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fandomshatelgbtqpeople · 6 years ago

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A Werewolf’s Guide to Lycanthropy

So I asked about nonbinary representation, so I’m going to go ahead and share a book I started (and nearly finished) for NaNoWriMo. It’s still first draft stage and will undergo massive rewrites, but all three of my main characters are trans (and otherwise queer as well), as are many other side characters, so I thought ya’ll might be interested in a snippet? Maybe?

This is a snippet maybe a quarter or so of the way into the book. It’s a book re-imagining werewolves based more off of wild wolf behavior than captured wolf behavior. In it, werewolves are basically know but not really acknowledged. People suspect but nobody says it out loud. Our main character is happily living in eir werewolf pack (which is far more of a family and community than it is a hierarchy), though secretly writing a guide on how to adjust to becoming a werewolf to help bring them into a more public eye (and the book is interspersed with snippets of this writing) until some kids from the pack start going missing. Then MC - Jamie - realizes that these kidnappings appear to be something larger than just a local targeting of their specific pack. When the pack council or committee (there to help organize schedules, figure out how to take in new kids, budget, etc.) acts ignorant and secretive, Jamie has to decide between dropping this and potentially losing more kids or defying the council, abandoning eir pack, and getting to the bottom of the disappearances. Where I bring you in on this snippet, Jamie has recently decided to leave the pack and investigate on eir own. In doing so, ey has just managed to run into another pack, where ey just might get some answers...

(For those on mobile, this moves into a read more, as it’s a long post. Anyone please feel free to leave me some feedback!)

Chapter 15

The irresistible smell of sausage woke Jamie up. Ophelia laughed gently. “I see I’ve picked the right breakfast for you. I thought I would save you the trip of having to eat with everyone else. I’m sure you know, everybody already knows who you are by now. I didn’t want you to be overwhelmed with questions.”

Grimacing in an effort to shake off the last vestiges of sleep, Jamie cracked eir back and neck and cleared eir throat. “Thanks.” Ey took the plate of offered food, a generous heap of sausage, eggs, hash browns and a biscuit buttered up nicely. “Really, thanks.”

“I saw the size of your bag. I’m guessing you haven’t had too many meals while not a wolf.” Then she went and sat at the other end of the trailer, looking over papers rather than Jamie. The papers could have been blank, and she could have been looking at them just to put Jamie at ease, but ey was grateful for the thought either way.

Jamie had just finished the food and was deciding what to do with the plate when Ophelia spoke again. “You can leave it outside the door. Boyd will collect it for us. Come, I’m interested to hear why you came.” Nervousness washed over Jamie as ey did as instructed. Even with all the walking in human form, Jamie hadn’t really taken the time to actually think what to do when ey found another pack. Ey honestly hadn’t expected to do so immediately.

“Now I don’t believe we had a proper introduction yesterday. I’m Ophelia, leader of this pack, although the committee helps me greatly. We’ve been here near four decades now. My mentor, Phoebe, began the pack. When she passed a couple years back, the pack became my responsibility. We’re about thirty strong. We get a lot of pack members who come and go, some looking to strike out and start their own packs back in their home towns. Tell me a bit about your own pack, please.”

Jamie nodded. “You know I’m Jamie. Celeste leads our pack, along with six others on the council: Comet, Luna, Terence and Alishya, as well as Lucy and Shannon. The pack’s about as old as me, so just around twenty years, far younger than your own. Since I was one of the first kids of the pack, I got kind of a different view of the pack history than some of the younger ones might, being there longer than some of our council members even. We’re somewhere around 45 - 50 pack members at the moment.”

Ophelia gave a low whistle. “That’s a big pack. A lot of responsibility. How many kids?”

“Around half are underage. We don’t get a lot of people who really leave, and we keep taking in kids and anyone else who wanders by and asks.”

Ophelia nodded. “I’ve never met Celeste, but I have heard of her. I’m not surprised her pack would be so large. I suppose a lot of the adults help out with outside jobs?”

