Saving grace
A speedpaint video of this will be available at my Patreon on july 1st 😊
They got carried away again 😖
A speedpaint video of this will be available at my Patreon on july 1st!
Drinks up also for the Christines who go for a full embrace
1. Lisa Vroman (w. Brad Little, US TOUR)
2. Elizabeth Welch (w. Ted Keegan, BROADWAY)
3. Samantha Hill (w. Hugh Panaro, BROADWAY)
4. Olivia Safe (w. Ian Jon Bourg, HAMBURG)
Drinks up for the Christines who really feel up Erik's deformity during the kiss
1. Beth Southard, 2006 (US TOUR)
2. Meredith Braun, 2000 (WEST END)
3. Kristi Holden, 2008 (LAS VEGAS)
Erik is trying to free the daroga from one of his traps, if only he would stop moving so much. The daroga is not very happy with Erik’s security measures 😌
We were close now, drawn together as if by an unseen force. His breath came in quiet, sharp bursts, brushing against my mouth like a languid winter breeze. Every line, every scar, every withered and mottled imperfection stood out in sharp relief against the deathly pallor of his thin skin that stretched taut over his protruding bones. “Monstrous,” he had been taught. “Monstrous,” he often said. Yet I did not recoil. I did not look away. I could not look away. My hand found his and he flinched, expecting pain yet finding only tenderness. I let my fingers entwine with his–slowly, carefully. His hands were calloused, rough, cold. His gaze flickered down to where my palm rested against his and then he looked at me again, monumental disbelief flickering like a newly-lit candle beneath the yellow gleam of his sunken eyes–shadowed for too long, consigned to darkness for too long. Something swelled like an ocean current deep within my heart. It seemed to spill into the very air around us, artfully dissolving sorrow, dismantling every ossified fortress that neglect and cruelty and solitude had forged around his soul. And I leaned in, as if floating upon the wings of a breeze. He stiffened, scarcely daring to breathe. I touched my cheek to his, brought his clenched hand up to rest against my chest, felt it relax as he sensed the rhythm of my pulse. I closed my eyes, hot tears seeping onto my eyelids. “I love you.” It fell from my lips like a prayer. Quiet, resounding. He exhaled, his shoulders suddenly heaving, and I could no longer bear the distance between us, infinitesimal though it was. I wrapped him in a desperate embrace, burying my face in the black warmth of his thick cloak, repeating those sacred three words with all the strength and devotion and reverence I could muster, and they sagged his shoulders and thawed his reserve and stilled his trembling hands with the force of a thousand Aves. And the choked sob that finally tore from his throat spoke of redemption.
(It feels so good to write again. Thankfully, these two are always around to provide inspiration. :) )
E/C during MOTN:
Erik: Oh Christine will hate me now that she knows I’m a mere mortal rather than an Angel. I must distract her with song.
Christine: Thank you Papa for turning my Angel into a sexy, real man 🙏🙏🙏we’re gonna give you so many grand babies😌😌😌💕💕💕
"Anyone who has seen a stage or screen adaptation of this novel knows that sex seeps from the pages just as surely as it does from Dracula or Frankenstein. One commentator described Erik himself as "a walking phallus" who frightens people with his vulgar sensuality. Raoul is certainly very uncomfortable with Christine's autoerotic raptures - fits of orgasmic euphoria that she experiences when she sings for Erik - and she herself is open about Erik's spiritual union with her, claiming that "His spirit entered mine and breathed harmony down my throat." Just before the Unmasking scene she finds herself lost in ecstasy watching Erik play the organ with a lover-like vigor. Her actual reason for removing the mask is not to see his secret. In a line removed from the most common English translation (1911), she claims that she "needed" to watch his face "which was unquestionably being transfigured by the ecstasies of eternal art." In other words - like many lovers - she was drawn to watch her partner's face contorting in the pleasure-pain of climax. ... much of Erik's villainy has to do with Victorian male uneasiness with the female orgasm: Erik not only encourages Christine to enjoy herself (so to speak) - he teaches her how to reach new levels of passion, how to experience heavenly pleasures that transcend her mundane experiences. Symbolically and literally, Erik coaches Christine in self-love in a manner so captivating and exciting that millions of "phans" continue to consider the story of the skull-faced stalker wallowing in a swampy dungeon to be the sexiest, most arousing romance in print."
-- M. Grant Kellermeyer (Old Style Tales' Phantom of the Opera: Annotated and Illustrated)
“Why do people like the Phantom and Christine, it’s so toxic!”
Baby it’s a man with a sexy voice living in his “underworld” that plays beautiful music and likely has a big cock, what else needs to be explained????
