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Rating: T Relationships: Dreyse/Chassepot Characters: Dreyse, Chassepot (Minor Tabatière Cameo)

Pretend it is the 29th of May and this just dropped. Summary is pretty self-explanatory:

Since it was the day the tragedy ended, his cadet had said, in a nonchalance that made it law, isn’t it fine to celebrate it? So Chassepot had acquiesced, whiling the next night away in one of Gras’ stupid parties with bad music and greasy food, enduring the flashing lights on an impromptu dance floor. The cadet only spoke sense, and it was no good to mope, and he was putting a damper on the debauchery by parading his personal tragedies. Why, then, is he heaving into a toilet bowl after a mere two half-glasses of wine? Ah, he had almost forgotten about the approaching footsteps. Of course it would be Dreyse who would intrude on his privacy for absolutely no reason. Just great. Like he needed to come take the piss, too.

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UPDATE: This has been edited to be slightly more presentable. Refresh if reading.

Persian (modern-day Afghan) warrior showcasing a cummerbund.

Peculiarities on the Rue de Rivoli (<- READ HERE)

Catalogue Gaston Leroux

Item 528: Unfinished manuscript found in the author’s study in his house in Nice. It is entitled "Peculiarities on the Rue de Rivoli: Or, a Mysterious Encounter".

Contents: In the midst of the Bloody Week of the Paris Commune, the Persian finds two unexpected visitors outside his flat on the Rue de Rivoli.

(No knowledge of Senjyuushi is required to read this.)

Wow, guess who managed to finish a fic for POTO Paris Commune week last-minute... I'm a little too drained to emote properly but, if anyone likes the Persian going through farcial emotional whiplash and Darius-as-narrator, or the Vaguely Creepy Twins trope, this is for you.

Also, Mme. Giry (???) makes a cameo.

To those who read it, thank you, thank you, thank you.

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Persian (modern-day Afghan) warrior showcasing a cummerbund.

Peculiarities on the Rue de Rivoli (<- READ HERE)

Catalogue Gaston Leroux

Item 528: Unfinished manuscript found in the author’s study in his house in Nice. It is entitled "Peculiarities on the Rue de Rivoli: Or, a Mysterious Encounter".

Contents: In the midst of the Bloody Week of the Paris Commune, the Persian finds two unexpected visitors outside his flat on the Rue de Rivoli.

(No knowledge of Senjyuushi is required to read this.)

Wow, guess who managed to finish a fic for POTO Paris Commune week last-minute... I'm a little too drained to emote properly but, if anyone likes the Persian going through farcial emotional whiplash and Darius-as-narrator, or the Vaguely Creepy Twins trope, this is for you.

Also, Mme. Giry (???) makes a cameo.

To those who read it, thank you, thank you, thank you.

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Paris-Commune-Related Work for Commune Week 2023

Léon Choubrac, Le Dernier Jour de la Commune (1883).

Seeing that my post from last year (thank you, @paperandsong) has gained a little attention, I am compiling the works I have written to commemorate the Paris Commune in this post. These are not explicitly POTO-related, but no knowledge of the fandom I'm writing in is required to read them. The franchise (Senjyuushi) personifies various firearms, and I write about historical firearms related to the Franco-German War and the Commune during the Commune. The franchise does not deal with this context, and all the firearms I write about are original characters. If you're interested in the historical context of the Commune, or learning various facts about it, you can read my Madder Skies series:

Une fête cerise - The Commune as witnessed by a Tabatière rifle. (He is affectionately named Ignace for his fiery nature.) Themes: women of the Commune, disillusion, hope. A lot of unsaid affection.

Allons enfants de la patrie - The Commune from the eyes of a Chassepot rifle named Florence, owned by a child Communard. Themes: children, war horrors, innocence, bathos, propaganda. Erik makes a cameo! The second chapter contains historical notes on the Commune.

