#it's not going to be /as/ private as cosette but

[syrupsyche]

Students hunting down the social media of their teachers in the Les Mis Teachers!AU, and finding:

Combeferre's public Instagram, where he posts and IDs all the insects and animals he sees. Sometimes he uploads links to YouTube videos and news articles for his students who are following him to read. He also has a TikTok where he uploads science experiments with Joly.

Courfeyrac’s private Instagram, where he only accepts students if they've long graduated. His IG stories are loud clips of him in the club, so blurry you can't see what's going on. His IG posts are of him with his friends, as well as screenshots of himself roasting stupid people on r/politics.

Feuilly's public Instagram and Twitter, all of which repost or retweet journal publications and news articles written by his friends in the field. Once in a while he posts a piece of woodwork he's made, and Enjolras is always the first to like and comment a 👍.

Enjolras' public Instagram, which has no profile picture, no description, and only the occasional post of current news affairs with a loooong caption sharing his thoughts. One day a student finds his Twitter, which is entirely in Korean, where it's also 90% of him sharing about news that may have gone under the radar (esp. things happening in Korea/Asia in general) and then 10% of him asking the void for dating advice. No one replies to those 💔.

Bahorel's public TikTok, where he has 3 workout videos and 48 duets of him arguing with people on bad history takes. Sometimes he goes on TikTok lives with Grantaire and they talk about bullshit for 3 hours straight.

Jehan's Tumblr, which is solely dedicated to Romantic literature. They invite students to send them asks and they answer them pretty often, usually about book/show recommendations, further readings, and opinions on poets and playwrights. Every so often an anon will send a scathing ask roasting Jehan's taste, and every time it's Bahorel.

Bossuet's private Instagram, where he only allows students who've graduated to follow. Except the app keeps glitching and his students keep getting in, so every day he has to softblock them again. His profile is pretty simple though, just pictures of him and his friends, his food, yearly graduation photos with his students etc. Alas, all of them have EXTREMELY horrendous IG filters on them. He likes it, okay?!

Joly's Twitter, where he retweets mostly cute/funny animal tweets, interspersed with the occasional Twitter thread where he goes on long tangents debunking myths about historical illnesses like the black plague, the cholera epidemic etc. He's currently curating one about COVID in his drafts. It's 80 tweets long.

Grantaire's public Instagram, which has about 1,320 posts because he posts about EVERYTHING. His breakfast, a nice cloud, a store having a clearance sale (in which he will tag his friends and caption "Shall we go?") etc. He treats IG like a group chat with all his 289 followers. A lot of pictures of his friends too. Whenever his students win an award or competition he posts about them as well, just with a huge censor bar to conceal their identity. He uses up all 10 slots for the IG carousel post, with the 10th picture always being a sneaky photo taken of Enjolras that day.

Bonus:

Marius' Twitter, except it took forever to confirm it was Marius because his tweets are in four entirely different languages. The students only figured it out once they saw a Twitter thread where Enjolras and Marius were debating with each other in Korean.

Éponine's TikTok, where it only has one video thus far, and its her sending off Gavroche on his first day of school. She uses her account to roast Combeferre’s and Joly’s science experiments, as well as bully Bahorel and Grantaire on their TikTok lives.

Cosette's public Instagram, which is a pretty popular bullet journaling account. Very aesthetic; students follow her to get some decor inspo and study tips. Her IG stories are pictures with Valjean and Fantine captioned "brunch with my favourite people!! 💫💗" or blurry pictures of Enjolras coming out of his bedroom at 2pm on Saturday captioned "Bigfoot sighting #39"

[breadvidence]

TL;DR: 2.8.9 and 1.2.7 are mirrors, and Valjean's fatal moral fault in the back half of the novel can be found in 2.8.9.

On today's fumbling-around thought menu: that in fanfic (and some pro adaptations), Valjean's final moral arc is the need to make amends with Cosette via confession, but that's—not quite right, or you can read it different. It's reasonable to take that route: allowing her to live in ignorance is a wrong, even if it's driven by love (I see it as a problem both on the practical front—it puts her in danger should he be found out—and more broadly as an example of the right a person has to a loved one's otherwise private history where it overlaps so profoundly with their own, and where failing to confide marks a failure of intimacy). It's, from what I've seen, often what a modern reader most strongly holds against him.

The feeling that this is an essential progress is something you can see in the fact that fanfic which otherwise does not care about Cosette as a character will include a confession. See also the musical, which looked at "white jet comes from Norway, black jet comes from England", went "absolutely not", or I think it's '98 which simply has Cosette be in the know already (I personally read that as the script writer/whoever going "Hm, this feels regressive and anti-feminist, I don't think modern audiences will like that as an aspect of the protag.")

All of which is me getting a little distracted: I don't know that this is a prime moral fault in the novel, which isn't a new thought! But I'm dwelling on the places where Valjean goes wrong, and while the fact that his entire emotional and daily life revolves around Cosette means they unavoidably circle around her, it's not about her, quite, narratively. I think—to try to be pithy—it's the choice of suffering for suffering, suffering for self-hate, and self-satisfaction in suffering (with a side helping of being too alike his foil Javert in perceiving the world as dichotomous—which is a different post). Several people have identified the genesis of the outward behavior (no fire, black bread) as being in the convent, and I think that's accurate—that he learns a lot about how to suffer, there. Let me walk through what I'm looking at:

What's one of the first things we learn about Valjean's character? He thinks and he fucking commits. It's what 1.2.7 is about. We are told "His deliberate deeds passed through three successive phases, which natures of a certain stamp can alone traverse,—reasoning, will, perseverance." If his thoughts and commitments in this scene are to a condemnation of society from which he's diverted by Myriel, the nature remains.

In Montreuil, he's being excessive but normal-ish, he minds his own comfort and safety and security, he's trying to find God through a kind of strange impersonal agape, literal charity as sacrifice without love, maybe because that's what he thought Myriel was doing when he bought his soul. (All of which he sacrifices—still impersonal—for Justice, and is fucked again by Law. By which I don't mean Javert literally, even if Javert thinks about wielding his "sword" during the arrest.)