“Yeah. Mostly minimum wage stuff, but we’ve got a couple people with good skills and some who came in with college degrees and good jobs that really help out.”

“But you all were also hit by these disappearances?”

Jamie looked down but nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“If you can, I’d like to hear some about the kids who went missing. Then I’ll answer any questions of yours.”

Jamie nodded again, glad that Ophelia was leading the conversation so far. As long as she was being honest about answering questions, Jamie wasn’t here to hide anything. “Jemele was kidnapped first. She’s 14 with a bad past. Her aunt was jealous that she had a better relationship with her mother and bit and turned Jemele to try and change that. Celeste probably knows, but all I know other than that is that Jemele’s mom showed up with her in tow one day and dropped her off. The aunt may not have succeeded in being closer with Jemele, but she sure helped destroy Jemele’s relationship with her mother. Jemele had some younger siblings that her mother won’t let her see anymore, even though she’s totally in control of the transformations now. Her mom comes for regularly scheduled visits, but Jemele really only sits through those because council makes her. She’s a good kid. Very quiet. She never asks to go out on extra runs, just participates in scheduled ones, so I suspect she’s still angry and accepts being a werewolf but hasn’t come to love or enjoy it yet.”

“Understandable.”

“Sometimes she needed some space and time to herself, so she’d disappear every now and then, but we’d always find her sleeping somewhere odd or she’d wander back into camp. The three girls she shared a trailer with developed a system with her so she could let them know when she was going, so they’d always know they didn’t need to go looking for her. But one night, she just wasn’t there and there was no note. It’s like she just disappeared. Evelyn went missing next. She’s only eight. She’s at that phase where she’s missing a lot of baby teeth and her new ones haven’t grown in yet, so she’s a little darling for most the adults. She’s very extraverted and outgoing. She came to us a pretty young, so she might have been born a wolf, but I’ve never really gotten her story. She’s very well adjusted, though, if a bit bossy. She went missing when one of the pack adults took a small group for a bathroom break. One minute she was there, the next Pam realized she was gone. We had to have known almost immediately, yet still couldn’t recover her.

“And Zoo…” Jamie closed eir eyes and took a deep breath, giving eirself a moment to hate eirself for leaving, even though it was unlikely Jamie would have stopped anything from happening. “Zoo’s 11. I don’t know much of her story either, but I do know it’s another traumatic one. She’s been through a lot - developed DID. The first two years she lived with us, she barely spoke and never played. A year and a half or so ago, she really blossomed and opened up. She’s friendly and loving and very funny. Some of the kids can get mean sometimes just because they’re defensive about their past, but Zoo just got nicer, I think.” Jamie could say a ton more about all three. Their favorite food, their favorite games, how to calm them when they had nightmares… But ey wasn’t sure it was important that Ophelia knew too much. Not to mention Jamie’s heart was clenched and tight.

“And what about you, Jamie? What’s your story?”

Jamie shrugged. “I don’t really have much of one beyond the pack. I was born a wolf. Mom died in childbirth and dad ran away when he found out what I was. I’m not sure how Celeste found me, but the pack’s the only life I’ve known.”

“So how did you come to be here?”

Maybe it was a little rude, but it was Jamie’s turn for answers. Ophelia had only asked for information on the kids; it wasn’t fair to drag more out of Jamie without offering something first. “I’d like to ask some questions first. Then maybe we can talk more about me.”

Ophelia stared at Jamie for a good minute before nodding. “Fair enough, you have given what I’ve asked for. Go ahead.”

“Are you in communication with any of the other packs who’ve had kids stolen away from them?”

“Yes, but not all of them. Is your pack?” Her answer confirmed two things at once: the disappearances were definitely something to do with werewolves and council was definitely not telling the pack everything they knew.

“What can you tell me about what they’ve said? What do they know that the papers haven’t reported?”

