it was too late for her not to 'read too much' into roman being there. she hadn't called for him so having him come to her out of his own volition had to mean something. what it may be might not be good, but it caused lorelei to feel the christmas spirit all the same. her usual composed exterior was cracking, her lips curving into a small smile - looking down at the snow quietly as she continued forming her snowboy with roman. "did you want me to help you so you could get out faster?" she offered, obviously understanding that he wouldn't want to be out and about for too long - let alone with her. even so, she couldn't help but pull out a small santa hat she had saved for her pokemon and put it upon roman's head, pulling the little strap under his chin taut. [break]
"merry christmas, roman," she muttered with a smile.[break]

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"more than acceptable," lorelei commented out loud. the corviknight would make a wonderful means of transportation, known for its usage as taxi services in the past and present. "flamethower," lorelei asked of her houndoom that stood by her master's feet, waiting for a command. the spiral of flame came from its sharp maw, towards the bird pokemon while lorelei waited momentarily before throwing out a pokeball - hoping to not interfere with attack.[break]

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having already formed a portion of her snowboy, lorelei stood back - satisfied. her smile gave way, making her features soften as she continued to plow through the ice and sleet to hopefully find more snow now that various people before her had taken the majority of it. without a second to spare now that the snow was growing less and less, she also found it in herself to pull her santafied arctozolt and take a picture together to let the velvet room bois know she was enjoying her time.[break]

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"is it so wrong to have mother like your arcanine so much?"[break]
for various reasons, yes, it was.[break]
another thing was that goobly seemed to also like the arcanine so the majestic dog seemed to have its pick of the two. the houndoom named it seemed to take offense to such, having seen mother as its partner for much time to come. this made mother turn her focus to the new houndoom, deciding to be faithful despite the obvious attraction to the fellow fire type. goobly was assertive in its approach, always trying to ride upon the arcanine as if it were its upgrade from its usual houndour steed. of course, the arcanine would just buck and toss the ditto off easily - lorelei looking the other way since she had no reason to meddle in pokemon affairs.[break]
"it seems there is more than one one-sided attraction here," lorelei admitted. she wasn't shy to say that she found roman attractive. he was dangerously so to her, oftentimes lending himself to be a weakness for the otherwise hardened business woman. should anyone be held captive at gunpoint, she'd blow their brain out herself. cato, rhugone, esmee, or anyone could get it. roman, however? that was off limits. that was her territory to play with as she pleased.[break]
"regardless, i didn't call you here to discuss how goobly keeps whining to me about how it wants your arcanine to be its already. i came here to let you know about the next mission we have to prepare for." a tall glass of blood-red wine ominously swirled in her glass as she tipped it into her hand, holding it aloft as she spoke. "we won't be alone for it, so i think we should consider how to best go about things before we may make a poor face in front of company."[break]

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"according to esmee, we should be seeing rhugone and cato here. hard to believe, given cato's social anxiety has him basically seeing sunlight once a month." [break]
they had been late to the party when it came to the ball hosted to sponsor kanto repair efforts. it was a masquerade-themed ball which made it all too easy to sport a decorative appearance - angel wings, wig, and all. lorelei swept into a half-circle, all too familiar with shit-talking the fellow co-owner of the velvet room. her talon-like fingers rested on the white tabletop holding various cups of champagne stacked on top of each other, her interest on the one she had at hand currently. she had already gone through the motions of letting roman know what the hell was going on. while it was dangerous for him to act up in public, he was able to do so if he so dared to. the repercussions would be swift and violent, but somewhere in lorelei's conscience she trusted the dog of a man to know better.[break]
"for now, we need to simply enjoy the party. the 'festivities' will truly kick off when we've all gathered." esmee and gaultier were to attend as well, though she wasn't sure when. it was a 'surprise', apparently. although lorelei wasn't a fan of surprises, she was forced to stomach it along the third glass of champagne she was sipping on to kill time.[break]
"so what shall we do to amuse ourselves? care to whisper sweet belittlings in my ear?"[break]

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following the ravaging of kanto, it posed itself as a grand vacation spot for those who wished to help 'fund its reconstruction.' this much was true for more gracious, kinder souls. for lorelei, it simply meant the ideal spot for a vacation with her favorite dog of them all. [break]
"such a wonderful region - all razed and rotten."[break]
this was said in reflection to what she saw, casting her gaze over the landscape that was getting back on its feet well enough but still showed various and obvious signs of struggling while doing so. "it reminds me of you." this was said in a manner to praise roman for his broken but reforged manner of being - made stronger than he had ever been before. like a phoenix rising out of fire and ashes - he, too, was a legend among men. lorelei admired that in the blonde man, albeit being the very fire and demolition he had to endure to arise anew. [break]
"cato insisted on a vacation, so here we are. it seemed the most sensible spot to have you out in public," she stated with a subdued warning in her diction of choice, insinuating she already had 'friends' who would not act upon roman asking for help or liberation from his post at her side. the velvet room had strong holds on all things broken apart and scraped of its resources. kanto was no different.[break]
"i think the time off of work will do us both well, seeing as we hardly know what to do with any time away from it. what would you like to do, roman?" not calling him a dog or otherwise, she meant to show some form of affection or at least let him know she saw him for the man he was - even if it was just for this moment.[break]