In 2.4.3, there's a passing warning—"The best of us are not exempt from egotistical thoughts". Gorbeau is, for a breath, a kind of Eden, but egotism and pride are topics that Hugo circles with Valjean.

It all breaks right open at the convent, 2.8.9: it's a mirror of 1.2.7: in the galley we see "during the hours of repose, which were for Jean Valjean hours of reverie, this gloomy galley-slave, seated with folded arms upon the bar of some capstan" and in the convent he "crossed his arms and leaned on his hoe, and slowly descended the endless spirals of reverie". Jean Valjean, presented with and mulling over a great deal of truth, comes to a fucked-up conclusion.

In the narrator's voice—and I don't think I agree with everything Hugo's dishing out, here, anymore than I'm comfortable with him and the convent overall, but I do think it's pointing towards what's meant to be read as a genuine judgment—we're told that the convent contributes to Valjean's uprightness and that it "stopped him on that downward path" to pride—that "for some time past he had been comparing himself to men in general, and pride was beginning to spring up. Who knows? He might have ended by returning very gradually to hatred." In Gorbeau 2.4.3 we are told that he had "viewed the malice of men and the misery of society under a new aspect—incomplete aspects, which unfortunately only exhibited one side of the truth, the fate of woman as summed up in Fantine, and public authority as personified in Javert" and that in prison "disgust and lassitude were overpowering him", and I always took this bit in 2.8.9 to refer specifically to his perception of Fantine's suffering and death and the consequences of his intervention for Champmathieu—but now I wonder if it applies to his Montreuil-sur-Mer era as a whole, this approach to the "bridge built by the devil". To which—well, yeah, the convent does turn him from that set of sins, doesn't it? The flaw of charity without love and its longterm consequence. (I think of 1.1.4 and M. Géborand, who was "purchasing paradise for a sou.” The amount does not change the principle.)

Then, in 2.8.9, the narrator tells us "Here all personal theory is withheld; we are only the narrator; we place ourselves at Jean Valjean’s point of view, and we translate his impressions." By which I assume that when Valjean comes to conclusions about the nuns—when we're told "he did not understand that of these last, that of creatures without reproach and without stain, and he trembled as he asked himself: The expiation of what? What expiation?"—he's very wrong. Catastrophically. In Montreuil-sur-Mer, he tried to forge a relationship with God, having begun by kneeling to the Bishop; now "it seemed as though he dared not kneel directly before God", out of what he identifies as "humility", and I—rather think not. We're often told characters don't quite understand something, that they see only partial views, and I think in the line "before his eyes he had the sublime summit of abnegation, the highest possible pitch of virtue", his eyes are key, and playing himself against that view does him wrong.

In "When he thought on these things, all that was within him was lost in amazement before this mystery of sublimity" the lost is key, and I see a soft echo of Javert's relationship to the sublime—Valjean responds to his incomprehension of it with "amazement" and thought, where Javert finds it "odious" and meaningless, but all the same neither can comprehend it, and Javert is very much not a foil you wanna be in harmony with.

The fruit of this is, in part, is Cosette's suffering: secondhand through witnessing a loved one torment himself, firsthand in how she then develops maladaptive and harmful ideas about love and trust, finally in her grief for the premature loss of her father.

The fruit that, alas, I think the narrative finds more rotten?

Bless him, it's 5.7.1. The crime he commits against himself when he becomes Javert and seizes his own collar. The reasoning behind his suicide. In the nuns he saw "servitude submitted to, torture accepted, punishment claimed by souls which have not sinned" (2.8.9) and in 5.7.1, he says "It is better to suffer, to bleed, to weep, to tear one’s skin from the flesh with one’s nails, to pass nights writhing in anguish, to devour oneself body and soul"—because if the innocent accept torture, what must the guilty do? If to suffer is itself sublime, what is it to suffer for a cause? Even a wretch might be sublime then, eh? As an aside, he's shaming himself by comparison to women whose entire purpose is expiating the sins of the guilty. Which is rude as fuck, and, I think: a matter of pride, in the end.

You could read the wrong, here, as "he's confessing to the wrong person", and that's fair; you could say that truth itself is not wrong, and there's righteousness in confession; maybe there's good bound up in the bad, but I think the motivation here is perverted, as if the "vague, incessant, and brutal desire to do harm to some living being" (1.2.7) that Valjean escaped via Myriel has caught him at last, and become self-directed.

He's an ass for the fact that even while he returns to the topic of Cosette's wellbeing throughout his confession, he evidently didn't think of this as being a discussion that would reach her—"Cosette! oh yes, it is true, you are going to tell Cosette about this", um, yes?—but I don't think at all the novel is as concerned about it. Were his last confession to be his life story rather than his business interests, that doesn't fix his error, his sin, his dysfunction, his unwellness, whatever you want to label it as. Choosing to live might've done, and he almost manages that—he does persist in seeing Cosette, for all he perceives that as weakness, he even begins to spend more time with her until Marius forces him out. The loving aspect might've won out over the dichotomy-bound drama queen.

Or maybe not IDK. Re-reading 5.7.1 always makes me want to cry about the old man, though. What a pitiful frustrating character.

(As an aside, I'd note that the moral failure of his suicide [which is not to say suicides are moral failures in and of themselves! narratively speaking] is contrasted against his moral success in choosing not to control Cosette as expressed by overcoming his hatred for Marius. I think LM2000 and BBC2018 are real interesting to watch with this in mind: to see how the story feels when he only hurdles being a Bluebeard because the creators are hitting the plot-beats of an original text rather than because the story justifies it.)

[fillsta]

Les Amis as events that have occurred since I went to uni

I moved to a different town for studies 6 months ago and I recently relapsed on my deranged Les Mis obsession so here you go

Enjolras

The 2-3 month takeover of nearly all uni departments that aimed to prevent a new law from being voted (it failed)

Combeferre

Students protesting while blasting rap music right outside a theatre in which an examination was taking place

Courfeyrac

Me and my friends prank calling the student council's president while drunk and ending up going for drinks with him half an hour later.