Ophelia’s mouth quirked up a bit. She seemed amused with Jamie, even though Jamie had specifically ignored her question. “Honestly, not much, unfortunately. They all scented something weird when searching for the kids. None I’ve talked to could really describe it. They said the scent was familiar, like a word on the tip of your tongue that your brain just can’t complete. Musky, probably a man - or, more likely, several. And very vague. No one could pick up a trail.”

Jamie deflated. “Yeah, council couldn’t pick up a trail either. Neither could I, although it would have been several days old by then.”

After a beat, Ophelia stood. “Here, I will show you something, but it requires going to my personal trailer, so we have to fend off some curious stragglers,” she winked. Despite the seriousness of the conversation, Jamie relaxed a bit. It was hard to stay stressed and upset with innocent kids being cheery around you.

“Okay.”

Ophelia successfully shooed three children away from them on their way to her trailer, but not before Jamie shook hands with each of them, introducing eirself and learning their names. Jason, Patty, and Jenn. Once inside Ophelia’s trailer, nobody bothered them, just like when they were in committee’s trailer.

The trailer was beautiful. Either Ophelia or someone else in the pack was an artist. The inside was dark with dozens of stars dotted in glow-in-the-dark paint, bringing several constellations to life. Jamie had always liked the basic astronomy classes in the pack, and it seemed the artist did, too. Ophelia paused to let Jamie soak up in the night sky, then with a simple “light’s”, flicked the lights on. The walls were as gorgeous in the light as they were the dark. Bright colors swirled in abstract patterns. After a moment, Jamie placed them as a rendering of the Northern lights.

“Here,” Ophelia announced, breaking Jamie’s reverie. She stood by a thin, wide cabinet. When Jamie looked over, she opened the doors, laying them flat, and revealing a large map of the States. Jamie came closer.

“These are the cities where packs have had multiple kidnappings,” she explained, pointing to the red pins on the map. “These,” she said, pointing to several blue pins,” represent cities where pack’s have only had one kid stolen away. And these,” she said, gesturing to some green pins, “are cities where kids that I believe were werewolves were kidnapped, but I haven’t confirmed yet.” Jamie studied the pins, downhearted by just how many there were. Ey hadn’t even thought about any single kidnappings. Those might not have even made anything but local news.

Gently grabbing eir shoulders, Ophelia forced Jamie to take a step back. “See anything?”

Jamie stopped studying the detail and looked at the larger picture. Immediately, ey thought ey saw a pattern. Taking a step forward, Jamie traced the outline of the pins in the map. “It’s… Is there a pattern? Circles - rings of circles. Oh…” Jamie stepped back again. “A bullseye? Multiple kidnappings in the larger rings and single kidnappings in the smaller rings.”

A solemn look was affixed to Ophelia’s face. “Yes, that’s what I see, too. Your council didn’t say anything about this to you?”

Finally giving in, Jamie admitted, “council’s been pretty secretive. Weeks before Jemele was kidnapped, I asked if the disappearances might be related to werewolf packs and was told to drop it. With the kidnappings, we’ve been on a strict schedule where no one is supposed to be anywhere without an escort or buddy, except work as long as other workers are around, but they still haven’t told us anything more. I’ve no idea what they do no.”

Ophelia’s face creased in a frown. “Nothing? Really. We’ve already been talking with the pack and set up a buddy system. Celeste waited until kids were kidnapped to do anything?”

A weird clash of emotions conflicted within Jamie. On one hand, it was nice to have eir frustrations and anger confirmed as valid. On the other, Jamie still trusted Celeste and all of council with eir life, and didn’t like this woman she didn’t even know passing judgement. “Maybe council was keeping a close eye. I don’t know. They didn’t have us doing anything, anyway.” When Ophelia didn’t reply, Jamie asked the question that was bothering eir. “If this is a bullseye, what’s at the center?”

