Raoul de Chagny (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
only_one_raoul) wrote2012-02-10 10:12 pm
only_one_raoul) wrote2012-02-10 10:12 pm
HK app doo-dee-doo
Name: Dai
Age: 21
Journal:
daichuContact: aim @ daishutian
1. Character's Name: Raoul de Chagny
2. Fandom: The Phantom of the Opera (2004 Movie)
3. Time Frame: Prior to reaching Christine after her kidnapping during Don Juan and then a year on the M.S. Elegante.
4. Age: 21 in canon, and he physically wasn't getting older on Elegante
5. Background:
Raoul de Chagny was born into an aristocratic family of French Counts. When he was 11 years old, he went to stay with an aunt who lived near the sea. While out on a walk with his governess, he hears the voice of a charming little girl, singing along with her father's violin. Entranced by her voice, Raoul stays and listens, until a sudden wind carries away the girl's scarf off into the sea. To the dismay of his governess, Raoul rushed off to retrieve it without a second thought. Raoul and the girl, Christine Daaé, became fast friends, and they spent most of their days together.
They read to each other (Raoul doing most of the reading, since Christine was only 5-6), folktales and poems and old songs. One of Christine's favorite poems was about a girl named Little Lotte, and Raoul started using it as a pet name for Christine. During his time with Christine, Raoul started to love music just as she did, and her father even taught Raoul how to play the violin. Eventually, the childhood sweethearts had to part. Raoul returned to Paris while Christine stayed with her father in the house by the sea. He tried to stay in contact, but he never heard back from Christine, and, since he was still a young boy, he soon gave up and moved on.
10 years later, the de Chagny family decides to patronize the Opera Populaire, a famous opera house in Paris. Since he actually liked and appreciated music, Raoul became his father's representative at the opera house, which included dealing with the managers and attending shows. At the first show he attends, Raoul is surprised to see Christine in the starring role, recognizing her voice. Eager to catch up after all those years, he visits Christine in her dressing room after the show. He congratulates her on her performance, and she tells him the Angel of Music from the Little Lotte poem is watching over her and coaching her voice. Raoul assumes this is just Christine being the dreamy girl he knew so long ago and, thinking nothing of it, invited her to join him for supper. She refuses, but Raoul doesn't take no for an answer, telling her to be ready in two minutes while he orders his carriage. When he returns, Raoul finds her door locked and he hears another voice from inside; a man's voice. He shouts for her and knocks on the door to no avail. Defeated by a locked door, Raoul returns home, assuming the man is a friend or lover of Christine's and letting it go.
A letter sealed with a skull imprinted in the wax arrived for Raoul the next morning, warning him away from seeing Christine and signed by O. G. Angered at being ordered around, especially when it had to do with an old friend he wanted to reconnect with, Raoul stormed into the opera house and confronted the managers, accusing them of having written the note and demanding to see Christine. Raoul was not the only one to receive a note, however, and it turned out that they and Carlotta, the diva Christine replaced the night before, assumed it was Raoul who had written the notes and carried off Christine in the night. The ballet mistress appeared during the confusion, announced that Christine had returned, and produced yet another note. This one commanded that Christine take the starring role again in that night's opera and that box 5 would be kept empty for O. G.'s use. While Carlotta threw a fit and the managers tried to placate her and get the show running, Raoul wandered around the opera house, pondering the meaning of all this and who the hell O. G. was.
That evening, against O. G.'s wishes, Carlotta performed the starring role and Raoul himself took box 5. Everything seemed to be going according to plan, and though he hadn't gotten to speak with Christine, Raoul was happy enough to see her on stage. Before long, however, an angry voice echoed around the room, seemingly from no where. After a moment of confusion, the show started up again, but was interrupted again when, instead of singing, Carlotta croaks. In a panic, the managers came onstage and said that, after a short break, Christine would take over in the starring role. A ballet from another part of the show was put on while Christine got ready, but a final, show stopping interruption came in the form of a stage hand dropping from the catwalks with a rope around his neck. In the resulting chaos, Raoul rushed to the backstage in search of Christine. He found her, and she lead him up to the roof while fearfully babbling about a Phantom of the Opera.
