*You find yourselves on the Fanfiction Manor's front porch. Excitedly, you open the front door only to duck and drop to the floor as you hear a shout of "IGNIS!" and a Fireball flies over your head and out the door. Wide eyed you stare at PG, who looks rather different. She looks taller, shorter hair an auborn color with dark red highlights, her left eye is blue while the right is the same red at her highlights and a scar running over it, her lips are died blood red and rose tattoo on the left side of her neck. The outfit she is wearing is something you recognize but can't put your finger on.*
PG17: Gods! I'm so sorry! *She rushes over and helps you up.* Didn't know you would be here so soon! I was just helping the new guys find their footing here and cast the spell to show you could still use magic here.
*Once up, she leads you to the living room where your eyes widen at the six people sitting around the room. A tall woman with long black hair, another woman, another woman with green skin and looks like she is always in resting in bitch face, a red skinned woman with horns, a tail, and a glowing object in the center of her chest, a black male with horns with a scar across his missing eye, a man in purple robes with brown hair and a nicely trimmed beard seeming to weave magic, and a pale man with white hair and red eyes playing with a dagger.*
PG17: *Whispers in your ear* I bought Baldur's Gate 3 a few weeks after it came out and became obsessed! I'm currently doing a Dark Urge playthrough as my first run of the game (Honestly, don't start with a Durge playthrough on your first time. I just wanted to do something different for me.), and I'm planning on writing a story based off it. I'm currently dressed as my Human Druid character, subclass Circle of the Moon. Let me introduce you to my companians and new House Guests.
*PG clears her throat to get everyone's attention.*
Reader's this is Shadowheart, the Half-Elf Cleric, *the half-elf inclines her head* Lae'zel, the Githyanki Fighter, *Lae'zel scoffs and looks away* Karlach, the Tiefling Barbarian, *the tiefling smirks and gives a two fingered salute* Wyll, the Human Warlock and The Blade of Fronters, *Wyll nods a bit shyly* Gale of Waterdeep, the Human Wizard, *Gale comes forward and firmly shakes your hand* and last but not least, Astarion Ancunin, the Vampire High Elf Rogue. *Astarion looks up and raises an eyebrow before inclining his head and going back to his knife.* This is the Reader everyone, they come and go as they please. So please no stabbing, burning with a fireball, tossing across the room, again, no stabbing and NO blood drinking! *You watch as Astarion slumps in disappointment on those last two.*
Anyway, There's not very much left to say or do so *leads the Readers away* go ahead and read the disclaimers and jump head first into the chapter! And to be honest, I was VERY stuck on what to do with this one for a long time so please forgive me if it seems... rushed. Enjoy the chaper anyways!
*You are lead off as PG hands you a card with the Disclaimers on it.*
-PhantomGirl17 DOES NOT own Phantom of the Opera, it's plot, characters or otherwise, only her OC Rosie.
-A bucket of water has been set aside for ANY AND ALL FLAMERS! For any who avoid the bucket, PhantomGirl17 will allow Astarion to bite you and drain you of your blood or Lae'zel to stab you with her sword whomever will reach the Flamers first.
-Any Questions, Comments and Reviews can be PMed to her or left in the Review Box below.
-Astarion was here! Gale stinks!
PG17: *Shouts as everything fades to black and you enter the story.* ASTARION! GET YOUR UNDEAD ASS HERE RIGHT NOW! I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH THE DISCLAIMERS!
Twenty:
~Narrator's POV~
It was a week later they finally made it to the Mansion. Darius helped Rosie out of the carriage first and Erik climbed out behind her. She stared in awe at the building before rushing over to help the servants unload the luggage. While that happened, Erik turned to Darius.
"Thank you, Daroga. For getting us here and setting all of this up.' he smirks. 'Seems like I owe you another favor."
"Yes. You do.' Darius answered. 'You keep getting into trouble that would end in your death and I keep rescuing you. Please stop making this a pattern."
Erik chuckled. "I shall endeavor to do so in the future." he looks over to Rosie fondly watching her for a moment before turning back to the other man. 'Do you have the papers?"
Darius looks at him for a moment before grabbing his case from the carriage and pulling out papers from it. "Yes, I have them… I admit I was quite surprised you asked me to prepare these. Are you quite sure?"
"Never been more sure in my life.' He said taking the papers and pulling out his pen to sign them. 'I want to make her happy, and to stay with me was her choice. I never forced her to choose truly. Even in my home below the Opera, when I gave her the choice between the Vicompte's life and her and Christine's freedom and staying forever with me in my madness... she still chose to stay with me... despite all I had done to her and others... she still stayed with me..." He recapped the pen and looked at the papers with a melancholy look in his eyes.
"I once thought that Christine would be the name next to mine on this paper… Rosie changed everything..."
He sighed and shakes his head.
"~No one would listen
No one but her
Heard as the outcast hears.'
He looked away with a sad look in his eyes.
'Shamed into solitude
Shunned by the multitude
I learned to listen
In my dark, my heart heard music.