Turning back to the map, Ophelia was silent and thoughtful. She ran her finger over the map where the center of the bullseye seemed to be. “That is an excellent question.” Turning to face Jamie again, Ophelia’s face seemed carefully blank. “Jamie, I’m not sure what your purpose is in being here, but I suspect this is not a trip your council approved.” Jamie shook eir head no. “I would not ask you to walk directly into danger; I do not usually ask strangers to just risk their lives, but it seems you may already be intending to. Would you investigate the bullseye, Jamie? Something is happening, and I do not know what, but there is something larger at play here than a couple of kidnapping cases. I cannot go and still protect my pack. I must stay here. Will you go?”

Jamie wasn’t normally very touchy-feely, but ey reached out to grab Ophelia’s hand. “Council couldn’t stop me from leaving to find answers. You couldn’t stop me from trying to find them wherever that bullseye is or whatever else it takes.”

Ophelia reached out to cup Jamie’s face. “Spend another night here - or a few. Whatever you need to recover. I saw the stiffness in you when you came. Rest, and I will gather supplies for you.”

Jamie should have been scared, but ey was nearly ecstatic at finally receiving some answers - some help. This wasn’t all in eir head.

Chapter 16

In the four days (that Jamie only meant to be two) that Jamie stayed at Ophelia’s camp, ey made a lot of new friends, found a lot more younger siblings. Between meetings with Ophelia on the bullseye, Jamie hung out with the pack; besides getting to know them, ey was also probing to see if any of them perhaps knew anything more about the disappearances - perhaps something they didn’t realize they knew.

The bullseye was located in, as best Ophelia and ey could tell by the topo map, a surprisingly uninhabited area. There were no roads going in and out, at least not marked on the map. The area appeared to be fairly flat land with some outlying hills but nothing too big or seemingly populated close to the bullseye. There were always people living out in surprising areas, though, so Jamie couldn’t count on the area being completely abandoned of folk with nothing to do with this developing controversy. Finally, the last - and most obvious - concrete piece of information they could gather was that the bullseye was in Montana. The flatness seemed a bit of an odd coincidence for a state known for its mountains, but Montana was overall considerably flatter than Jamie may have guessed. Considering Jamie was currently in Indiana, ey had quite a ways to go, even traveling most the way via wolf. Ey was considering hitchhiking part of the way if at all possible.

Suzy, Eric, and Lala were the kids that Jamie got to know the best. Suzy and Eric were fraternal twins, 15 years old, and surprisingly peppy for their age. Lala was just a year younger and followed the twins everywhere. She called herself their triplet, which they happily agreed with. Even though they were unrelated, Lala did look surprisingly similar to the twins, and the three got along very well. They had latched onto Jamie because of their own interest (and fear) of the kidnappings. It had been Suzy that suggested to Ophelia that she actually plot the disappearances on a map, like she’d seen on TV. Eric was the conspiracy theorist and inundated Jamie with theories of what the disappearances were. He suggested everything ranging from aliens to anti-werewolf hunters but with no really solid ideas on why the kids were actually being kidnapped. And Lala made up stories of what all the kids were like. All three of them proposed some good questions. Was there a pattern to if kidnapped wolves were born or bitten? Why the specific age range so far observed? How did kidnapped kids between different packs disappear so quickly? All in all, they left Jamie with several more questions than ey’d started with.

On the night Jamie was setting out, ey had said good-bye, hugged some folk (including, most surreal of all, Ophelia), and only gone a few feet into the woods when ey was confronted.

“We’re coming with you.” Jamie turned and squinted, recognizing the two from eir few days in the pack. The speaker was Lucasia, an outspoken 20 year old that Jamie felt ey’d already learned the whole life story of. Lucasia had only been a wolf for a few years. It’d been a tough transition for her and ultimately what made her realize and accept that she was actually a girl. Sadly enough, her family had adapted to her lycanthropy just fine - if not a little interested in it - but being trans was too much from them. After they disowned her, she’d lived on the streets for a year before one of the committee members of the pack found her and brought her back. She’d lived there ever since, completely accepted by the pack for who she was.