On the roof, Raoul attempted to console her and convince her that there is no phantom, and Christine told him about a man with a disfigured face who lives in darkness, but who played the most incredible music... Once again, Raoul told her that it was just a dream, and then held her in a comforting embrace. Christine responded warmly to the reassurance, and before long, the two were kissing and exchanging romantic endearments. On the day of the New Year's Masquerade ball being held at the Populaire, Raoul proposed to Christine, and, delighted, she accepted. They attended a Masquerade ball at the Populaire, dancing the night away together, until it was interrupted by the Phantom himself. While he waved a sword around and threatened people, Raoul snuck off to get a sword of his own. By the time he returned, the Phantom was tearing Christine's engagement ring from her neck, where it was hanging off of a chain and cleverly hidden in her cleavage. With the stolen ring, the Phantom turned and disappeared in a burst of flame.
Raoul pursued and found the Phantom had actually dropped through a trapdoor. Jumping down after him, he found a room full of rotating mirrors. The Phantom toyed with him for a few moments, until Madame Giry, the ballet mistress, appeared and pulled him out. Raoul followed her, demanding that she tell him everything she knew about the man in the mask. After a little prodding, she sat him down and told him about a disfigured boy she had hidden away in the opera house many years ago.
That night, Raoul stayed at the opera house to guard Christine. He fell asleep outside the ballet dormitories, and woke early in the morning to find that Christine had vanished again. This time, he spotted her leaving in a carriage and pursued her on a borrowed horse. He followed her to the graveyard where her father's mausoleum was, and arrived just in time to stop her from being taken by the Phantom, who had apparently followed her as well. He fought the Phantom off, besting him with a sword, and only Christine's pleas stopped him from killing the masked man.
Back at the opera house, Raoul comes up with a plan to capture the Phantom: they put on the Phantom's opera, for he would surely appear if Christine sang his music. Christine begged Raoul not to make her do this, but he convinced her that it was the only way to stop him. The play went on, and the Phantom did appear, but not where anyone expected; he murdered Piangi, the male lead of the show, and took his place. Despite the armed policemen surrounding the stage, Raoul found himself unable to give the order to shoot until it was too late. At the climax of the song, Christine unmasked the Phantom, revealing his disfigured face to all. Angered, the Phantom seized her and made another trap-door escape.
Raoul rushed to find the one person who could possibly tell him where the Phantom had gone: Madame Giry. She agreed to take him to the Phantom's lair, and she lead him down into the cellars. After warning him to keep his hand at the level of his eyes to ward off the Phantom's deadly punjab lasso, she left him to continue on his own. Hand raised, Raoul continued on... and fell into a water trap. He narrowly escaped it, and went on through the cellars to find Christine.
6. Personality:
Raoul's most prominent character trait would have to be his passion
The impulsiveness is even worse when it comes to Christine or Erik. After everything he's been through, he's desperate to keep Christine with him and will do everything he can to protect her. On the flip side of the coin, he hates the Phantom with the fury of a thousand suns. He's lost count of the number of times the masked man has taken Christine away from him, and to make things worse, Christine has a special relationship with Erik that Raoul can never touch. Raoul will go out of his way to spite Erik if he thinks he can get away with it.
Phantoms aside, Raoul is not a bad guy at all. He'd been brought up as a gentleman. His initial inclination to new acquaintances is polite and his general disposition is even-tempered. The horrors of the Elegante have taken a toll on him, so he's not quite as easy-going or optimistic as he once was. He's used to luxury, being of a noble background and having spent nearly 2 years on what appeared to be a cruise ship.
7. Previous Game Developments:
The M.S. Elegante | Raoul's Journal | Wiki with timeline
Raoul appeared on the boat soaked, injured, and intent on hunting down the Phantom and saving Christine. Amazingly, he did manage to find Erik, and started a fight with him. Christine appeared soon after, shocked that both her love interests from over a year in the past had appeared in a matter of weeks. Raoul spent his time trying to get accustomed to the ship, sniping at Erik over the commlines, and worrying at how oddly distant Christine was. This lasted for 4 months, during which Raoul had managed to get himself killed twice. In May, the boat docked on a tropical island, and though he looked everywhere, Raoul couldn't find Christine. After a few days, initially hoping that she was just kidnapped by the Phantom, Raoul realized that she wasn't anywhere, and finally accepted that she was no longer there. As if that wasn't enough heartbreak, he also found out a few weeks later that she intended to marry another man on the boat. Overwhelmed with grief, he jumped the railing of the ship. Of course, he just came back 24 hours later, now with solid black eyes. Alone on the ship with not even death as an escape, Raoul fell into depression. The fact that the Phantom was no longer on the boat didn't help, nor did his reappearance on Raoul's birthday.