Grantaire

Someone calling the cops on everyone's favourite shitty bar one night and some drunk bystanders hitting the police car that showed up, with empty glass bottles

Jehan

A friend telling me he found out that the university has, apparently, its own olive oil brand.

Bahorel

The uni offering free Capoeira classes.

Feuilly

The bus ticket prices going 0.10€ up, which had everyone outraged (me included)

Joly

Someone posting a thirst trap of the carnival parade's paramedics on tiktok.

Bossuet

A guy falling off of a chariot during the big carnival parade in front of everyone.

Marius

Many theatres in uni getting a termite infection and they had to shut everything down for a few days

Gavroche

The tiktok of a gypsy boy roasting our town for no reason going viral.

Eponine

The two students publicly arranging to meet for a blind date outside of a supermarket on the university's anonymous confessions Instagram account, only for everyone else who saw the post to show up to see how their private meeting will go down. Only one of the two students ended up coming.

Cosette

A beauty salon opening in the campus for no reason.

Musichetta

That one lecture during which a stray dog walked in the theater and began chewing on a girl's puffer jacket

Bonus Montparnasse

Some Engineering students creating an illegal makeshift cantine out of an unused room where you can get coffee of questionable quality for 0.70€, and they host barbeques every once in a while.

[cometomecosette]

Once again, I'm feeling sad about Jean Valjean's flaws as a parent. I forgive him, but Cosette deserves better.

Of course, the way most adaptations present it, even the musical to an extent – "He's a controlling father who isolates Cosette from the world and needs to let her go" – is a vast oversimplification. The novel's Valjean always tries to make Cosette happy, is never harsh or overtly controlling, and tries to give her as full, free, and normal a life as his status as an ex-convict allows. But recent posts in Les Mis Letters by @secretmellowblog and others have reminded me of the subtler, more insidious ways that he arguably becomes her "jailer” (as SparkNotes says), keeps her "chained to his side” (as a recent post says), and prevents her from living her life to the fullest.

Of course, the most glaring problem is his jealousy of Marius and his efforts to separate Cosette from him, which causes Cosette so much pain that she doesn't even feel free to express. If it were a matter of protecting Cosette from a possible predator or cad, it would be more sympathetic, but instead of thinking of the danger this young stalker might pose to her, he makes it all about himself and his fear of losing her. In his private thoughts, he seems to view complete, exclusive possession of Cosette’s love and attention as a reward that he deserves for all his past suffering. He left the convent earlier because he knew it would be wrong to deny freedom to Cosette by keeping her there and making her become a nun, but then when the possibility of her falling in love and leaving him arises, he deeply regrets having left.

Meanwhile, there are other problems too that aren't Marius-related. Valjean's chronic guilt and lack of self-care unintentionally force Cosette to be his caregiver, in a way that's not natural for a child to be to a parent. He keeps so many secrets from her and avoids important conversations, ostensibly to protect her from pain, but probably more to avoid pain himself. And Cosette's docile, conflict-avoidant, sadness-swallowing tendencies mirror Valjean's own, so she's arguably learned unhealthy habits from him. Although it's debatable whether she behaves that way just because she sees her father do it, or because she has a traumatic past too, even though she doesn’t consciously remember the Thénardiers.

Even Valjean’s gesture of giving Cosette the main house at Rue Plumet with all its luxuries while he lives in the porter's cottage, letting her be the active mistress of the house who does all the money management... While on the surface it's a loving, generous, empowering gesture (as well as practical for him, since it lets him keep a lower profile), I suppose it can also be seen as giving her too much responsibility at too young an age. In a way, he doesn't want her to grow up, and does what he can to prevent it; but at the same time, he unintentionally makes her grow up too fast and be a (platonic) wife, mother, and daughter to him all in one.

Cosette deserves so much better than that.

I can’t even take my usual approach to plot points in the novel that I don’t like – preferring the musical – because I don’t think the musical is any better. Yes, it omits Valjean’s jealousy of Marius and his attempt to separate Cosette from him, and yes, it omits details like Valjean refusing to see a doctor for his wound and Cosette having to nurse him alone. But the song “In My Life” emphasizes Cosette’s loneliness and yearning for answers, which Hugo’s Cosette doesn’t feel until she’s separated from Marius, and it has Valjean explicitly refusing to tell her about the past, when in the novel she hardly ever asks, and when she does, he just sadly smiles and says nothing at all. The 2012 film drives home the point even further with its repeated symbolic imagery of Valjean closing windows and doors, and with Cosette and Marius singing "A Heart Full of Love" separated by the garden gate's prison-like bars.

My rational mind knows that all these problems are realistic and necessary for the plot. There's no such thing as a perfect parent. Whether intentionally or not, all parents hurt their children. Besides, it's important for a protagonist to have flaws. All of this is what saves Valjean from being an insipid saint in his old age. If he weren't possessive of Cosette and didn't block her romance with Marius at first, then his later heroic rescue of Marius for Cosette’s sake wouldn't be meaningful; there would be nothing redemptive about it.

My rational mind also knows that it's wrong to put all the blame on Valjean for his mistakes. I even think some of the recent Tumblr posts about this subject have been too hard on him. After all, he has mental health problems that aren't his own fault. Also, his possessiveness isn't just a matter of not wanting to share Cosette; he must know all along that he can't possibly join another family as an in-law, so if Cosette marries, it will mean losing her completely. None of these problems would exist if he weren't an ex-convict, so ultimately, the unjust justice system is to blame.

Besides, Cosette is happy in their secluded life until Marius comes along. We can talk from an outside perspective about how unhealthy and what a gilded cage it is from the beginning, but Cosette doesn't agree: until she's separated from Marius, she's content. Why should Valjean assume she can't be happy again the way she was before?

