A small addition to trans Phantom week
I haven't had much time to write this week, but I've had this idea for some time and managed to get it down. Maybe I will elaborate on it one day.
It was never Erik's face that kept him away from life above ground. It may have been the reason he fled below the opera with the help of the young ballerina, but as he grew, his deformity began to look less horrid than the faces of soldiers returning from the war. People would surely stare, yes, but he would be able to live in society with such a face if he wanted.
If it had been the only thing to set him apart from the rest of the world.
What he wanted wasn't possible. Maybe in another time he could have been born as the man he was and have married a woman who would treat him as such; the bindings he wore around his chest would be ignored and the difference between his legs be compensated for with some of the devices they used for hysterical women.
But it wasn't meant to be. At best he could live as an outcast in Paris, looked down upon by polite society and sexually abused by men born in the right body.
It was much preferable to live below the opera where he could live as the person he was. No one would judge him for his nature.
Meeting Christine was a revelation. A woman born by a man who had chosen to live as one. She understood that some people were born differently and she accepted it. They had lived as nomads for this reason, but she had understood and held no grudge against him.
Several times she would ask her Angel of Music if her father lived as a man in heaven as he had wanted to on earth and Erik had cried as he answered yes, desperately hoping that it was true.
She revealed other things as well, like the love she felt for both men and women, attracted to them equally. Gender was of no consequence to her, only the heart inside a person.
Falling in love with her was inevitable. She was kind, beautiful and accepted those who were different.
The true obstacle was the fact that she believed him to be the Angel of Music. He had lied to her, an unfortunate mistake, but surely she, of all people, would understand. She hid her true self as well, acting like her love for little Meg was innocent and platonic.
If he chose the right way to show her who he was, she would forgive him and accept him. There was even a chance she could learn to love him.
