Brocktonite03: It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since the accident that claimed the life of our very own XxVoid_CowboyxX. I know that Void’s reputation on here wasn’t the greatest, but please be respectful of him as his family and friends do read PHO too. For a rundown of the Winslow Theater Incident, please refer to Bagrat’s post here giving a rundown of what happened. With that said, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about this accident, who knows, maybe this thread can help answer some of them.
GstringGirl: RIP Greg. It’s been a year and it still hurts, losing him like that. P.S. I’ve seen the leaked video. There’s no way that what happened to him was an accident. Phantom doesn’t want to know what’ll happen to him/her if I ever find them.
White Fairy: I was in the audience that night, it’s not something that I like thinking about to be honest. Hindsight is 20/20 and all but if the drama club was getting threats like people have come forward about, they should have just cancelled the show outright. P.S. I’m with GstringGirl, that was no accident.
Bagrat: Again, there’s no proof that Phantom, if they exist, is any kind of Parahuman. The only known incidents involving Phantom are from a disembodied voice, in a theater. You don’t exactly need to be a tinker to hijack a sound system in a theater.
Char: Bagrat, please don’t hijack this thread with another “Is Phantom a cape?” derail. She’s very real, I’ve met her, even seen her unmasked. I still have nightmares about that.
Lady_EB: @Char Oh that’s rich coming from you of all people.
— The opening dialogue on PHO.
The Phantom of Winslow
is a crossover between Worm and The Phantom of the Opera by Instant Sunrise.
The story is also available on SufficientVelocity, ArchiveOfOurOwn, and Fanfiction.net
The story starts In Medias Res on PHO, a thread begun in May of 2012 revealing that Greg Veder was killed in a high-profile accident involving a chandelier.
Sveta and Charlotte, among others, comment that Greg's death was not an accident and- contrary to Bagrat's denial- the mysterious "Phantom" involved was real and that Charlotte had met her in person.
The story then rewinds back to the year before and begins to show the events leading up to the disaster.
This fanfic contains examples of the following:
- Adaptational Badass: Annette Hebert Triggered with Queen Administrator and her daughter's canon bug control powers, then took over the Slaughterhouse Nine via Klingon Promotion.
- Adaptational Heroism: Sophia Hess is an Expy of The Persian and encountering The Phantom in the aftermath of an unsuccessful Slaughterhouse Nine attack that resulted in Jack's death and the Phantom's disfigurement leaves her more well-adjusted.
- Adaptational Ugliness: As this story's version of The Phantom, Taylor Hebert was the last person to be disfigured by Jack Slash before his death and, as Panacea hadn't Triggered yet, she wears a mask.
- Adaptational Villainy: Annette Hebert. She took over the Slaughterhouse Nine via Klingon Promotion.
- Adaptational Wealth: Winslow of all places- Justified by being built around an abandoned opera house.
- Anachronic Order: The opening chapter is a PHO thread in 2012, then the story rewinds to 2011 and features a lot of flashbacks.
- At the Opera Tonight: Winslow having an ornate auditorium is hand-waved by the infamous inner-city school- one that a lot of Worm fanfics will depict as not being up to safety regulations- having been built around the existing structure of an abandoned opera house.
- Cast of Expies/ Composite Character:
- Charlotte is a Composite Character of her canon self from Worm and Christine Daeae.
- Emma Barnes takes up the role of Carlotta.
- Sophia Hess becomes an expy of The Persian.
- Taylor Hebert is this story's version of the Phantom; in a bit of a Decomposite Character situation, her canon bug control and leadership of a Villain gang is given to her mother, Annette Hebert.
- Death by Adaptation: Greg's is the very first thing the story reveals.
- Danny Hebert and Jack Slash are both killed in the Slaughterhouse Nine attack on Brockton in the backstory. It is heavily implied New Wave suffered the same fate, with Amy being Annette's surrogate daughter.
- Dramatic Irony: Interlude Middle C reveals Taylor is still waiting for Annette to come home, but Interlude B♯ showed that Annette thinks Taylor is dead and has Bonesaw and Panacea as Replacement Goldfish.
- The Dreaded: The Phantom, as in canon.
- Establishing Character Moment: The Phantom is introduced as a mysterious shadowy figure who teaches Charlotte how to sing so as to live vicariously through her.
- Establishing Series Moment: The prologue thread on PHO. This will be a retelling of The Phantom of the Opera on the Parahuman world of Earth Bet, and canon characters will be killed.
- Falling Chandelier of Doom: What kills Greg- or was he hanged from it when it was pulled back up?
- Foregone Conclusion: Greg dying in a Chandellier-related incident.
- Haunted House: Interlude Middle C reveals the Hebert house is this, with rumors of it being Jack Slash's final resting place and with Taylor and Sophia loitering around it. Although not directly mentioned as such, the coal chute Sophia phases through is a dead giveaway as to which house it is.
- I Will Wait for You: Taylor is still waiting for her mom to come home.
- Klingon Promotion: How Annette Hebert took over the Slaughterhouse Nine
- Meaningful Rename:
- Sophia changes her cape name from Shadow Stalker to Daroga when she quits the Wards, showing she's an expy of The Persian.
- Taylor de facto confirms she's the expy of the Phantom by having changed her name to Erika.
- Named by the Adaptation: Shatterbird's civilian name is Midha Al Ghurair.
- Oh, Crap!:
- When Greg is finally killed by the Falling Chandelier of Doom in Chapter 7.
- An anonymous town in Interlude B♯, when the Slaughterhouse Nine roll in.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: Interlude B♯ follows Annette Hebert as leader of the Slaughterhouse Nine, which she has reformed into a surrogate family, with Riley and Amy as her two surrogate daughters. It reads like a group of Heroic Comedic Sociopath sitcom protagonists on a road trip- Annette stops to get Riley and Amy some ice cream while Shatterbird breaks all the glass in town!
- Replacement Goldfish: Riley and Amy for Annette.
- Sanity Slippage: Annette hasn't taken her daughter's apparent death well, considering both her Jack-like blase attitude to killing and how she dotes her Replacement Goldfish.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Charlotte and Sophia from Winslow in Chapter 8.
- Annette took up the Murderhobo lifestyle of her two predecessors.
- Tonight, Someone Dies: Greg Veder's Death by Adaptation was advertised in the opening PHO thread, so neither it nor the specific chapter it occurs in (Chapter 7)
are ever hidden behind spoiler tags on this page. - Wham Episode: Chapter 7- the death of Greg Veder, built up to from the first lines of the story, finally happens.
- Interlude B♯: Annette Triggered with QA bug control, took over the Slaughterhouse Nine in a Klingon Promotion, and now has Bonesaw and Panacea as Replacement Goldfish.
- Interlude Middle C: Taylor is confirmed as the Phantom, and Sophia is established as this story's Expy of The Persian.
- Wham Line: The very first thing the story describes is that it's been a year since Greg Veder died in an incident in Winslow.
- At the end of Interlude B♯, revealing exactly who is controlling the Slaughterhouse Nine: " ANNETTE HEBERT! WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"
- Interlude Middle C, and who exactly greets Sophia in the basement of the abandoned house: " I'm Tayl- I mean, I'm Erika".
- Whole-Plot Reference: It's a retelling of The Phantom Of The Opera on Earth Bet.