But emotionally, it's not so easy to accept. While of course protagonists need flaws, some flaws are easier to forgive than others. For me, the harder-to-forgive flaws include any case of a parent emotionally hurting his child, or a male character emotionally hurting a female character who loves him, or any character whose love becomes self-absorbed and stifling to the loved one. Even if it's all done unwittingly and with good intentions, and even if the character redeems themself through selfless deeds later: my heart says they should have done better from the start. My heart says it's disgraceful that a man whose trauma revolves around imprisonment should become a "jailer" in any sense to his daughter. And it’s devastating that the bond Valjean and Cosette formed when she was a little girl, which was so beautiful, pure, and sweet, should become complicated, messy, and oppressive to Cosette in any way, no matter how much they still love each other through it all.

Sometimes, irrationally, I find myself thinking that maybe Valjean should have just left Cosette at the convent with a decent sum of money instead of adopting her; that maybe she would have been better off as a rich orphan. I know that's a ridiculous thought, but occasionally it crosses my mind.

I suppose the ideal Jean Valjean in my heart is neither the novel's Valjean, nor the musical's, nor any other adaptation's that I know. I'm not entirely sure how he would be different from those Valjeans, or how he would be a better father while keeping the plot intact and not becoming a dull saint. But somehow or other, he would still make mistakes where Cosette is concerned, yet less heartbreaking mistakes than in canon. For example, his concerns about Marius might be more focused on protecting Cosette from a potentially dangerous stalker than on his own self-centered feelings of not wanting to lose her. Maybe that would dilute Hugo's message, but this is my personal preferred version of the story, not his. I'm not saying I want to remove all the plot-essential conflict and turn Les Misérables into Les Happy Times, but is it wrong to see that Cosette deserves better and want to rewrite the story just enough to give her what she deserves?

[catesartworks]

Here are Isekai Maid Asks #5! There's more below the cut!

CW: Discussions of sexual assault and abuse

In the alternate world where Seasalt (Marinus's AU counterpart) and Marina grew up together, he would get very angry about her being bullied.

After she left due to being bullied, Seasalt snuck into the school, posed as a student and dumped a bucket of sewer water on Nightwolffe and the prince while they were walking to class. He wasn't able to get to the third boy who bullied Marina. He spent a few days in jail for that.

Fawn was killed due to the reincarnator, Julietta, her lady, misjudging how succession worked in this new world she came to.

Fawn, Julietta's maid, was taken advantage of by the lady's brother, Benedicto, and he was convinced she was pregnant with his child. Fawn was horrified by the prospect of becoming pregnant, as it would result in her being expelled from the household and losing her job. He was also obsessed with her, but Julietta played his behavior off for laughs.

As revenge for what he did to her and in hopes she could stop him from further taking advantage of her, Fawn allowed an assassin to make an attempt on his life. It didn't succeed, and Julietta found out about this.

Because Julietta often read stories where illegitimate children would be able to inherit or be acknowledged as long as the child was male or favored, she allowed Fawn to consume poison for her, but it killed Fawn.

The reincarnator only later realized that illegitimate children were prohibited in Teffrah from being acknowledged, and were granted no rights of inheritance regardless if they were male. Making Fawn's death pointless in terms of succession.

Benedicto lost his mind as a result of Fawn's death. While he went quiet for a while, the reincarnator assumed he would get over Fawn's death since she was a traitor and find a proper noblewoman to marry. She went on to marry a rich duke, and was expecting a child by her "happy ending."

However, after the ending, Benedicto began sending assassins after his in laws and and killed the Julietta's child. This began a bloody sequence of events that resulted in each side of the family sending people to kill each other as revenge. Julietta went to the crown for assistance, because her husband was related to the king.

But because of her unsettling knowledge of the royal family secrets (as a means of blackmailing them into helping her), she was accused of making a deal with a demon to usurp the crown and the entire household was stripped of their noble rank and hunted down. The reincarnator was killed along with Benedicto.

Libraries for public access do exist, but they are scattered across the country and they aren't as accessible as they should be. Most are also privately funded, or funded by the mage's union.

Thank you so much! ( ^ w ^ )

You should go ahead with the your idea, we need more western Otome Isekai. Even if it's not "typical" in style, there are people who are waiting to read it and it might become someone's favorite thing!

The more I read "I am the Real One", the more Cosette's destroying the Empire felt like it had more grounding and was the logical conclusion to an outdated method of defense, given how deeply unfair the society is. It was a timebomb waiting to happen.

All the systems in place that kept Keira from getting a fair trial and expediting her execution ( and it wasn't because of brainwashing like the story wants us to think, the system was simply working the way it was meant to since Keira no longer had an absurd amount of money and status, kinda like...MINA, who she had whipped nearly to death in both lifetimes).

I have to agree that the story really didn't need romance, and I think the love triangle really bogs it down. It was so vague to the point that I just couldn't keep reading.

Not a dumb question at all! Limpette technically does have a military, but they are mostly protected by the kingdom of Kolt for military aid, since they are sister countries.

But because Kolt is going through a revolution and in the past few decades has been in disarray due to power grabs, they can't provide resources or aid to Limpette and are vulnerable to invasion from Teffrah.

Thank you so much for reading!

I think when it comes to VADD/DITOEFTV, there is so much that can be re-contextualized with Penelope after she decides she deserves to enslave someone for her own benefit. She turned from a character who was aware of her own abuse and commented on it, to a hypocrite who is fully willing to abuse others. And the story goes out of it's way to justify her actions by handing her a happy ending.

I personally think that authors' should give characters the endings they deserve. What does it say when a slave owner who took someone's life away gets away and has a happy ending where they become the richest person in the land, surrounded by jewels and riches for the rest of their days? It tells the reader that they deserve this ending.

I'm really happy that Iseul was relatable. When I was first writing Iseul, I wanted to be sure I was breaking the cycle of just having a person to "just be an evil OG!Female Lead to our new female lead" in a sense where the villainess genre was going. I wanted to show someone who was just a person. We all have the capacity to be our worst selves, and we can get out of that mindset too if we look inward.