I long to teach the world
Rise up and reach the world
No one would listen
I alone could hear the music...'
He looks over at Rosie and smiles as she helps the butler take a rather heavy case from the back of the carriage.
'Then, at last, a voice in the gloom
Seemed to cry "I hear you"
I hear your fears
Your torment and your tears!'
He turned back to his old friend.
'She saw my loneliness
Shared in my emptiness
No one would listen
No one but her
Heard as the outcast hears.'
He looked back at Rosie again.
'No one would listen
No one but her
Heard as the outcast hears...~"
~Rosie's POV~
I had returned over to Erik's side after helping the butler and maid with the luggage, curious at the papers in his hands.
"What's that?"
Erik turned to me with a confident look in his eyes. I stared in surprise, never having seen him this confident in all the time I've known him. He hands me the papers. I took them, looked at them and my eyes widened.
"This certifies that Erik Destler... United in Marriage... Erik?" I look up in confusion and a bit of hope.
"Rosie... this isn't the typical way a man asks for a woman's hand. But you have been with me through everything.' He gently takes a hold of my chin and tilts it up to look me in the eyes. 'You know me at my best and worst. You've held me when I cried, comforted me when I was sad, gave me care and love I have never felt, not even from my own mother. You brought a light to my life I never want to let go…"
He cupped my face with one hand and took my left hand in his other, kissing the ring finger before slipping his ring on it. "So yes, I wish to take you as my wife... to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part... please?"
I feel tears in my eyes and give a watery gasp having heard his vow. The look in his eyes... he is serious. I placed my left hand on his masked cheek and said my own vow. "Erik, I love you so much. I will take you as my husband, my treasure, my constant friend and companion from this day forward. I accept your flaws with understanding and grace as you do mine. I will love you with a full and pure heart, protect you and love you and listen to your heart in the best way I know how. I'll walk through this life with you as a woman of strength and integrity, and do my best to guard your heart from harm. I vow to honor and respect the man you are both today and throughout all our days on this earth."
I gasped in surprise when he surged forward and kissed me. I kissed back, wrapping my arms around his neck as he wrapped his around my waist. After a moment he pulled back and gave me a smile of genuine joy. He handed me his pen and I signed the papers giving them to Darius.
He took them and smiled at us, placing them in his case. "I'll make sure these go through the proper channels. I'm happy for you both. Truly.' He climbed into the carriage and looked back at us. 'I wish you both the happiest of life.' He looks at Erik. 'Never let her go. You'll never find another like her again my friend.' He then turns to me. 'Do keep an eye on him. He has a habit of getting into situations that cause people to want his head. I can't be around to clean up all his messes."
I laugh as Erik glares at the man. Darius laughs before he nods to the driver. As soon as the carriage disappeared around the corner and the servants had already taken our things inside, I was lifted into my husband's arms.
Erik carried me across the threshold of our new home before closing the door behind himself and setting me to my feet in the middle of the Foyer. He took a few steps away as I looked around. I could see the sitting room, kitchen, dining room, sun room and music room from where I stood under a simple chandelier. A staircase was to my far left and led to the second floor. I turned to Erik when he cleared his throat.
"~I have brought you
To the seat of sweet Music's Throne!
To this Kingdom where all must pay homage to Music... Music...
You have come here
For One purpose and One alone...'
He turned to me and looked me in the eye.
'Since the moment I first heard you sing
I have needed you with me to love me, to sing...
For my Music...
My Music...'
I stared for a minute. What was he doing? He smirked.
'Quando brami strane tentazioni
Quando vuoi oscure sensazioni
Nella notte senti immensi sogni ardenti...'
My eyes widened. Oh, Lord, how did he know I love the song when it's sung in Italian? Does he even know what the combination of his voice, that song and the language does to me? Especially when he rolls the 'r's? He apparently did as he smirked, stepped towards me and held out his hand. I took it and as he sang, he showed me the rooms of the first floor.
'Notte lieve, colma di splendore
Chiama, senti, offrile il tuo cuore'
I turned from looking at him to the sunroom, feeling him brush my cheek with his fingers before he cupped my chin to turn me back to him.
'Guarda gli occhi mieli come in sogno ti vorrei
Non sarà la luce che davvero vuoi
La notte è dolce musica per noi'
He then led me to the stairs and left me at the bottom of the steps as he leapt up a few, he turned towards me again and smiled as he sang.
'Chiudi gli occhi ed arrenditi, adesso puoi
Per salvarti i tuoi sogni infiammerò
Chiudi gli occhi e il tuo angelo sarò...'
I closed my eyes at that pure note he hit, holding my breath for a minute before sighing and opening my eyes again. Erik stepped down a few of the steps and held out his hand.
'Fantasie nel tuo calice berrò...'
I took his hand and he led me up the stairs, past other rooms I paid no attention to because of the enchanting Man before me.