Life continued on, and Raoul slowly started working his way out of it. Something he never expected and didn't react well to happened in late September - Christine reappeared. Not only did she come back, but she was "fresh" from home and searching for him. Unable to handle being with the woman who had hurt him so badly, Raoul left her alone so he could compose himself elsewhere and steel himself for whatever came next. Of course, the ever-observant Phantom had been watching, and he spirited her away before Raoul could return. With Christine having only the Phantom's commline for communication, it took a while before Raoul could speak to her and apologize for his behavior. She agreed to go to him, refusing to give the Phantom's room number out of loyalty to her Angel of Music. Raoul took her to a quiet place to explain himself and the ship to her. Realizing that this Christine was the woman he knew and loved, Raoul allowed himself to release his fear of her. The lovers' reunion wouldn't last, for Erik still held sway over her. She would return to him of her own will (or not) every so often, and she would eventually leave and come back to Raoul. Their triangle (which was actually a sort of square, for Erik had feelings for another lady named Anna) continued til the boat met The End.
8. Appearance: Pretty much this with solid black eyes.
9. Abilities: He's somewhat competent at swinging a fencing sword around, and he knows how to fire a gun. Other than that, he's not got any special talents.
10. Languages: French and English.
11. Items: His clothes... yeah.
12. Weapons: None
13. Writing sample - Third Person:
Christine's voice easily carries to the balcony, where Raoul is leaning against the rail and listening absently. Naturally, she needs to practice to keep her voice in good form, and he has no qualms about using their admittedly small quarters as a practice space. Far from it, actually; he'd insisted she stay in their locked room where he can be sure the only way she leaves is of her own volition, and hopefully he'd notice if she did leave. Still, he can't help but wonder if someone is listening in... could there be someone on the other side of the door? Or perhaps the metaphorical eavesdropper is listening from out here like he is, only on a different deck.
Raoul hates that the Phantom of the Opera is so frequently on his mind, and how he suspiciously wonders if the masked man is on Christine's mind just as often. Is it his music she sings now, or just something she found in the library? He doesn't understand why she still insists on interacting with him. Doesn't she see how dangerous he is? Hasn't he proven that he is incapable of keeping his word and cannot be trusted? Is the music he gives her really worth the conflict between her and himself?
The worst of it is that there is very little Raoul can do about it. He can't keep Christine locked up, keeping her secure but also earning her resentment. The Phantom can't be stopped either. Any violence he inflicted on the other man would only get him sent to the brig, leaving the Phantom unopposed. It would help if Christine were to cut ties, but even if she did, he wouldn't stop pursuing her. It's just a constant cycle of Raoul trying to keep them apart, stewing when they interact, and praying that if she disappears again, she'll find her way back soon.
He shakes his head as if to clear the thought from his mind. He never finds a solution to the problem, so he focuses instead on Christine's singing, savoring the clear and sweet notes. As she finishes the piece, he's already approaching her side.
"Beautiful as always, my love." Christine smiles, and Raoul knows he'll fight this vicious cycle to the end.
14. Writing Sample - First Person:
I don't understand - first our worlds were eaten by that thing, and now they never were? Did this happen because we killed it? How did we get here? Is this Deior a friend of the captain's? ...this isn't the Golden Shore, is it?
Christine? Are you alright? Tell me where you are and I'll come find you- Wait, never mind. Don't say where you are with this: we don't know who might be listening. Go to... Just stay where you are for now. I'll find somewhere safe, then we'll find each other. If there's any justice in this world, though, that God forsaken man will have drowned or been killed by that beast... but that's probably too much to hope for. Never mind... wait for me, Christine.
15. Tattoo: Around the middle finger of his left hand.
16. Room Preference: The closer to Christine, the better, but he'll probably insist they room together anyway, so it doesn't make much difference |D
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