I'm happy to say that Nataliah and Oliver were able to escape and live happily, and I will be showing more of them in the story later. ^ _ ^

We will be seeing some of her diary entries later in the series.

Noah was devestated by her loss, but he was able to help keep her memory alive with their children by teaching them about her. He also later in life changed his surname to "Soole."

He was able to live under the radar with their children, who couldn't pass as Teffrah and took after their Haena more than him. By her request, he had her name removed from their family tree to protect his kids privacy, but their children named their female descendants variations of "Haena" by using the name "Hannah" and adopting the surname "Soole".

Thank you so much for reading! ( ; w ; )

And when it comes to Cordelia, she has a few versions where she is born from male!Nahla and had a stepfather. The other versions have Claudia as her stepmother and Montgomary Demeter as her father, with Nahla as her birth mother.

Male!Nahla as her father: Cordelia would be raised by her stepfather, Claudius, who is too embarrassed because he was cheated on by Cordelia's mother to kick Cordelia out. In this version, Cordelia's mother, Lady Samantha Demeter, took advantage of Nahla's male counterpart similar to how Eriadne, Nora's mother, took advantage of Geralt. Samantha would die from poisoning, and Claudius would frame Nahla's male counterpart and have him executed.

Nahla as her mother: Same backstory as Lord Demeter, up until she is born. Cordelia would be much more favored by her father, Montgomery Demeter. Nahla wouldn't have even been able to hold Cordelia, because Montgomery took her as soon as he found out the baby was a girl.

She would given the latest toys, the best dresses, and would be a symbol of his "superior" genetics because she came out passing as Teffrah. However, he'd also have a violent temper with her, so Cordelia would shut down. By the time she was ten, she would grow tired of her father and poison him to death when he started becoming creepy. Her stepmother is aware and lives on eggshells around Cordelia, but oddly enough Cordelia doesn't hate her stepmother. She just thinks she's a snitch. Not disliking her doesn't stop her from killing her before Stone!Demeter arrives though.

[artzychic27]

since we have a Zombies AU, what about Teen beach? Adrienette could be Lela and Tanner (with Marc as Butchy since he and Mari are HC’s as cousins. And Luka and Kagami could be Mack and Brady, but it would end up as a long-distance kind of poly thing!

On the sunny beaches at the lovely French Riviera, Kagami is a young surfer known around for her impressive moves and skillfull maneuvers

As she's getting back from surfing a wave, she makes her way to The Liberty, a surf shop owned and operated by Anarka Couffaine and her children, Luka and Juleka, to get some board wax

There, she walks in on them watching their favorite film, a 1960s musical titled Wet Side Story, where surfers and motorcycle bikers battle for the privilege to hang out at Big Kwami's, a beachside restaurant

It's surprisingly progressive by showing white and people of color hanging out together and the subtle queer themes

As Kagami and Luka watch the scene where Adrien, the leader of the surfers, catches Marinette, the cousin of the biker leader as she's falling off of the stage during her solo, they can't help but gush over their chemistry

Kagami: For such a campy low-budget film, this scene is truly a work of art.

Luka: Yeah, you can tell by Marinette's reaction that she wasn't expecting a surfer of all people to help her and Adrien... He didn't think about her being a biker, he just saw someone in need of saving.

Soon, Kagami's aunt, Tamika, comes by. Despite being the sister of Tomoe, she's nothing like her. She never excelled at fencing and is always aiming to please and honor her big sister despite the fact that she passed away years ago

When Tamika tells her that she needs to finish packing, this gets Luka's attention

Kagami then explains to him that before her mother died, Tamika promised Tomoe that Kagami would attend the same private school she did in Japan and join the ranks of the school's top-rated fencing team to continue her family's legacy. And she is leaving the next day

Luka: It doesn't sound like you want to go.

Kagami: I don't. But, it's what my mother would have wanted.

However, Luka's not letting her leave without a proper sendoff and without spending just one last moment together. So, he calls Kagami the day before she has to leave, and tells her to meet with him on the beach with her surfboard.

Together, they decide to surf a 40-foot wave that is about to hit the beach. However, the wave proves to be too strong, and they get swept away before they can paddle back

Somehow, eventually, they land on another beach where it's day time and brightly-colored

After their vision adjusts, they find themselves on the beach where Wet Side Story was filmed during the cast's opening number. Deciding not to let this moment goes to waste, Luka joins the film's cast in singing "Surf Crazy" while Kagami is wondering what the fuck is going on

When the song comes to an end, and the two wrap their heads around everything after concluding that this is not a dream, they remember that there will be a storm and giant wave at the end of the film. They can paddle out and it'll take them home. They just have to go along with the film

They go into Big Kwami's and introduce themselves to the surfers- Adrien, Nino, Nathaniel, Myléne, Ondine, Denise, Chloé, Cosette, Aurore, Jean, Austin A, Austin Q, and Austin B- who are all perplexed by the newcomers and don't know what to do or say until Jean just hollers,

Jean: These smoothies are crazy, dudes!

Then a moment later, the bikers arrive, consisting of their leader, Marc, his cousin, Marinette, along with Alya, Ivan, Max, Kim, Alix, Sabrina, Rose, Zoé, Simon, Mireille, Reshma, Lacey, Ismael, and Austin T

Luka: Oh, my God, I love this song.

Kagami: Yeah, and Marc is obviously looking at Nathaniel every time he says, 'Cruisin' for a Bruisin'... Also, is Marinette hotter up close, or is it just me?

Luka: Oh, I was looking at Adrien, but yeah, you're right.

After the start the surf and turf war and the number, "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'", Kagami and Luka are then invited to come to a party at Big Kwami's later that night.

That evening, Luka is enjoying the vibe of the film while Kagami is becoming more stressed by the minute as they need to get back home so she doesn't miss her flight. Luka's attempts at assuring her they'll get home before that don't work, and she starts to storm off as Marinette is singing "Falling For Ya" on stage

As Kagami is about to leave, she trips on the steps because of her flip flops and falls in the arms of none other than Adrien. Seeing this, Luka turns to the stage and sees Marinette about to fall off of the stage, but then catches her, and the two leads fall in love with them

This interferes with the film's plot, and now, none of the characters are sure what to do now. To keep the movie flowing and get out, Kagami and Luka realize that they need to make Adrien and Marinette fall in love to fix things

Luka: Let's just hope Les Moth and Dr. Pavon don't mess things up.

