//ooc: this is written prose. not really much of a return to this blog but i wanted to write some stuff with camille. as such i am not tagging this with any rotomblr tags. content warning for human and pokémon experimentation. not the active deed, but the results.
Camille had made her way off the beaten path of the routes, to the familiar sights of Lostlorn Forest. She sets her tent up on a familiar spot, near a burnt-out fire pit she made years ago.
Setting down her bags in the tent, she opens one of them up, peering at the contents. Paper ment as kindling and a few matches. Her gaze lingers on them for a while... before she shakes her head.
No, she thought. It would draw too much attention.
She had come to this forest for a purpose, actually. A mission of sorts - dangerous maybe, but one she felt obligated to do. With a little dull click of a button, her phone lights up. Camille unlocks it, and opens the gallery.
A few more taps, some swipes... and she opens a specific photo. A humanoid silhouette with massive arms and hands, almost ghostly in appearance. the gentle, golden shimmer of a mask.
Yes, this is who she's looking for tonight - a Pokémon that had become an urban legend overnight, a local cryptid that had somehow evaded capture all these months.
Cadaverigus. A Pokémon made by somehow forcing a Yamask back into the human body it once inhabited.
She grits her teeth and sharply draws a breath... before sighing. This is no merry affair, after all. This was someone she knew, who Franziska knew. This was somebody she looked up to.
Nobody she does now, though. She had heard what happened to him, before he befell the fate of becoming Franziska Chroma's atrocious laboratory experiment - the first of two.
A shame, honestly. Alphonse Becquerel was a "pretty cool kid" back in the day - but barely anyone who lives in Santalune turns out "okay". Case in point, the Hex Maniac - or rather, "Occultist" herself.
Camille puts her phone away, retrieving a pair of Pokéballs out of her bag as she does.
"Melisma. Plagas." She calls, pressing the button on the balls' front - allowing the two Pokémon out of them, a Mismagius and Trevenant respectively.
Plagas does not speak. Melisma does not either - but she conveys her questions to the Occultist regardless.
"Stake-night again, Meli wonders?"
Camille nods. "You remember Alphonse, right?"
"Long while, Cami-cami hasn't talked to. Was when still in Kalos. Was when still other name. Wonder, wonder?" Melisma responds, slightly tilting her head.
Camille shifts her gaze towards the wider forest. "...I was hoping I could find him, today."
"Alfy-alfy is here? Surprise surprise?"
"In a way. I don't think he'd be truly himself though, were I to encounter him."
"It's an Evangeline situation. He's been hurt like she was."
"Oh. You-hurt or Yamask-body?"
Camille grits her teeth and visibly winces at the thought of the former. "Yamask-body."
She continues. "At any rate, I need you and Plagas to help me keep an eye out for anything strange. In the hopes that we find him."
"Then, Cami-cami will do what?" Melisma asks.
"Help." A succinct answer.
Naturally, it's much more involved than just that. Her plan is - quite simply, to capture him, bring him to a clinic to see what can be done (human first, then Pokémon), maybe resort to asking Calli's Nimbasa Uni friend. She studies Pokémon evolution, right? This should be in her ballpark...
If nothing else, surely her Hex Maniac acquaintances would know of something to do, right?
...but what if they don't?-- No, Camille shakes her head. She doesn't want to engage in that hypothetical.
"Cami-cami is worried." Melisma comments.
"I am. I just... I don't want to make any more mistakes with this."
"Happens, happens. Cannot control all. Cami-cami knows, no?"
"I need to right this wrong." She responds.
"Stubborn. Meli help regardless."
Camille nods. "It is appreciated, Melisma.
Plagas can probably use the trees to his advantage, to help him spot things. Let me know if you sense anything out of the ordinary, if you'd please."
"Treveeeh." Plagas groans, turning to ingrain himself into the ground with his roots, watching the trees - waiting until they sense something.
As for Melisma, she flies out into the distance, attempting to psychically establish a connection with Alphonse... if he's even here, that is.
Camille herself... merely gazes out into the distance, like any normal person would. Hoping. Quietly.
...that she could be someone who brings back - or otherwise saves a life this time instead of being someone that takes one.