Lucasia’s more silent partner was Ty, a shy bigender wolf that Jamie hadn’t learned much about. He was almost always reading, and Jamie didn’t know him well enough to know if he followed Lucasia because he really wanted to or simply because she dragged him along and he didn’t mind going. He seemed nice, though.

“I’m not really looking for company.”

“Wasn’t asking. Besides, Ophelia said she thought it was a good idea, so we’re going whether you like it or not. Good luck losing us. Ty’s the fastest runner in the pack.”

Jamie frowned. It looked like these tagalongs weren’t going to give up easy, and Jamie didn’t want to waste time arguing about it. Besides, it wasn’t like the company would hurt Jamie. It had been oddly lonely when ey had been by eirself. Decision made, Jamie shrugged, then stepped behind a large tree to get a bit of privacy (although that would likely disappear in a few days when the group became more comfortable with each other), shifted with a groan that turned into a growl, and shook eirself out. Grabbing the larger, heavier bag courtesy of Ophelia and her pack, ey padded out from behind the tree. A moment after ey did, two wolves appeared from the side of another tree, two large bags in their mouths as well. Together, on instinct, they took off towards Montana.

#mod s #long post #nonbinary #werewolves #book #my writing #book snippet

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idiopath-fic-smile · 7 years ago

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have you ever put any thought into what's going on with the ABC gang in WAR a decade on? like, a lot of high school aus that use homophobia as a plot point are deliberately set in the 70s or the 80s, so it gets a little depressing because they'll have to wait decades for things to really get better - but you set WAR in 2006, which is *so cool* because in less than 10 years it goes from, well, 2006, to obergefell v. hodges.

this question is a bit complicated by the fact that i’m still working on adapting WAR into a novel, and the characters are a little different (i combined a lot of people, and also made most of them female) so this is specifically for the Les Mis fanfic version.

also, this is more just my overall headcanon for the epilogue of WAR. take it with a grain of salt, none of this is True Canon, death of the author, etc

-it is my cherished secret headcanon that the members of the ABC gradually realize (in some cases, YEARS later) that actually none of them were straight, cis, and allo, with the possible exception of combeferre.

ex) high school jehan ID’s as gay, but once they’re in the place to have more vocabulary for it, they come out as trans, nonbinary but femme-leaning (while continuing to be mostly into dudes). i think that eponine is bi (and also realizes pretty late that she’s nonbinary.) joly and bossuet are both bi. cosette is a lesbian. marius is ace. (their relationship worked in part because neither ever pressured the other, for anything. it was kind of more like playing house.) bahorel ID’s as straight for the longest time, but there’s a couple of male celebrities he jokes about as his “exceptions” until he realizes one day, hmm not really a joke. courfeyrac in high school considers himself gay, but after jehan comes out, realizes in retrospect he doesn’t fall perfectly on one end of the kinsey scale, either.

-molly keeps the ABC alive once the others graduate. gavroche joins when he becomes a freshman, and by his senior year, the club is double its original size. (he jokes it’s because he made LGBTQ rights cool, but really, a tide is turning.)

-enjolras stays politically active and does a lot of nonprofit and organizing work all throughout college. in ‘08, he joins one of those groups that goes door to door registering voters (so does jehan, who attends the same university). enjolras’s experiences with other people, people NOT from affluent suburbs, open his eyes in a good way and make him a little less intense about his own point of view.

-most of the ABC kids are swept up in the excitement of the first obama campaign. combeferre actually gets emotional, talking about it; he writes some very eloquent op-eds in the school paper about what obama means to him, and how fucked-up all the racist scrutiny really is. joly, musichetta, and bossuet phone bank. eponine starts taking photos at rallies, one of which becomes kind of well-known and helps launch her interest in pursuing photography for real. courfeyrac organizes theatrical productions to raise money for the campaign, which are a weird and wild success. bahorel is a minor social media star, and he leverages his dubious fame to try to help get out the young people vote.

