[attr="class","flori"]


There seems to be a lot of hubbub surrounding a certain councilman. Florian had missed the circumstances under which certain bounties had been placed, but he watches the group from afar in case any interesting new developments were to arise.

He sees Solgaleo, also, not recognizing the Pokemon as the legendary he was, but admiring the leonine grace all the same.

Wine has flushed his cheeks, the blond finding himself in high spirits as the party continues. Joli, his Sylveon, pounces on stray lights cast by the disco ball that was Leo, and Florian's considering asking someone to dance when a familiar face cuts a path through the crowd toward him.

Alexei Ivanov 's fears are unfounded; Florian beams at the gym leader, blue eyes lit with glee upon spotting the sweater.

"Oh, how adorable!" he crows, sincere. "Allo, mon amie! It is good to see you."

He takes another sip of his wine, eyes slipping closed for a moment in content. Sylveon chirps out a greeting to Alexei, recognizing the other man from the times they'd met.

tl;dr
- admiring solgaleo and curious about wtf is going on w/ kim
- greets alexei on approach, a lil tipsy but not drunk
- sylveon says hello

[attr="class","evantalk"]

Next thing he knows there is a very big and very familiar arm around his shoulders, one he is quite happy to see. @gawdzilla will recognize the cheery and genuine smile as one he's seen all too often. "Caius!" of course he's distracted rather quickly and Evan chuckles from under his arm, shoulders shaking enough to rock both their muscles just a little bit. After all the man doesn't seem like much but he's no push over.

There's a snicker at his quick swap to asking stormy to dance, though his full introduction makes Evan beam like the proud mother hen he is. It's good to see one of his little strays growing up and going into the big world and getting somewhere in life. without resorting to the same bs he did at their ages. he tries to raise them better than he was raised ok

Evan quiets to let their conversation pass, inwardly he is squishing his cheeks with joy watching Caius present himself as a gym leader, outwardly he's smiling and proud of the kid for getting that far.

>>evan is a proud mama hen you go caius
>>says hi but shuts up so he can dance with stormy

Thankfully it was a day off for him, and he didn’t have to worry about any deliveries.

And so Lars was free to go to the ball… at this cabin… somewhere up the pass leading down from Mount Chimney? He could only scratch his head as to why it was going to be held there—but then he remembered the weather was changing—how the hell was snow sticking on the single hottest place in Hoenn?!

How was that even possible?

Just for kicks, he decided to travel with his ‘original’ team, full on load of four—Ro, Nami, Alpha, and Ryujin. The obvious difference here was that the Swampert with him had now become a somewhat obsessive, overprotective ‘den mother’—not that he would fault her for being like that, especially after what had happened in that stupid fucking nightmare.

So having a ball to go to would actually relax him. Thank the hell.

As Head Ranger, his attendance was also expected, because… well, most of the bigwigs in the League were turning up and he had to show himself. Thankfully there was still another suit he had in storage, nothing too over the top, just formal cut enough for him to wear without freezing his cherries off.

Mercifully he didn’t bring his motorbike either because traversing Mount Chimney on his Indian was absolute hell. No other way but down, no way to go back up.

Having taken ‘Air Metagross’, he stops for a few moments outside to give the blue beast a reassuring pat before recalling him into the Pokéball. Steeling his nerves, he makes sure his hair is all ready, before he enters the scene.

Pretty late…

…was there anyone he knew?! Thank Arceus, there was! Spotting a familiar red-eyed gaze (why was it not blue?!) he made his way over to where Evan was, snagging for himself a mug of hot chocolate to sip. Because who knew that snow would actually stick and make him feel cold inside?!

Was it nerves?!

[attr="class","evantalk"]

Movement in the crowd catch his attention, eyes wondering to another face he's used to seeing. His face brightens a little as it often does when the other approaches, letting go of his cup momentarily to give him a small wave of welcome. The party is bustling and the many are split in varied groups by now, wondering off the dance or to chat and even if his other conversations would return to him he's not likely to ignore the presence that was headed in his direction.

"Evening love, you've missed much of the fun." he chuckles, because it's been quite the night already and lars has much catching up to do.

