The Phantoms of the Opera And The Things They Do To Annoy Nadir.

Merik's first days in the US of A

A few months ago, I was watching Crocodile Dundee with the fam, the regular, Saturday night kind of deal. But it was as the MC was wandering through New York city that it struck me: ALW literally has a musical about Erik being in America. And Merik, as we know, can be a bit daft at times. So, it set me, all those months ago, to writing. I picked up my pen and notebook, and I have here the headcanons I came up with!

I apologise for being so quiet of late. I've partially written the second chapter of LFdF, and there's some sort of scripts chapter I got halfway through and then had to put on hold waiting in my drafts section? I just spend all my time on Beneath the Porcelain Mask; no joke, I've pretty much become an Erik level recluse now. But I nearly have a year's worth of content, and it's drawing to a close ( =( ), but there'll be just a few more weeks worth of quiet before I'm back and alive!

With no further ado, enjoy Merik being a clueless immigrant/tourist in New York. (This is based on the Love Never Dies events.)

1. He sees a horse and thinks it's César, which just makes him cry. He misses his pony, ok? Meg's gift of a stuffed toy horse did little to nothing to help.

2. Trying to greet everyone in Manhattan based on Mme Giry's advice to 'be more sociable, you mole!'

3. Seeing the French flag on a building and running across the heaving street (and nearly being trampled for it), and either crying underneath it or jumping about in glee, only to be disappointed that their 'French' pastries are complete duds. He threw a tantrum and now has a barring order.

4. Standing in line at a store and glaring at people who stare too long / trying his very best to smile, but looking like he's going to bite someone's head off instead.

5. Hearing the music Manhattan loves to play at the time, usually on the street corners, and blocking his ears, before running away down the street.

6. Offering hookers very bad (and I mean terrible) relationship advice.

7. Reading the paper to improve his English and throwing slang phrases around at the headlines, even though they have no relevance to his reaction and people think he's escaped from somewhere.

8. Grocery shopping, which causes utter chaos in the aisle. There is cabbage everywhere. He doesn't want to talk about it.

9. Storming into Phantasma in the evening, much to the Giry's surprise, screaming about the 'vile attitude the natives display!' They were staring at his mask. He doesn't want to talk about this either and slams his study door shut.

10. He doesn't understand lingerie. Meg has to help him pick the outfits for the showghouls. She offers to model them for him, but he can't seem to remember how to talk all of a sudden, and his ears are quite red. She decides against it.

11. He doesn't understand the restraining orders either. He was just trying to be friendly to that woman in the bar! Madame Giry has advised him to 'never chat up a lady ever again.' He doesn't understand this either.

12. To blend in with his surroundings, he practises his American accent in a bar. This earned him a hard punch to the face. He's seriously considering never stepping foot outside again and hasn't come out of his study in three days.

13. Bathing Beauty was the result of an opium and vodka binge and he hates himself for it, but it pays the bills. That's the only reason it's still in the show. Meg too shows little enthusiasm back-stage, but if Erik wants it done, she'll do anything to please him.

14. He misses César and has been known to fall asleep (occasionally) clutching a picture of him.

15. Candles. There are candles everywhere. Seriously. Madame Giry has pointed out how strapped for cash they are multiple times, and yet more and more candles keep magically appearing.

16. Existential despair. Meg is getting fed up of the sobbing and the philosophical rants about why he shouldn't have been born.

17. Agressive pipe-organ playing at three in the morning. He's received complaints about this in the past. For some reason, those people soon left the production.