate.
Even though this was devastating as fuck, and even though Jerome hated just about everything about it, a possibility to worry about and cater to others was a much needed break from yesterday's endeavours, and splurging right into action to provide support helped tremendously with distracting him from the still lingering memories this fucking quiz had stirred up. Spending the afternoon with Pam had been delightful, but spending the evening alone again had lured the sadness back, and the wine, and without an indignated Pam taking his glass away, there had been no reason not to knock it back while trying to somehow cope with his sadness. Still, in the morning, he had felt better, and even though he had kind of anticipated to regret opening up to Pam about himself, he did not. Pam's words about how cleansing it was really proved to be true even in hindsight, and a light weight was lifted, which, for Jerome, felt equally odd and relieving. The relevation that the quiz answers hadn't been posted publicly also contributed to a better mood in the morning than he had went to bed with, lowering the stress about people guessing about his past significantly, only really leaving Oliver and Edwin as people whose guesses still bothered him, because he still hated the fact that it was left as an uncertainty in their minds, no matter if they even thought about it for longer than the duration of the quiz. He probably would need to address the matter somehow to prevent his mind from going in loops, and as much as he hated this fact right now, it didn't seem as threatening anymore after the experience with Pam, even though he definitely wouldn't go in detail about any of that again anytime soon.
Initially, he had descended the stairs with the aim to bake a little something for Pam to express his sincere appreciation of her company, and the fact she had allowed him a space to cry and talk about himself without judgement, but comfort. If he had only considered Oliver as a friendship in development before, he definitely considered Pam the same now, too. But instead of ending up baking the only animal-related thing he could manage to create and make it look somehow appealing, he had found the table with the phones, wondering if this was the punishment for failing the quiz, or just today's thing. No matter how hard it was to grasp that this really was happening, it was there, and it just being a thing on top of whatever punishment people would have to endure seemed ridiculously realistic for this place.
His first reaction had been a mix of anger and worry, and after informing the others and learning through Oliver's post that this obviously wasn't the first time something like this was happening and that there apparently was some kind of routine for this already, he vanished into the kitchen again, ready to prepare coffee and a few snacks for those willing to tackle the cold, including himself. It still was fucking cold outside, still way colder than anything he had experienced in Germany ever before, and as people were meeting in the foyer as Oliver had proposed, the kitchen remained empty for a while, leaving him to his thoughts and mildly mad mood while making coffee, filling coffee in travel mugs, and searching the supplies for small and handy stuff for easy transport. Until he wasn't alone anymore.