Rose de l'amour éternel is a story about two lovers that were seperated during the Great War, but reunited by a vow made over a rose and the efforts of their Pokemon. The play was considered the masterwork of playwright and architect Erik Thornier, which the biographers say he began to pen in a worn notebook while serving in the actual Great War, not completing it three years later.
Playing on the stage that evening in the Palais that he had envisioned, shot from the kind of projector that may well have been used in his time, is one of the original Poke opera adaptations of his most cherished script.
It was the only film reel that the phantom could manage to recover from the debris of the Palais Thornier, in the aftermath of the fire. All of the others had been scorched beyond recovery. For years he had kept it stowed away in a secret place, hoping that with time he would be able to forget about ever finding it.
The sepia tone film is grainy and fraught with exposure marks throughout but Estella can still make out the four main characters: Humbold, in his feathered hat, Carmine with a flower tucked behind her ear, wearing the same multi-tiered dress that Estella was, and the traditional Lilligant playing the Lillyweather role, and a Roserade playing the part of Pierre.
Estella runs down the aisle. "Is that you there, phantom?" She yells at the ceiling.
Although it was indeed the phantom operating the projector he does not respond. His eyes are peeled on the screen, watching the scene where Humbold kneels to Pierre the Roserade's height, asking him to stay behind and protect Carmine while he is out to war.
"Is this what you wanted me to stick around for? Because I have to admi-" Estella stops, squinting at the screen showing a close-up on the Roserade's face.
There is a familiar odd metallic device protruding from its neck.
"Fantôme?" She says aloud, walking down the aisle toward the screen to get a closer look.
"Yes...that was...once me."
Estella spins around and almost screams when her eyes set on the phantom, standing in front of the locked doors.
He flails his bouquet around in the air flamboyantly, which was now cast in a faint pinkish hue from Estella's dried blood, and he bows.
"My name...was Winslow...back when I had a dream."
Estella is backing away slowly, but as much as she wanted to still be afraid of him, her curiosity was growing. The Winslow on the screen looked like a regular Roserade, the glaringly obvious neck attachment notwithstanding, so to see him in his pitiful state now was heartbreaking.
"You had a dream?" She asks, leading him on.
Winslow nods stiffly. "I would tell...you but...I need you...to help me." He lifts his thorn arm up against the device on his neck. "There is a screw...loose...I need you to...rewind."
A screw loose? You don't say...
Nervously, the bruised beauty comes within arm's reach of him, but when he moves his arm slightly, she flinches.
Winslow must have caught the reaction. "I am sorry...for lashing...out on you...I...was scared." He says with a frown.
"Oh."
Scared? She had not thought of it before, when she herself had been so afraid. He was scared of me, when I attacked him. Scared of being rejected again, when all he wanted was for somebody to share the air he breathes.
Estella takes a deep breath before she wraps her finger tips around the cog-shaped screw.
"Here goes nothing." She says, and rotates it once, clockwise. The Roserade winces in pain, but tells her to keep going. So, she keeps turning it until it clicks into place, and she could not turn it any more.
The effect it has on Winslow's speech is immediate.
"Thank you." He says in a perfectly clear, light-as-a-cloud male's voice.
Estella just nods awkwardly, still not quite accustomed to casually talking with the legendary ghost that was said to haunt the Palais Thornier.
Meanwhile, the film is at the part when Pierre is tasked by Humbold to deliver a love letter to Carmine back at home, making him promise to keep the fact that he had lost one of his legs to an enemy soldier's Pinsir a secret.
For the first time in forever, the macabre remains of the Poke opera star Winslow smiles. "Now take a seat with me, dear Carmine, for my story is a long one, with many twists and turns, and I have been aching to share it with someone for a long, long time."