Beyond Madder Skies - The centrepiece of the series. A Chassepot rifle from the Versailles army finds himself stranded behind German forces that are observing the repression of the Commune. He acquaints himself with a Dreyse needle rifle (from Prussia), and they re-negotiate their relationship as enemies as the Chassepot fights to return to his comrades. Each chapter covers a day in the final week of the Commune.

I would love to put out new work related to the Commune, POTO, or Madder Skies this year, hopefully before Commune Week ends. Stay tuned...

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PotO Paris Commune Week May 21 - 28, 2023

Dear Phans, this is a one month reminder that the third PotO Paris Commune week, hosted by @shinyfire-0 and @paperandsong, begins in just one month. 

Is this the first time you’ve heard of this? Here is the original announcement for this year’s event. What does the 1871 Paris Commune have to do with Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera? Why is Erik always on about his “Communist Road” and why does he lock Raoul up in his “Communist Dungeon”? Time to find out.

Ways to participate:

Follow the tag #poto paris commune 1871

Take a look at what was created in previous years

Create new PotO-Commune content: fics, art, meta, historical posts - anything kind of content you want to make.

Use #poto paris commune 1871 for Tumblr posts, and the Paris Commune tag for AO3

Repost/reblog any Commune-related content you have created in the past

Support PotO-Commune content created by others by reading, reviewing, reblogging

New Prompt Idea:

As the phandom is fairly upset with ALW and Cammack right now, maybe it’s time to take a look at that arson (fictional, allegorical) prompt. Maybe Cammack needs to be dropped off on the Communist Road?

We’re all Pétroleuses now.

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Current and Future Projects

There's currently not much that I can do writing-wise because I know I will be having a greater irl workload in the upcoming year or so. However, this blog is mostly for me to straighten out my thoughts and organise myself some, so I might as well do that now. But tl;dr, don't expect much from me for the time being.

Here's the list of WIPs or ideas:

The Madder Skies series: As much as I hate using the word "hiatus" to describe anything I write, because I like having the freedom to go back to any projects I have started, I cannot deny that it aligns with the condition of the series. I have drained my energy by writing something not quite presentable to AO3 (currently 149 pages on Google Docs and counting) and I currently lack have time to make any continuation or spinoff of Madder Skies presentable.

Canonical 1014-related stuff: I would like to write more for the fandom, especially for the modern guns, but it really depends on the time and effort I am willing to put into making my ideas work. In terms of right now, I have a limited supply of both, especially with the State of the (Overseas) Fandom and of R.

The Paris Commune: I would like to write something related to Carmen for Bloody Week (there are surprising connections and parallels), and hopefully I manage to plan far enough ahead to complete this one. *Edit: not in 2023, apparently.

This post will be updated accordingly if anything new comes up.

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Chapters: 3/3 on Ao3 Rating: T Relationships: Ghost and Eins, Ghost and Hokusai, Ghost and Ashley Sagan Characters: Ghost, Eins Additional (Important) Tags: Character Study, Canon Compliant, Ghost-Centric Summary: Ghost deals with fallout from the aftermath of a battle—what it means to survive, to reflect, to be alive.

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Senjyuushi followers, the final installation of my Ghost character study is up! If the following interest you:

Ghost's dramatic interior monologues

Eins' and Ghost's wonderfully close relationship (canon!!!)

Ghost's reflections on Hokusai, specifically Ghost's side of the story in Das Allzuschöne Traumbild (the Hokusai character study that is the first part of the series)

Then check out this charastudy, now complete!! Feel free to comment on it over on Ao3, or drop an ask over here on Tumblr. This sideblog's a little sterile-looking, but I swear I don't bite. I will take ramblings, incoherent keysmashes, critique, anything.

Now that the charastudy's done and dusted, I will detail my upcoming writing plans in a future post.