You know
I don't have a lot positive to say about the re-staged version of the ALW musical.
But I will admit I do kind of like the fact that Raoul barges into Christine's dressing room as she's undressing.
I like this because, on the surface its very ha ha, so awkward uwu, but it also highlights how very scandalous this very action is.
In 19th century theatre culture (especially in France) there's only one reason a man (the patron of the Opera, who is the main financial backer of the establishment) goes into a singer's dressing room with a bottle of champagne. Whether that is Raoul's intention doesn't matter: he's a man of society, he's the responsible one here, or he should be.
But setting that aside, this really makes me think about how Raoul is never thinking about Christine in a circumspect fashion. He is not thinking about the fact that this is a private area he is entering uninvited--a private area that is private for the very specific reason: at any point, Christine could very well be naked or otherwise in a state of vulnerability and/or undress behind that door. He does not knock, or announce himself. He either is not thinking about this or does not care. Both are bad.
(And yes I am conscious of the fact that Christine is not only undressing, but undressing in front of the mirror; the mirror that Erik is, in all likelihood, hiding behind, even as she does so).
To Raoul, as much as (perhaps even more so than) to Erik, Christine is an object. An object to be, by turns, admired, pitied, placated and protected.
Perhaps I find this so interesting because in the book, Raoul is shown to invade the sanctum samctorum of Christine's dressing room without her knowledge or consent several times.
"When you were pitying him the other night, the night of the masked ball. When you came into your dressing room, didn't you say 'Poor Erik'? Well Christine, there was Poor Raoul who overheard you!"
"That is the second time you have listened at my door, M. de Chagny!"
"I was not at your door! I was in the dressing room! In your boudoir, mademoiselle!"
An interesting contrast to Erik, who, in spite of abducting Christine, holding her against her will etc. always knocks three times on her door before entering her bedroom in the house by the lake, and gives her his word that in that apartment and in her dressing room she is assured of privacy from him.
"How can you believe yourself safer here in the theatre?" Raoul asked. "If you can hear him through the walls, then he can certainly hear us."
"No. He gave me his word that he would not be behind the walls of my dressing room again, and I trust Erik's word. My dressing room and my room in the house by the lake are mine exclusively, and are sacred to him.
Also very interesting to me is that on my fourth read of various English translations of the book [1911, 1911 restored, 1990 Lowell Bair, and 1996 Leonard Wolf] there is never any indication that I've noticed that Christine's mirror is two-way glass. It does not slide to the side as depicted in movies/ the musical. The mirror is built into the wall itself and turns with the wall on a pivot like a revolving door. There is never any mention of him looking at her through the mirror, only listening and speaking to her through her walls.
I love that it is Erik’s road. The Commune may have built it, but it is his now.
Stand and watch it burn.
When will the flames at last consume us?
Past the point of no return, the final threshold.
The bridge is crossed, so stand and watch it burn.
I'm still working on the costume, so I may not have drawn it correctly. Many thanks to dear Shakarian, for giving me lots of advice and references, really enjoyed her works!
I wish more people would check out this wonderful article, but it's in Chinese. https://archiveofourown.org/works/45030113
and Erik as a priest was another request! 😊
Anonymous asked:
If Christine managed to sneak in a kiss during Music of the Night, what do you think would have happened?
I want to say “oh he’d turn into mush and not know what to do” like in the final lair kiss
But….
I just realized she would’ve kissed him while he was wearing his mask, which I think makes the situation different.
Erik with his mask on is his confident, suave, sexy persona. Technically, it’s not “Erik”, it’s the Phantom. So, I feel like if Christine did kiss him, he’d have to pretend like he knows what he’s doing and kiss her back. He’d probably just mimic kisses he’s seen on stage or during his travels.
With the chemistry those two have, they likely would’ve hooked up that night. Which would’ve been dope, but then comes the dilemma of when Erik feels comfortable enough to be “Erik” without Christine getting the urge to unmask him (cause he probably stayed masked while they slept together).
If anyone has fics/readings with this plot…send them my way 👁️
Christine: How could I ever repay you?
Erik: Oh, I don’t know… marry me, bear my children, let me die in your arms…?
Christine: …
Christine: I was thinking more along the lines of making you some fudge.
Erik: I like your fudge.
“I give you back your liberty, Christine, on condition that this ring is always on your finger.“
Late night sketch to celebrate getting my 100th follower today! This one is dedicated to @rienerose, in hopes that it sends good hand-juju her way. Thank you so much to everyone who is following these chronicles of my art and POTO love. I promise lots more art to come!
Then say you'll
Share with me
One love, one lifetime
Lead me, save me from my solitude