'Notte nera che ti avvolge adesso
Tinte tetre, sei in mio possesso
Vivi e capirai, nell'immenso volerai
Se non hai confini, so che tu lo puoi'
He smirked as he stopped at the end of the hall, then circled me and I followed him until I now had my back to a slightly opened door.
'La notte è dolce musica per noi'
He walked towards me slowly and I backed away, through the door and into the room.
'Senti, ormai la ragione muta, fugue via
Coi pensieri di un mondo non più tuo
Volerò dove offenderci non può'
He closed the door behind him and I heard the click of the lock. He walked towards me again and placed his hands on my shoulders.
'Con l'idea che persa in me ti avrò...'
His eyes were dark with desire as he looked at me. He turned me around, pulled me so my back was to his chest and embraced me. One hand around my waist while the other cupped my throat, we swayed to the Music only we could hear. I closed my eyes before reaching up and touching his mask. He took that hand and kissed it.
'Folle scorre velenosa ebbrezza
Dammi, ama, prendi sogni carezza'
He led me over to glass doors with sheer white curtains with a small smile.
'Resteremo qui, lascia nascere così
Quell'immagine d'amore che tu vuoi...'
He stopped before the doors and threw them open at the end of the verse, at the climax of the Music.
'Può tutto questa Musica per Noi!'
I walked out onto the balcony, and gasped. It was like looking at the Bob Ross painting of a lake with a lush green field behind it, a forest further out and grand mountains standing tall in the distance. The sun was setting behind them, giving the sky brushes of orange, yellow, purple and blue. I was so busy looking at it in awe that I didn't hear Erik come up behind me until he picked me up in his arms.
He spun me around a few times before heading towards a bed. I realized then this was our room as he laid me down upon the soft mattress and hovered over me. His hand reached up to brush a piece of hair away from my face before he placed a golden ring on my finger and its twin on his. Finally taking off his mask and laying it on the bedside table, he leaned his forehead against mine.
'Evochi, mia musa, se lo vuoi...
Sempre immensa Musica per Noi...~"
With the final note fading, echoing throughout the room, he kissed me as black lace curtains fell around the bed, hiding a Husband and His Wife from the world as they became one, at last, on their Wedding Night.
~Time Skip~
I am sitting in the garden at a table, reading one of the books from the library in our manor. I look up as I hear the garden gate open and see one of the maids come over with a tea tray.
"Mrs. Destler, I brought you some tea to refresh yourself."
She placed the tea on the table and I thanked her, taking one of the petit fours that were brought out with the tea as she poured me a cup. I was about to take a sip when I noticed her nervous look.
"Marrie? Why are you nervous?"
She blushed. "I… I mean no disrespect Ma'am… but… how can you love him? After all he's done?' she asked. 'I mean… all of us are loyal to you and him as well as under contract with Daroga Darius… but just…"
I held up a hand to stop her and put down my cup.
"How can I still love him? Life was not kind to him, Marrie. Everyone and Everything shunned him for being different. It is very much like how many people shun those with dark skin. Not that it happens around here of course, but it's very much the same concept. People fear what they cannot understand, explain easily or is not what the majority think is normal. I wanted to be that one person. The one out of millions that saw him for who he is and not what the world sees him as or what he convinced himself he is."
I smiled and turned to see him though the second floor open window, in the music room where he was playing the violin. I recognized the tune and began to sing.
"~This lovely, lonely man
I'd only known a day
I looked at him, and could not look away
Oh, what a love
Oh, what a lovely, lonely man…'
I stood and walked away from the table, talking more to myself than Marrie now.
'I've met so many men
So easy to forget
I thought I've grown immune to them
And yet…'
I had picked some flowers as I walked aimlessly through the garden. I looked up to see a marble fountain with swans carved in it.
'He's such a love
He's such a lovely, lonely man!'
I rushed over and dreamily gazed into the spouting water with my hands on its rim.
'How did he touch my heart?
How did this feeling start?
This glow that feels so warm inside!
This sudden summer storm inside!'
I tossed the flowers I had picked into the fountain before continuing my stroll.
'My life now has a plan
To someday make him see
That I need him as much as he needs me
Oh, what a love
Oh, what a lovely, lonely man!'
In a lovesick dream, I danced around the garden, forgetting I wasn't alone. Marrie just smiled and picked up the tea tray to take it back inside. I didn't see that Erik was watching from the window where he played his violin, the one I had commissioned for him that one Christmas. He smiled fondly at me as I danced, ending up at a white two-seater swing overlooking the mountains.
'My life now has a plan
To someday make him see
That I need him as much as he needs me
Oh, what a love
Oh, what a lovely, lonely man!'
I closed my eyes.
'Oh, how I love this one and only… man~"
I open my eyes, a grin gracing my face. I stood up and walked around the swing to give it a little push before turning to run back inside to Erik.
CHAPTER SONG LIST:
-No One Would Listen - Phantom of the Opera (Movie 2004)
-Music of the Night - Phantom of the Opera (In Italian)
-Lovely, Lonely Man - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Movie 1968)