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"i -- ..." she didn't know what to say. the arctozolt she had welcomed onto her team was obviously an odd one out. lorelei's houndooms and houndour - even goobly the ditto himself - seemed to all just stare at it in disgust while the redheaded trainer couldn't find it in herself to judge it, given it was her idea to accept it in the first place. the arcozolt seemed to be rather fit for the team in terms of temperament - mild and patient, always staying out of the way as if it knew it wasn't welcome into the group as of yet. even so, when faced with its homeland, it seemed to turn into a full-on baby. the arctozolt rolled around in the snow and wiggled about happily, to which lorelei couldn't help but laugh softly, even finding herself smiling as she wondered what she could find to hopefully accompany this strange creature.[break]

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content warning: mentions of bodily harm/mutilation[break]

"your family is lovely, if you exclude your wife and child." so basically, she was saying they weren't shit right to the husband of the equation's face. "nothing but a womb and the product of it," she sighed, disappointed in the reality she knew. sometimes knowledge was jeopardizing for one's spirit and such was the case for lorelei who started up a wide-mouthed syringe full of saline. this was meant to be used to help the parasitic worm crawl its way further into roman's head, giving it some form of lubricant to allow it to wriggle and writhe so that the man could hopefully finally break off a piece of his face by his own volition. [break]
this would be a good starting point - self-mutilation. that way the captive officer of the law could start to blur the lines between what he did to himself and what lorelei inflicted on him. it always was so painfully annoying to deal with the blame of who did what, so this would make lorelei's own job much easier.[break]
being a quick learner as he was, he was already begging as opposed to continuing to fight his hopeless position. the fire-haired woman was hopeful on how this session would end - a good turn after so many failures.[break]
"i never lied when i said i enjoyed my time with you and your family, officer lennox. quite the contrary - i was too honest with myself. i almost let myself get carried away and forget my ultimate objective." with a sarcastic scoff to herself, lorelei smirked and shook her head. she was obviously disappointed in her small relapse into a normal and empathetic way of being. she was better now, sure, but she should have never even considered allowing roman to continue his life as it had. it was so perfect for someone who was so deep in shit that he was so blind to everything around him. a cheating wife, a product of adultery calling him father -- why, his whole life was a tragedy when he seemed to devote himself to his family more and more. [break]
"roman. tell me," lorelei grabbed hold of his chin as best as she could off the floor, looking into his one eye and holding the syringe aloft the socket that squirmed softly and ebbed with irritation. "for what do you live? is it your family? is it work? what defines you as you are? have you ever sought something more than what you are presently? you seem to be nothing more than a vanilla husband and father who couldn't even see the danger staring you straight in the face." that very danger spilled a droplet of saline into his socket, her expression empty as she didn't find any enjoyment in this procedure - simply seeking answers. "who exactly are you? i'm interested in that, not your 'family'. if your answer is good enough, i may let you return to what you define yourself by. if not, i may get quite disappointed."[break]

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"hm."[break]
roman was trying to scathe the woman who commanded fire itself in the form of her dogs - much to no avail, mind you. the way he responded to her was confirmation enough that he understood she was there and simply not looking at her was so childish it left the blonde's owner smirking to herself, satisfied. "smog." the counterattack was called without regard to her houndoom's safety. indeed, the dark-type dog would take a slam to its frame but not without spewing dark purple smoke that would easily infiltrate the fellow fire type's lungs and poison it - crippling it from within. this was lorelei's usual strategy when she wanted to drag things on and take closer notes on roman's progress as a trainer. the arcanine was formidable indeed, but mother could easily tank a few hits before dropping and that would be enough to satisfy her own trainer.[break]
"don't stand too close now," lorelei warned with a shit-eating grin, noting how roman should step back from the very smog she would readily use to poison him time and time again. his body still hadn't developed resistance to the toxin and that was his own fault, as per lorelei's opinion. it was roman's turn to call another move while she ordered her houndoom to stand alert, comfortable in the smokescreen the smog created - prowling about and on the defense while waiting for the toxin to take effect.

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there was time for play and pleasure. perhaps this event would show itself to be both a time to play and enjoy oneself as opposed to just being out in the cold, shivering to death for no real reason. although the idea of a snow boy was rather odd, lorelei didn't question it much. all of her fire-type dogs needed a time out to enjoy melting the snow under their paws so she partook in the festivities while they pranced about. it was a rare moment where she didn't have @romanl out and about, though she figured he would end up appearing anyway. this wasn't an assumption of adoration or him needing her, but she simply assumed he would be too paranoid to let lorelei out of his sight for too long - thinking she was ready to cause another large ordeal for him if he wasn't careful. regardless, lorelei put on the little santa hats on her houndooms and attached a small bell collar to her houndour and got to work.[break]

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"what exactly happened here?"[break]
as if lorelei couldn't be more flat than a coca-cola left out in the sun for 30 days straight, she laid her eyes upon something that made her almost audibly gasp in disgust. what exactly was that (to be read in cardi b's voice). it was a horribly misshapen creature, probably soon to be the next victim of natural selection with the way its entire body was inhibiting its movement due to it being covered primarily in ice. in some ways, it was hideous. in others, it was humorously charming -- enough so, in fact, that lorelei ordered a swift flamethrower from her newest houndoom and threw a pokeball to hopefully capture the poor being.
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"tell me whose idea this was, exactly."[break]
lorelei was flat and brief with the ditto who seemed to shrug with a 'don't blame me' on its face. the one puppy among the two houndooms was bouncing around, collecting snowflakes on its nose while wiggling its short tail. the two houndooms glared at the pup, making it quite obvious whose idea it really was. fortunately for all of them, lorelei was fine with being out and about and enjoying the ... festive spirit of hypothermia so long as it meant she could snag a pokemon to take back home.
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