Kagami: Right. Them... Do those villains seem out of nowhere, or is it just me?

Luka: Yes! What is up with that? I get that they have to like, make the Bikers and Surfers get along to save their friends, but why scientists who are trying to control the weather?

Kagami: And the technology seems far too advanced for a 60s film.

Luka: What about Frankenstein?

Kagami: It is based on a book, it does not count.

As Adrien and Marinette express their love for Kagami and Luka, respectively through the song "Meant to Be", they try to subtly suggest to them that there may be someone else they are really meant to be with. Though, they can't lie and say they're not smitten by their damn 60s charm

That night, Luka joins the biker boys for a sleepover/initiation now that he's dating Marinette, while Kagami hangs out with the surfer girls (And Denise) at Big Kwami's as they sing "Like Me."

With Kagami, their relationship advice doesn't match with her modern views on how a relationship should work

Chloé: Invest in a cute sundress. Guys love to see a little knee these days!

Denise: And put those baking skills to use! Feed him a pie, and he's all yours'.

Cosette: Remember to look shy. Bat your eyes and look away to get him interested.

Now, with Luka

Kim: Take the lead. The ladies like a man in control.

Ismael: Don't let 'em know how much you care, alright? You can't be soft.

Marc: Yeah, trust us. The guys will be all over you... GIRLS! Girls! I meant girls! I am heterosexual... Dudes.

Austin T: *Whispering* Nice save.

As the movie progresses, they fail to make any progress on getting Marinette and Adrien together and find themselves falling for the characters themselves. Needing to de-stress, Luka decides to join some of the surfers by the bonfire

They get a little hostile at first when they see his biker attire until Luka correctly guesses the model guitar that Austin Q is strumming, and Adrien invites him to sit with them

Adrien: So, what's a biker doing over here?

Luka: I don't know. What's a cute surfer doing inviting me to sit with him?

Adrien: It's... Wha... What?

Nino: Dude, did he just flirt with Adrien?

Nathaniel: That's... Cool?

Jean: I wanna flirt with guys!

Cosette: Fuck that. I'm flirting with girls.

As Luka plays "Meant To Be Reprise" on the guitar and sings, Adrien is just smitten and sings along as the surfers find themselves thinking about the crushes they can't have for two reasons

Meanwhile, Kagami goes to surf, and catches Marinette's eye. When she returns to the beach, she's confronted by Marinette, who asks her to teach her how to surf

Kagami, after falling off her board while giving Marinette and lesson, realizes that she and Luka are morphing into the film when she falls into the water and her hair does not get wet

Kagami: Why isn't my hair wet?!

Marinette: *Giggles* Everyone knows you don't get wet when you get in the ocean or a pool. God, you're every bit as funny as Luka says you are.

Kagami: ... He talks about me?

Marinette: Yeah... Is there something going on between you two? I-I wouldn't want to-

Kagami: I wouldn't mind if you had a crush on Luka. That is to say, if we were dating, but we're not. But, I am polyamorous, so it would not bother me if you liked Luka.

Marinette: ... Poly what?

Now back to the real issue at hand. Luka and Kagami can't get wet, and they then begin to spontaneously sing and are unable to stop, leading to a song that is nowhere in the movie's cast album, "Can't Stop Singing"

They are then captured by Les Moth and Dr. Pavon and taken to the villains' lighthouse lair before their respective dates with Adrien and Marinette on the beach

Instead, Adrien and Marinette meet. And after some awkward conversation, they find they have a bit in common. However, before they can talk some more, Adrien spots a strange signal coming from the old lighthouse. In morse code, someone's saying "Help us. Kidnapped. Kagami and Luka." Good thing his character bio says he can read morse code

They round up the bikers and surfers to convince them to save Kagami and Luka and expect some reluctance, but to their surprise

Jean: That biker taught me things I didn't think were possible! *Seizes Austin T by the face and kisses him* Hell yeah, I'm saving him!

Zoé: Sure. Fuck it. *Kisses Cosette*

Marc: I'll help you if you do two things for me. One... Quit holding my cousin's hand, pretty boy! *Adrien quickly lets go of Marinette's hand* And two!... Tell me where that cute redhead surfer is.

Nathaniel: *Giggles* Hey, cutie.

Marc: *Smirks* I'll get to you later.

Meanwhile, Kagami admits to Luka that she is glad that she ended up in the film and does not have to attend private school and live up to the expectations her mother had in place for her

When she confesses that she thinks Marinette is braver than her for stepping out of the role the movie had set for her, Luka denies that, saying that she is the bravest girl he knows. And, noticing the little tint to her cheeks when she talks about Marinette, he asks if she likes her

Kagami: ... Don't think I didn't see you almost kiss Adrien.

Luka: Okay, that's fair. But, um... He's not the only person I like.

Kagami: I know, you like Marinette. Who doesn't?

Luka: Yeah, her too. But, I also meant you.

The surfers and bikers storm the lighthouse and in a typical queer teenager fashion, they trash the place with weapons they somehow obtained, and make out on top of the expensive equipment as Elvis plays in the background and disarm the machine... But now it's gonna explode

They escape just seconds before it explodes, and the scene takes them back to the beach. The film's plot returns to normal, and Luka and Kagami realize they are able to return home

Kagami: ... Fuck it. *Kisses Adrien and then Marinette*

Luka: Well, if she's doing it. *Kisses Adrien and then Marinette*

Austin A: Wait, we can just like, date more than one person? That's a thing people do?!