-(eponine is gavroche’s legal guardian, and she balances work with community college. she was honestly more of a hillary girl, but obama wins her over eventually.)

-grantaire and enjolras stayed together post-high school, and after a year of attending a nearby community college, grantaire has the grades to transfer to the same university as enjolras.

grantire spends most of his early college years bouncing from one major to another; he likes art but more as a release than as an area of academic focus. like, getting a bad grade on an art project is fucking devastating. they start fighting a lot that first september in the same school because enjolras is so sure of his path and grantaire feels guilty and defensive for not knowing where to go with his life. it makes grantaire feel like a worthless burnout again (which is frustrating because he thought he’d WORKED THROUGH IT, dammit), but he also resents enjolras’s attempts to help him, which eventually makes enjolras pull away in hurt, which terrifies grantaire so much that he pulls away too, and they break up very early sophomore year of college.

-the night obama wins the election in ‘08, even despite the blow of prop 8 passing, all the old ABC members are calling each other, yelling into their phones with delight. combeferre is literally crying.enjolras is jubilant, but grantaire, who had never seriously thought that obama had a chance, honestly feels like he’s high again.

enjolras and grantaire wind up at the same celebratory party and, under the influence of all that victory, they hook up. holy shit have they missed each other. they briefly get back together, but it’s not like it was in high school, before they knew quite how badly they could hurt each other. when enjolras does study abroad for a semester, they break up again, amicably, rather than do the long distance thing. they drift apart even when he gets back. it’s nobody’s fault.

-jehan switches to they/them pronouns and puts out a chapbook of poetry about feeling connected to the words of dead authors. bahorel becomes a college radio DJ, and is so good, his show gets picked up by local stations and he eventually starts working as the “bad boy of NPR”. courfeyrac realizes that more than acting, his real joy is stage managing. musichetta goes into business, advocating for greater diversity.

-grantaire winds up at the last minute, majoring in psychology. studying this stuff in an actual class makes him realize just how dysfunctional his family dynamics have really been, and how little of it had to do with him. it’s both freeing and terrifying. he makes friends in his advanced psych courses (mostly idealistic young feminist women), and dates one for a while. ironically, she’s also bi. he has more of a chance to unpack all the stigma he’s been carrying around for years, how frustrating it was to be seen as “the gay kid” in high school when that wasn’t really true.

-combeferre decides to get dreadlocks after graduating undergrad and becomes “that hot World Lit TA with the dreadlocks”

-grantaire starts kind of considering going into counseling. the members of the ABC he’s still in touch with keep urging him to write Mr. Myriel a letter, and grantaire keeps dragging his feet, but one night he’s in town to visit Eponine, and runs into Mr. Myriel at the grocery store, and basically word-vomits all this gratitude, and the two become penpals. Mr. Myriel eventually writes one of the recommendation letters that gets grantaire into a sociology master’s program.

-combeferre gets fed up with the ivory tower of academia and joins a startup that teaches coding to kids, particularly girls in low-income areas. (He’d long been interested in coding, but more as a fun side hobby.)

-grantaire moves to the city (uh, let’s say chicago) to get his master’s, where he also reconnects with bossuet, who by then is a hippie engineer and just a solid, low-stress friend to have. they become super close in a platonic bros way, and grantaire may actually be the one to say, “oh btw, did you have a crush on joly, or did you guys both just like musichetta?” (answer: YES and YES). grantaire rents a bedroom in bossuet’s apartment (bossuet has more space than anticipated because he just had a rough breakup) and in his starving student days, grantaire pays some of his rent to bossuet by cooking him dinner and stuff. in this time, grantaire actually learns how to cook, beyond just fucking up the occasional frozen pizza.

-kind of to his surprise, grantaire winds up really enjoying counseling (or at least, finding it rewarding; talking to people with such intense problems be rough) and particularly working with youths. they never expect his sense of humor, which turns out to be a pretty useful tool in connecting with them.

