Two days after I updated (this was on Saturday), I was frantically checking my e-mail for reviews every five minutes, because I wasn't getting any. I was really depressed – I had thought it was a good chappie, and no reviews. Then I read the note on the website saying that the e-mail systems were down. (feels stupid) Apparently I really do survive on reviews, because I was going crazy before I realized I already had seven or so.

Lendlaer: You can never have enough cameos! I welcome you! (bows and falls)

Lackaz: I have not gotten your e-mail. (waits expectantly and then gets sad) Nope, still not here. Glad you liked it. I wanted Erik to do songs with guys and couldn't think of any other plausible person.

Eat-drums: Not over 'til it's over, nope nope. ;)

Songwind: O.o I can tell you right not, Raoul is not going to win in any way. Neither is music – Erik can't marry music. Not to say he has to marry the winner. It's not the Bachelor. Gosh, I hate that show.

Willow Rose: Oh, sorry, I can't take any more. I had a lot. O.O But you can have a cameo. Might be small, but better than nothing, eh?

KT: A zoo, eh? Hmm… (gets ideas)

MortRouge: I like imagining them competing in the Confrontation scene. (thinks about it and grins) And tell me, was Erik's dialogue any better in chapter 16?

Kianra: Aislin the Pregnant Gazelle! Wait…O.o Ooh, I hope my gazelle got pregnant from Erik…Heehee. Wrong thoughts. Anyway, I'm very flattered, in an odd way. I feel like I know you by now, and so you know me! Yay, we're all Internet buddies!

Enigmatic mystery: No more dates, but cameos welcome. (realizes she has run out of room in the cameo paper and writes 'enigmatic mystery' sideways)

LinhDog: Germany! I want to go there! Wow – I've gained worldwide fame, haven't I? Will you all read my novel when it's published? Not that is has anything to do with Phantom…

……………………….

"Hey Erik, guess what?" Aislin popped randomly in front of Erik as he ate the French toast room service had brought him. He didn't speak.

"Oh, come on Erik, don't be mad at me!" Aislin begged desperately. "There was no other alternative! I wanted your concert to be a success! Think of what I had to go through! I had to eat lunch with that guy! Do you know how hard it is to eat with that fop staring back at you?!"

Erik turned to her. "You had to choose a man to sing with me, and you choose the one person in the world I hate more than anyone?"

"I'm sorry! Who would you have chosen?"

Erik didn't answer. True, spending the last few years of his life in a cellar, he didn't know of many other male singers that could work with him. "Still, what if I had lost my temper and killed him? You know how I can be that way – if you have a problem, Punjab it."

"We would have applauded!"

Erik finally smiled a little, and Aislin sighed. "What was this you wanted to tell me?" he inquired.

"Today's date destination was provided by a phan."

"I was under the impression that you came up with all the ideas."

"I did," she said sheepishly, "but my brain is rather dry at the moment. So I'll use this idea. You're going to the zoo."

"The zoo?" Erik stared at her. "Why?"

"Because I'm running out of ideas." She grinned. "Hey, you know yesterday's girl's Internet name was MortRouge?"

"Red Death?" There was a blatant reference to something Erik-related.

"Yeah, but never mind, today your date's name is a nice normal Rachel."

Erik suddenly realized something. "Aislin – you gave me the girl's name and our destination ahead of time! Normally you leave me in suspense!"

"Oh – do you like it better that way?"

"No, no, no!" He shook his head vigorously. "It was just a change."

"Yeah, I figured you ought to know. I feel bad about doing so much to you in such a short space of time. You're ready right? Get going, she's downstairs in the lobby." Erik grabbed his fedora and the second Angel Sanctuary and walked out of the room.

"Goodbye."

Aislin waved, lying down on the bed as the door shut. "I feel bad, but not that bad." She smiled both evilly and fondly, and got up to change for the pool.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Erik was rather confused by this 'right to left' method of reading. When he first opened a manga, with the spine on the left, a page glared at him saying "YOU'RE READING THE WRONG WAY!" Quite a rude awakening. This page told him that in traditional Japanese books, they read from right to left, so the spine if on the right and the panels of the comic go this way. It took some getting used to, turning the pages the wrong way. If he let his guard down while reading, he'd turn the page on the right side, and be faced with the page he'd just finished reading.