After saying goodbye to everyone, Kagami and Luka get on their surfboard and return to the real world, where no time has passed since they left. Kagami successfully surfs the 40-foot wave without getting dragged into a movie, and all is well... But, Tamika's upset about her delaying her flight

Kagami stands up to her aunt, telling her to stop trying to impress her sister when she's no longer around and to finally take the weight off of her shoulders. It takes a bit of convinving, but Tamika relents and agrees to let her continue her education in France.

Now all is well, and Kagami and Luka start dating

*Post Credits*

*Drenched and coughing up water, the bikers and surfers drag themselves onto the beach*

Marc: Guys! Guys, my hair is wet!

Alya: WHAT THE HELL?! So is mine!

Chloé: My mascara is running!

Kim: My beautiful quiff! Someone get me some grease!

Nathaniel: Why is it so hot outside?! It's boiling!

Austin A: Ew! The water tastes like salt!

Modern surfer: Hey, dudes. Are you lost? You're like totally wiggin' out, bruh.

Bikers/Surfers: ...

Sabrina: ... Hello. What year do you come from?

Modern Surfer: ... It's 2015. Seriously, do you need to call someone? *Holds up a flat phone, and the bikers and surfers scream*

Adrien: This is a phone? *Slowly takes it* Where's the dial?

Marinette: Maybe you open it?

Phone: You have one new message.

Bikers/Surfers: *Scream again*

Max: Guys... There's a woman inside of it.

Cosette: What sort of witchery is this?

*They crowd around Adrien as he taps the screen, and they scream at the image of Jagged Stone as the Home Screen*

Marc: Men can wear makeup?!

Jean: I am in awe of the future! *Sees a bunch of tan shirtless guys* And the awe continues.

[cliozaur]

Oh, they both are so not ok!

Jean Valjean is convinced that his happy life is over and continues sacrificing himself for Cosette’s happiness. The question arises: Why does it have to be so complicated? Hugo delves into speculations about what Valjean was going to do during his brief visit home, offering several options, but we will never know for sure what was on Valjean’s mind. One potential scenario is suicide, not at home, but as soon as he reaches the prison cell. Yet, Hugo dismisses it hurriedly, stating that “after the Bishop, there had existed in Jean Valjean a profound hesitation in the presence of any violence, even when directed against himself.”

And then we encounter a prophecy: “Suicide, that mysterious act of violence against the unknown which may contain, in a measure, the death of the soul, was impossible to Jean Valjean.” Unfortunately, it was possible for someone else.

Meanwhile, we learn that Javert was on duty for over seven hours! It’s insane. And I feel sorry for the coach driver: imagine the state of “the Utrecht velvet” after all that filth freshly brought from the sewers! Javert acts decently and compensates the driver fully. But now I’m puzzled: how does Javert possess such a large sum of money? Presumably, it isn't his private funds.

Releasing the driver is the first suspicious indication that something isn’t right with Javert. Valjean could still rationalize it—maybe they planned to walk instead of driving. However, Javert’s behaviour becomes increasingly odd. He specifically instructs Valjean, “It is well. Go upstairs,” and he forces himself to add: “I will wait for you here.” But he won’t. Someone, please, tell him that he needs a good nap (and a therapist). I am already very sad.

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

Blue Castle chapter 27

"Already, since the houses along the road were becoming numerous, she was conscious that curious eyes were looking at her from every window."

The theme of social shaming is really core to this story. Deerwood is a community that operates entirely on largely unwritten but universally understood social rules, and it is absolutely social suicide to deviate from them. Valancy hasn't just deviated, she has torn the social contract to pieces and set it on fire.

But what has she actually done? She went to live with Cissy -- another woman who broke the rules and was basically killed for it -- and now she's gotten married. She hasn't hurt anyone, she hasn't even been rude to anyone. She has upheld Christian values in providing care to the sick and she has fulfilled the understood role of a woman in getting married. But because she did the "correct" things in the incorrect way, she is now half a curiosity half a pariah in her own right.

(Thesis: Valancy's story serves as a counterbalance to a character like Javert in Les Mis. Javert's whole thing is that he fiercely upholds the rules of a society that deems him disposable and inherently lesser. He spends almost his whole life bowing to and supporting that system, and all he gets out of it is disrespect and, ultimately, destruction. There is no winning in a rigged system. Valancy also spent almost 30 years trying to live up to what her society expected of her, and she too was in the process of being destroyed by it. When the story opens, Valancy has lost the keys to her Blue Castle entirely. The only way to win in a system that has already decided you aren't valuable is to stop playing completely.)

(Consideration for the like three people who overlap in the blue castle and lm fandoms: Valancy and Cosette -- would they be friends? I'm thinking yes, although it might take them a while to understand each other.)

“To marry a man you know nothing about,” thought Cousin Georgiana aloud.

“I know more about him than I know of Edward Beck,” said Valancy.

“Edward Beck goes to church,” said Cousin Georgiana.

You know, I kind of sympathize with Cousin Georgiana here. Because Valancy is quite correct that she knows nothing about Edward Beck, but others in the community do. Georgiana was a friend of Edward Beck's first wife, which implies that she knows at least something of his character, and going to church means that the community sees someone regularly and has at least a vague sense of what they're like. Of course that doesn't mean he can't have secrets, or be disagreeable in private, or any number of other things, but you at least have some basic facts to work with. Whereas no one knows anything at all about Barney. Yes, the rumors about him are wildly overblown, but it is true that he just sort of showed up one day. And honestly? If he was secretly a murderer luring Valancy in to have his wicked ways with her? She's screwed. "Nothing mattered but Barney and the Blue Castle up back in Mistawis." Valancy's very lucky that she's in a fairy tale and not a horror story.

But of course this is a fairy tale, and both the reader and Valancy have quite a bit more information about Barney than Cousin Georgiana. We know that he's not a murderer, just kind of a recluse who just lost his best friend to illness. So there's no teeth in Georgiana's fears.

[pilferingapples]

An Ongoing Effort to Index This Blog

You’re probably here for reference material! Here’s a tag list to hopefully make finding that easier!