-bossuet sometimes, long-distance, donates his time to combeferre’s coding project. grantaire hears through bossuet, through combeferre, that enjolras is moving to chicago for law school.

-at first, grantaire and enjolras are awkward around each other, but the weird thing is, their positions are kind of reversed because grantaire by now feels pretty confident in his role as a counselor, and is doing good work, while enjolras is under a ton of stress in law school and still not always 100% sure it’s the right move. grantaire is living alone by now, and he misses hanging with bossuet (who is in a complex poly triad now, and has a lot less free time) (part of me feels it’d be way too big of a coincidence if it’s joly and musichetta, part of me yearns for it, so you decide for yourself i suppose). so grantaire starts coming over to cook dinner at enjolras’s apartment as enjolras studies. this is partly because grantaire’s own kitchen in his studio is really insufficient, but mostly an excuse for them to hang out in a low-cost, low-pressure way. they eat and watch Parks and Rec.

-in theory this is a great system, and in practice it’s the same kind of agonizing romantic tension from high school. enjolras is really into this more confident, happier, more balanced grantaire. grantaire appreciates that enjolras has gotten a little less overbearing, a little lighter even as he’s also so clearly fraying at the seams. grantaire just wants to, like, give him a massage, but whoa boundaries. they sit on the same couch and SOMETIMES THEIR ARMS BRUSH.

-enjolras decides first that he wants to get back together, that they’ve grown enough in the time they were apart that they could build something healthy and balanced now. he’s not totally sure how to make his case to grantaire, and he feels a little weird being the less stable one of the pair.

-enjolras decides that he’s gonna make grantaire dinner. grantaire doesn’t really get why; enjolras generally does the dishes so it’s not like anything’s really owed here??? enjolras slips into way overachiever mode and prepares like a whole three-course spread of painstakingly researched recipes. grantaire is VERY confused. “I thought I was hot shit, dude, where did you learn to cook like this?” enjolras has to shamefacedly confess he taught it to himself for this night. “Damn, are you proposing or something?” grantaire blurts in an ill-considered joke, and enjolras’s ears turn red. they get together again. it’s really good this time.

-in 2013, when the supreme court rules that gay marriage is legal in all 50 states, enjolras actually finds out because grantaire texts him the minute the news breaks with simply, “Holy fuck, you were right all along!!!!!” and then some hearts.

-they’re married a year later. one of their wedding photos is them kissing, both raising a middle finger to the imagined haters, like “bring it on, assholes” you’d think this would’ve been grantaire’s idea, but nope, enjolras. it’s framed over their mantle.

-by november 2016, enjolras is a lawyer for the ACLU, and grantaire is a counselor at an organization that primarily works with LGBTQA youth. after the election, enjolras doesn’t get out of bed all day. then he’s a whirlwind of activity. trump-era enjolras is a hybrid of the wisdom and confidence of obama-era enjolras, and the “fuck these motherfuckers” pinpoint focused ferocity of bush jr-era enjolras. grantaire’s work is frequently draining as hell, but he’s drawing again (making a webcomic with joly, actually), and they’re getting by.

-sometimes, at low moments, they remember how it felt at their wedding reception, when bahorel cued up Ted Leo’s “Shake the Sheets” and all those friends and loved ones danced their brains out (enjolras’s parents have some MOVES as it turns out), and grantaire got super choked up, and then enjolras leaned over while they were dancing and whispered in his ear, “Probably better that he didn’t go with our prom song,” (which, as you’ll remember, is Fifty Cent’s “Candy Shop”) and they both burst out laughing in the middle of the dance floor. If they survived high school, they can survive anything.

-bossuet, grantaire, joly, eponine, musichetta and sometimes enjolras have a long-distance D&D game wherein a ragtag crew of outcasts battles the odds as they attempt to take down an evil totalitarian kingdom. (joly’s already got notes for the graphic novel version.)

#again: this is all DEEPLY UNOFFICIAL #off the cuff thoughts #Anonymous

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