Summary: High school seniors Raoul and Erik live separate lives, sharing only a mutual love for pretty soprano Christine. When Meg introduces Raoul to an online card battle game, Rise of Mythos, Raoul and Erik's avatars Vicomtedechagny and Operaghost become unlikely friends (after hilarious hijinks and banter). But what will happen once they unmask each other's true identities? Modern AU.
Disclaimer: We don't own either Phantom of the Opera or Rise of Mythos.
Chapter One: Rise of Vicomtedechagny
Raoul POV
"Raoul!" Meg tapped Raoul's shoulder a bit too hard, but Raoul was, of course, man enough to grin and bear it.
"Yeah, Meg?" He tried not to think about the throbbing pain. What would Philippe say? Oh, wait, that's right: "You're too girly, Raoul. You don't want to break Mother and Father's hearts, do you?" Etc. etc. etc. about shame and weakness.
"...so it's pretty cool—Wait, Raoul de Chagny, are you even listening to me?" Meg scowled in a way that reminded Raoul of Christine. Meg was really too influenced by her, not that he would say that was bad or anything. But it was a tad disturbing.
"Yes, of course I am." He put on the most innocent face he could muster in hopes of not being tapped, no punched, again.
"So, as I was saying before you zoned off dreaming about our pretty little Christine…"
"Hey!" De Chagnys do not punch ladies. De Chagnys do not punch ladies. De Chagnys do not punch ladies. Why was he even repeating this? It wasn't as if he'd thought of punching her, though sadly enough, a part of him wished he had. Would that make him masculine enough, huh? Masculine enough to finally not shame Philippe?
"Rise of Mythos is this online card battling game I used to play before Christine told me girl gamers are lame," Meg continued, ignoring how Raoul was starting to zone out yet again. "It's hard to get a hang of, but once you do, it's quite exciting. There are four classes: Mages (I was one), Priests, Warriors, and, wait I can't remember the last one but I know it was useless. That's right, Rangers. You pick a class, then you do dungeons and 1v1s and 2v2s and quests to earn equipment and level up and stuff."
Raoul was confused, but Meg liked really cool things and it did sound interesting.
"Alright," he sighed. "I'll give it a try. What was it called again? Rise of Minnows?"
Meg burst out laughing and made a motion to joke-punch Raoul. Luckily, Raoul was agile enough to duck out of harm's way.
"What's so funny?" A familiarly soft, musical voice interrupted. Christine. Raoul gazed up at her and took in the wide deer eyes, sweeping chocolate curls, and smooth skin that made up his childhood friend. And first love. Can't forget that.
Meg noticed his trance and snorted. "Nothing much, Christine. Raoul here is simply being his usual darling self."
"Oh, I see," Christine smiled sweetly before turning to Raoul. "Walk me to my next class?"
Raoul nodded. It didn't matter that she had choir, which was at the opposite end of Garnier High School as his next period, AP Government. He wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to spend time alone with her. Besides, his AP Gov teacher, Mr. Buquet, didn't care if you were late. He didn't care about anything, aside from his cute female students. "What a pedo," Meg had once whispered to him as they saw Mr. Buquet attempt to flirt with one of the school dancers.
"You're zoning out again," Meg hissed at him before gracefully getting up and moving towards her next class, dance.
"Sorry," Raoul mumbled, blushing slightly. So manly, he reprimanded himself.
Christine giggled at his blushing. "Oh, Raoul, you're always so adorable."
His blush spread across his face, and he only vaguely heard Meg mumble "Rise of Mythos" as she pulled on his golden ponytail in passing.
He was right about Mr. Buquet not caring about him being late. The rest of the day went by slowly, just as all days at school did. He thought about Rise of Mythos to pass time. What class would he choose? Warrior? He'd never tried playing one of these online games guys like his closest friends, Armand and Firmin, did all the time. LoL and WoW, if he remembered correctly. Weird acronyms, he had thought at the time. Well, now, he supposed, he had RoM. Who cared if Philippe thought gaming was "weak" as well?