Erik felt he was getting the hang of it, though. And as he read, his scheduled date came up to him and watched him read. Unaware, Erik continued to struggle with his pages. She crouched under his book to look at the title.

"Angel Sanctuary?" she murmured, and Erik jumped. "Didn't know you were into incest." (A/N: Hana's words.) A young couple strolling by turned to stare at this word, and Erik turned red, even though they couldn't see through the mask anyway. He closed his book.

"Hi! I'm Rachel!" Rachel (who provided no desc, and therefore is entirely fabricated) was very pale, and had short blond hair. Her gray eyes twinkled as they scanned Erik admirably. "And we're going to the zoo!"

She was rather hyper. Erik, resigned to another glomp-happy phangirl, allowed himself to be dragged out of the hotel and into a taxi by the hand. Rachel then spent the full fifteen-minute drive to the zoo staring at the hand that had touched Erik's. Which, really, didn't mean much, as Erik was wearing gloves, like he always did.

The first thing Erik noticed about the zoo was that it stank. He thought the cellars of the Paris Opera had some rank smells, but he'd never been here.

Rachel seemed immune to it. "Let's go see the bears!" she squealed.

Well, Erik was definitely not meant to be in a zoo. There was a short time when he found a spot shaded by trees where he thought he could rest, but there was a nasty splat on his shoulder, and only then did he discover why no one else dared walk under the branches. In a foul mood already, the lasso did its work, and the zoo was…well, minus one poor birdie. Erik tore out of there as fast as his feet could carry him before the zookeeper could show up, with Rachel rushing after.

She walked silently beside him, mourning the bird while he cleaned his cape off disgustedly, for all of two minutes, until she looked up and cried, "Ooh! Lions!"

And tigers too. Fascinated by the big cats, who were in the process of attacking lunch, Erik leaned over the railing, watching.

"They're so lethal…"

Luckily, Rachel was able to predict this misfortune, and pulled Erik back by his cape before he became dessert.

There was also an incident in the reptile house, when as Erik and Rachel gazed upon a poisonous rattler, a large Brazilian boa constrictor somehow escaped its glass container and slithered across the tile floor.

Erik swore he heard the snake say something as it slithered away – it had to be the snake, who else could have such a hissy voice? But Rachel maintained that nothing had been spoken in such a voice. Something about Brazil…Erik contemplated it for a few minutes, but didn't mention it again.

They moved on to some mammals, where antelope, gazelles, and deer-like creatures of all kinds each had their own enclosures. Looking at the gazelles, Rachel pointed them out.

"That one's named Hilary and that one's Riadah…and that's Aislin…and that's you."

"I'm sorry?"

"Yeah, that fourth gazelle is Erik." Erik the Human stared at Erik the Gazelle, and then turned fiery eyes on Rachel. She backed away. "Hey, don't look at me, I didn't name them."

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Lunch, then insects, fish, elephants, and the petting zoo. Rachel tried to entice a llama to come nearer with a handful of smelly pellets while Erik stayed clear.

All in all, as he and Rachel sipped soda from giant plastic souvenir cups, it had been a very interesting day. And the Phantom determined that he was definitely not an animal person.

……………………………….

I had a dream once where I met Erik in a zoo. Don't ask me why it was a zoo, but it was, I remember. I had prayed to God for a visit from the Angel of Music that night. Erik wasn't like he normally was (mask and all), he took the form of an Asian teenager. For reference, I have a bit of an Asian fetish – I think Japanese guys are totally hot – so I think Erik was taking the form of the kind of person I find most attractive in my dream. He's really an angel now, so he is as handsome as I make him. And the next day was the first day I hit Christine's high note. So the Angel is real, people, and he's Erik. Pray for him, and he'll come. Review!