>>greets Laurence Anderson since he made a beeline for him

>>wearing an oversized version of this monstrosity but with a galar rapidash instead

[attr="class","merrkI"]
the dance came to a stop as petra mentioned that there was indeed a someone but that was as far as that topic was going to go. shinra didn't feel like he should pry anymore than he needed to on such a subject during a party of all things. it was supposed to be a time of merry making! not moping around about crushes, so her taking the offer to get a bite was secretly a relief for him as well.

once they were both at the tables shinra filled himself with the biggest cup of eggnog he could get his hands on as well as nibble on some iced cookies as well. as his face was stuffed he couldn't help but notice the lone chandelure by the doors, the same one that had made him and petra swap lips with one another. "so..." he said after a hard swallow of food and drink, "does your pokemon play match maker a lot? or is it because it just likes getting into the spirit of things?"

+dchats up with @noblesse

[outfit]

He had the ‘I had shit to deal with’ excuse ready but remembered that today was his day off, so that wasn’t going to work.

“Believe it or not, I was actually hesitant on attending this in the first place,” he began as he took a few sips from the mug of hot chocolate he had with him. He noted that there was a certain minty flavor in it, and he liked that, so he took a few more sips to stall.

“…but then everyone else who works under me decided to ass me into attending. However, I don’t see them,” he added, although there was the sight of some of the underlings who were assigned to his department, he had heard from a certain little bird that a certain Mr. Monty Conway was going to be in attendance.

And where was the person in question? Not in sight.

Thank hell he was tall enough to see over the crowd, for one.

“Anyway. Now that I’m out here, what did I miss? Also, I must say… is that really a bough of mistletoe following one of the councilmen around?” he pondered, seeing that one of the grumpier members of the council was being literally shadowed by a sprig of the plant that made people seemingly inexplicably kiss each other when underneath it.

Not now, Lars. No. Calm the hell down, he thought, taking another sip to calm himself and his thoughts as he did so.

[attr="class","evantalk"]

"Mmm let's see." Evan tilts his head back a moment as he combs through what he's witnessed so far, a tattooed finger tapping against the edge of his lip.

"Fernando? The grumpy one in the santa suite went around giving people gifts and doing a photo shoot, The one with all the hair showed up and announced he planned on having a dance with everyone at least once including the grumpy santa to which grumpy santa retorted by putting a dance bounty on his head. Whoever whisks him off his feet with a dance or a kiss wins some money, we have the Sun lion around somewhere and I think someone let loose a bunch of dog pokemon? And then there is flying mistletoe. Everywhere." emphasis on everywhere.

Evan holds up his drink. "But at least I got a glass of eggnog so it should make it pretty worthwhile." he comments with an added grin and a nod of confirmation. "I'm pretty sure that's all of it."

At least most of it. Right? He wasn't sure. He was having a hard time with so many people being so close and it took most of what he had in him to make sure he didn't look stressed out at all.

The sweater was a good distraction for that too.

>>answers Laurence Anderson, gives him a run down of the nights shenanigans thus far
>>mentions his eggnog because he likes it and only has 1 cup a year so he is pleased

>>wearing an oversized version of this monstrosity but with a galar rapidash instead

[attr="class","merkI"]

"Oh my god he's actually gonna do it..." he mumbled to himself, covering his mouth to hide the smile and laughter coming from it. Jet was almost in disbelief as he just casually walked up to Kim and pulled him into a passionate kiss. Although what was even funnier was the face the guy made after he was kissed by the rocket. Tears were streaming down Jet's face as he held back the laughter. He wiped his eyes as he folded over with the paining his stomach from keeping his explosive laughter as quiet as possible.

"So, uhh that went well?" he said, sighing after his laughter had ceased. "Haven't seen someone looking so disgusted since my mom accidentally drank moomoo milk 2 months past the expiration date." he laughed again, clapping Priam on his back. "Don't worry though, I'm sure you can find someone else to practice on so you don't look as bad again." giving him a smirk he pointed over to the same people Priam had pointed out to him before. "Any of them strike your fancy?"

tl;dr Even more banter with priam conrad