Who cared? He asked himself again as he found himself opening Rise of Mythos on the fancy new Mac Philippe had gotten him for no reason at all. Just because they were rich and he could, Raoul supposed.
Username? A whimsical-looking elf-thing asked on the screen.
Hmm. Vicomtedechagny, he typed. He didn't think anyone he knew would be playing, and even if they did, they wouldn't know it was him, right? Right? It wasn't like he went around telling people he was actually a french Viscount. And there was bound to be other people with the last name Chagny?
Password? That was easy. He typed in Christine, flushing a bit as he did so.
Class? That was easy as well. He clicked on Warrior. If he couldn't be masculine in real life, then at least he'd be the epitome of strength and bravery in the virtual world.
The tutorial began. Click on a card, the elf-thing instructed. Now click on a place in the battlefield to summon your creature.
Was it bad that he was already completely confused?
After a long, bitter struggle against the tutorial (yes, against), Raoul decided he'd "gotten a hang of it," as Meg had so clearly put earlier.
Quest: Complete a 2v2 battle.
Darn. Who was going to want to do a 2v2 with him? Whatever, surely he wasn't the only person that knew no one in-game right? Right? Sighing, he clicked on the recently unlocked arena and created a 2v2 room, settling down to wait. As the seconds dragged on by, he began to wonder if there wasn't another quest that he could do that wouldn't require another person. Why was he doing this again? As if on cue, an epic looking priest on a glowing horse appeared. Operaghost? Well, Raoul had been raised with manners and he wasn't going to judge anyone on their choice of username, especially someone who was at a maxed level 70. He promptly typed out a greeting in room chat.
Vicomtedechagny: Hello. Pleased to make your acquaintance.
Raoul waited a beat, but no reply was forthcoming. Perhaps he was too formal for the occasion? Since coming on RoM he had noticed that many people spoke in a type of text-talk slang. Without answering, the priest clicked ready. Nothing happened. Raoul was confused. Was he supposed to do something? Quickly, he pressed "Go" and immediately a stopwatch began counting. At around 100 seconds, Raoul began wondering if this was normal. All of his 1v1 matches had happened much quicker, although they had all been against AIs.
Vicomtedechagny: Sorry to disturb you, but is this kind of wait-time normal for 2v2?
There was once again no reply, and Raoul was beginning to feel a bit annoyed at Operaghost's rudeness. Suddenly, the screen changed to an open grass field, and he was on the right side against two extremely intimidating players with glowing horses and weapons. Hovering his mouse over them, Raoul could see that they were levels 60 and 65. Nervously waiting for the match to start, Raoul couldn't help comparing their hps with his own and noting the large discrepancy.
As time began counting down he noticed that no one was placing any of their cards down. Was this some kind of strategy? Hesitantly, he pressed the "End turn" in order to see what cards his opponents would summon, and began to slowly type in allies chat to Operaghost.
Vicomtedechagny: I was wondering if there was some kind of strategy to go about this? Should we be forming a certain plan of attack?
Without responding, Operaghost laid down some purple-outfitted card with a glowing blue circle under it and ended their turn. The ARK assassin, as Raoul learned when passing his cursor over it, flashed forward to attack the top warrior with 2 attack. Suitably impressed by his partner's cards, Raoul felt less unsure about their chances against their opponents.
That is, until the opposing priest used some holy cross attack on the ARK assassin and killed it. So that was why no one had been setting their cards down prematurely, Raoul mused. The opposing priest and warrior duo laid down their cards in quick succession: a centaur with a hugely disproportionate glowing bow, a feline with a claw weapon, and some round ghost phantom that looked like it belonged in a car dealership lot as a blow-up balloon for the holidays. Ending their turns, the centaur named Sagittarius darted forward and shot an arrow at Raoul's virtual avatar. He winced at the -4 damage it dealt his low hp, and then Mifzuna the feline darted forward like the ARK assassin and dealt a -8 damage to him somehow.
