Roman Vespucci

Roman, giving the Dusk Stone

Roman Vespucci is a 17 year old Team Flare Grunt, with dark red hair and golden eyes. When not dressed in Team Flare's uniform, he is usually found wearing khakis, a red flannel short sleeve, and a white tank top. He almost always wears his Flare belt and sunglasses. He is 5'7", and is Kalosian.

## Early Life

Roman was born to unhappy circumstances in the slums of Anistar City. His father was a raging alcoholic, and his mother was flaky at best, eventually running away with a lover to Sinnoh when Roman was 11, with only a note on the table. They were not married and were not expecting to have a child. His only comfort was his best friend and next door neighbor, Maria Cinita. Both Roman and Maria dreamed of becoming Pokémon trainers - Roman especially wanted to be a gym leader, specializing in Ghost-types. The two of them saved up to buy a Great Ball, and used it to capture a Shuppet lurking near their home. Roman trained up his Shuppet to be an excellent fighter, and eventually succeeded in capturing a Lampent as well. Maria got her own Pokémon with the savings he managed from winning battles - a Skiddo, which was quickly evolved into Gogoat. While out riding with Maria one day on Gogoat, the pair discovered an injured set of Espurr siblings and took them in. Roman got the girl, and Maria the boy. Roman, despite a preference for Ghost-types, had this Espurr become his favorite on his team, and both Espurrs evolved into Meowstics.

One day, Roman beat a local Fairy Tale Girl in a battle, and she was very bitter over the loss. She had her Azumarill attack Roman directly when she caught him without his Pokémon, trying to suffocate him with a combination of Fairy-type and Water-type moves. Because of this, Roman has a phobia of drowning and is deathly afraid of Fairy-types.

## Team Flare

When Roman was 16, he heard of Team Flare. Their promise of a perfect world appealed to someone who had lived his whole life in a shattered reality, and he desperately wanted to join their team to further this goal. Maria didn't trust Team Flare, and believed there was more to them than what they presented to the world. Maria and Roman began to fight over this, and Roman secretly began hoarding more and more of their shared earnings from battles to try and join.

His desperation only grew more fervent as Maria drew more distant from him, and battles weren't earning enough fast enough. With a heavy heart, he sold his beloved Banette and Lampent for funds to join, but couldn't bring himself to sell his Meowstic. He was close, but still too short on funds. In a terrible act of desperation, Roman severed his friendship with Maria completely by stealing her grandmother's wedding ring - the only thing of value she owned - and sold it before skipping town to join Flare.

In Team Flare, he was assigned a Mightyena, but his heart was never in training it the way he had been with his Ghost-types. Roman wanted to believe in Team Flare's cause, but the guilt he felt over all he had done made it difficult.

He was assigned to the raid on the Pokeball factory after a while of serving in Team Flare, but when he failed to catch the trainers who stopped them, he was too afraid to return to Lysandre, and ended up staying in the city, alone and unsure of what to do with his trainwreck of a life. When talked to by Serena, he gave her a Dusk Stone he had found ages before.