For those unfamiliar with the context of the game event referenced, an explanation is under the cut:

Hokusai and Ghost reinforce Fal, F, and Eins on a manhunt for the antique guns of the resistance and their Master. However, Eins does not actually make an appearance in the event, and Ghost volunteers to be a contingency measure to prevent the antique guns from escaping. As a result, he misses the pitched battle between the antique and modern guns. The epilogue of the event reveals that the antique guns defeat Fal, F, and Hokusai so thoroughly that they are returned to gun form, the first time this has happened. When Ghost arrives late at the site of battle, he is left to pick up their remains....

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Chapters: 2/3 on Ao3 Rating: T Relationships: Ghost and Eins, Ghost and Hokusai, Ghost and Ashley Sagan Characters: Ghost, Eins Additional (Important) Tags: Character Study, Canon Compliant, Ghost-Centric Summary: Ghost deals with fallout from the aftermath of a battle—what it means to survive, to reflect, to be alive.

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Hello! To those who follow me for Senjyuushi, I've recently updated my Ghost character study, which takes place after the event 'To My Beloved, Let There Be Light' in the original game. If the following interest you:

Ghost's dramatic interior monologues

Eins' and Ghost's wonderfully close relationship (canon!!!)

Ghost's reflections on Hokusai, specifically Ghost's side of the story in Das Allzuschöne Traumbild (the Hokusai character study that is the first part of the series)

Then check out this charastudy!

For those unfamiliar with the context of the game event referenced, an explanation is under the cut:

Hokusai and Ghost reinforce Fal, F, and Eins on a manhunt for the antique guns of the resistance and their Master. However, Eins does not actually make an appearance in the event, and Ghost volunteers to be a contingency measure to prevent the antique guns from escaping. As a result, he misses the pitched battle between the antique and modern guns. The epilogue of the event reveals that the antique guns defeat Fal, F, and Hokusai so thoroughly that they are returned to gun form, the first time this has happened. When Ghost arrives late at the site of battle, he is left to pick up their remains....

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L'Exécution d'un trompette sous la Commune. Alfred Roll, 1871 (via Les Musées de la Ville de Paris)

Allons enfants de la patrie

Read on Ao3.

Summary: A Chassepot rifle named Florence sees, hears, and lives the great historical force that is the Commune.

(This work can be read with no context of the original fandom.)

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Did I make this blog just to post this one work for POTO Commune Week 2022 on its very last day? Apparently so.

For people outside the fandom who want more context before reading this, the narrator and many of the characters are anthropomorphic personifications of weapons used during the Paris Commune and the preceding war. The setting of the original franchise is completely different from this one, so I took liberties with how these characters manifest. In the series that this work is part of, Madder Skies, they appear in a ghost-like form. The Madder Skies series contains works related to the Paris Commune.

To anyone who will read this, you have in advance my deepest thanks.

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The Phantom of the Opera fandom will hold its second PotO Commune Week from May 21-28, 2022, beginning in just ten days! See this post for more information. 

How to participate:

Follow the poto paris commune 1871 tag on Tumblr. 

Create fic, art, meta, or any kind of content referencing the 1871 Paris Commune and tag it. 

Support the work of other participating writers and artists by reading, commenting, and reblogging. 

This event celebrates the connection between the Phantom of the Opera and the 1871 Paris Commune, but is open to other fandoms! We will support your work too.

Did you participate last year? Repost and reblog your old work. 

Prompts:

Explore themes of gunpowder, arson, anarchy, and skeletons under the Opera. 

There are many iconic photographs and posters from the Commune that artists could use as references. 

What were your favorite characters doing in 1871? How did they survive the Terrible Year? 

Are you too immersed in Dracula Daily to pay any attention to this? Well, what was Dracula doing in 1871? 

Explore the way various adaptations approach the Commune. Leroux, ALW, Kay, Rat Phantom, 2004, have all referenced the Commune in different ways - from ignoring history entirely (2004) to placing Erik at the fringe of the action (Kay). 

Hosted by @shinyfire-0​ and @paperandsong​ this year, we hope to see new fans participate! Reblog to help spread the word.