The sinking realization that he was horribly outmatched began to dawn on Raoul when he saw just how little hp he had left. When it was his turn, he hastily set down a Guard in the bottom row with Sagittarius and a Fencer in the top row with the round ball Gringheist. Having run out of cards, Raoul waited with bated breath for Operaghost to pull some high-leveled cards out of his deck. Yet, for some reason Operaghost had placed a Champion Knight in the top row against Gringheist? When going over the card's overview, Raoul had seen that physical damage was reflected, and he had thought that Champion Knight dealt physical damage...but surely Operaghost knew what he was doing. It would have been impossible to have gotten to level 70 otherwise.
As his opponents laid down beautiful, impressive-looking dragons and angels, Raoul couldn't help but notice that Operaghost...didn't really seem to know what he was doing. When Operaghost had finally gotten a card with the backwards-attacking skill Vigilance that could target Mifzuna, he had placed the Elven Legionnaire in a row with creatures that would kill it the next turn, much too early for Mifzuna to actually die. Raoul quickly died 2 turns later, and he watched with a growing confusion and jaded outlook as Operaghost continued to make seemingly illogical strategy choices.
He wasn't really surprised when he and Operaghost were quickly boxed in and surrounded by a literal onslaught of fierce monsters.
Vicomtedechagny: It appears like this is the end. I am appreciative of having shared this enlightening experience with you, and I give you my fondest regards.
Raoul half-expected the lack of reply. Rather than feeling annoyed by it as he had earlier, he was surprised to feel a sense of amusement begin to creep up on him. The prickly nature of Operaghost was…refreshing. It wasn't malicious or harmful like Philippe and it was slightly freeing in a sense being able to be in a world where no one knew who he was, at least for a little bit. There were no expectations weighing him down or standards that he had to uphold. Spontaneously, Raoul sent a smiley face in chat towards Operaghost.
Vicomtedechagny: :-)
The end of battle screen showed up as soon as Mifzuna, who was still alive somehow, dealt her death blow onto Operaghost. After the statistics screen showed with the scores of the players, Operaghost quickly left the 2v2 room. Undeterred, Raoul searched for the friends tab on his screen. Finally locating it after five minutes of searching, Raoul typed in Operaghost to the Add Friends bar, quickly sending a friend request off into the virtual world. Feeling strangely satisfied, Raoul was in the process of logging off when a notification popped up.
The player Operaghost has rejected your friend request.
Frowning slightly, Raoul sent another request. Then another. Then another. Then another. As he fired off countless requests, he couldn't stop his urge to laugh at the ridiculousness. As yet another rejection notification appeared on his screen, Raoul resolved to not go to sleep until Operaghost finally got tired enough to allow his friend request to pass through. Philippe would be proud. After all, de Chagnys were known for their persistence.
Author's Note: An alternate storyline.
Mi amor, mon ami, kiss kiss. kiss kiss. kiss kiss. kiss kiss. kiss kiss. Raoul watched in intense interest as these people kissed on the darkened screen. It was… different, like Piangi. It was… the best. Wow, Raoul thought, I really want to kiss Christine like that. Ofc. Ofc I do. HOW DID I JUST NOTICE?! Suddenly Erik came out of the screen. "NOOOO CHRISTINE IS MINE…" Raoul was not surprised. Erik was a creep that appeared everywhere and was always lurking around. "Plz," Raoul said. "Go away." "Oops, I meant go, away." Erik: "GET AWAY FROM CHRISTINE. THAT'S ALL I ASK OF YOU." Raoul punched him. It was a hard punch so Erik fainted as the movie director made weird arm motions at him (see Phantom of the Opera - Cast and Crew Singalong at time 1:22 on YouTube). Raoul was so guilt-stricken that he jumped off a cliff. As he jumped, he thought, "Man, I really shouldn't have punched Erik." The end.