Before I get into the tag lists, a note on my Editorial Policy, such as it is:  I truly appreciate corrections, warnings about bloggers/writers operating in bad faith, etc! But if you’re contacting me with actionable info please come off anon or leave me some other way to get hold of you, so I can follow up if I need more info! I’m happy to keep a convo private if asked, I just need to be able to verify my sources.  That out of the way! The tags!

(I had all these linked before accidentally deleting this post once; it's going to be a While before I can repair those links. If you want to find any of these , just go to pilferingapples.tumblr.com/tagged/name of tag and it should work!) Les Miserables Specific: -BrickClub: former readthroughs - LM X.X.X (as in: LM 1.2.3): chapter specific tags -Fandom 101: stuff that’s hopefully useful for people just starting to look around ; if there’s something not here you think would be useful, let me know! -Fashion,or:  Canon Era Fashion : what it says on the tin - Les Misereference: a general tag of all kinds of things , if you just wanna binge canon-era reference - (Character) relevant: references and commentary specifically relevant to one character.  Note that this includes “barricade relevant”, “Amis relevant” as a group, and, yes, “sewer relevant” - (character) talk: discussion of a character/concept , like “ Grantaire Talk”  or “sewer talk”  -what’s the meta for:  a general catchall tag for analysis discussion; mostly older stuff- Paris in Canon Era:  historical info for the True Main Character ; incl. sewers, schools, etc  - maps : They Are Maps - FRev :  goofy fannish stuff and silliness about the French Revolution - FRENCH REVOLUTION: actual historical/ analytical posts about the French Revolution (NOT when Les Mis is set, but hugely influential!)  -Women in the Revolution: what it says! historical /analyses stuff about women in various revolutions and uprisings, though mostly the 1830s and the Frev.  Romanticism Specific:  - Actual Romantics : stories and histories on members of the French Romantic movement -Four People and a Shoelace: specifically about the Petit Cenacle/Jeunes France crew -Hugolania: trivia and random Hugo homages/commentary/fandom stuff. Because Hugo always  had a fandom. more, doubtless, as I think of them! Adaptations: - Les Mis Stage : things about /from the stage musical  -Les Mis Dallas, Dallas Les Mis :  the 2014 Dallas Theater Center modernized production -Les Mis 2012 : things about/from the 2012 musical movie  -Shoujo Cosette: the 52-episode anime; characters from this sometimes just get tagged SC(character)  -Les Mis Arai:  the multivolume manga - Other Adaptations : what it says on the tin , including other musical adaptations, movies, and tv shows  Fanwork Specific -(Character) art:  exactly what you’d expect  - Canon era fic :..again… - Modern AU : rarely needed, but sometimes! -Fic Rec, Ficrec-what it says  Character/ Group/ Ship/Pairing tags, when not just a character’s name : - The Pontmercy Friend: Marius  - All of Them : the Amis as a group -Most of Them: ALMOST all the Amis as a group -Poetry Smash: Bahorel and Prouvaire  -Justice and His Tutor: Enjolras and Feuilly  - Bini!, Bini:  Joly and Bossuet  - OMST3K: J/B/M, for reasons - Power Trio: Enjolras, Combeferre and Courfeyrac  - Party Trio: Joly, Legle , and Grantaire -To Watch Faith Soar: Enjolras and Grantaire Ships Ahoy:  any content focused on romance  (these are NEVER EVER Ship Tags): - Owl and Wren : Valjean and Cosette - Para Bellum: Bahorel and Gavroche

[lunarcovehq]

Brielle Rivas is a vampire that currently resides in Celestial Hills and has been a Lunar Cove resident for 2 years.

ITS THE END OF THE WORLD

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Cis Woman, She/Her

DATE OF BIRTH: January 1, 1993

OCCUPATION: Owner of Cabaret

FACECLAIM: Samantha Logan

AS WE KNOW IT, AND I FEEL FINE

SPECIES: Vampire

CLAN POSITION: Member

AGE AT TRANSFORMATION: 27

WELCOME TO LUNAR COVE, BRIELLE RIVAS

Trigger Warnings: Anxiety, Implications of Drugs, Blood, Violence, Death, Murder

Born a beautiful, albeit overly cautious girl, Bri, with a soft curvature to her lips and bright curious eyes, wasted majority of her human life scribbling away detailed lists as to how she would one day live it. There were her daily to do lists, her weekly grocery shopping lists, her ‘30 Countries to visit before turning 30’ list, her list to keep track of her tedious amount of lists, her yearly mood boards and a far too extensive things to do before she kicked the bucket list. And yet, in all the time she spent scribbling away, she had never once wonder what may happen if the hourglass ran out for her before she could accomplish any of it. For the girl who always seemed to have a plan and wanted far more out of her provincial life *cue the beginning of a grand instrumental percussion*, her life started out as a relatively happy and mundane existence.

Brielle’s parents, having struggled to have children of their own, promised Bri the world from the moment they adopted their little girl. And even though they might not have had the Hallmark sort of love story that her aunts did, the pair later divorcing, they went out of their way to make sure that she never once felt anything expect for a tremendous amount of love. Spending the school year in NYC with her mom, her mother made sure she was provided with the best education money could buy, sending her to her own alma maters in the hopes that Brielle might follow in her own footsteps and become a lawyer. Only for the family’s little debater to quickly swerve in a different direction after she saw her first Broadway show. Brielle’s eyes lit up, scotching up to the edge of her seat as she stared in awe of the lead. She wouldn’t stop talking about the musical until her mom finally gave in and took her to see another show and then another and, when her childhood nemesis was bragging about how she was going to audition for the Broadway production of Les Misérables, Bri convinced her mom to let her audition too, taking the role of young Cosette home.

Young Bri would spend the following school terms in the big City, being overstimulated by the flashing neon lights and the throngs of endless people hustling and bustling down the streets as she auditioned for show after show, only for her to grow out of the child friendly roles on Broadway and steal the lead roles in all of her school plays instead. Her teenage years consisted of letting herself in and out of the family townhouse as she would eat on the Met Steps with her friends, pretending as if they were straight out of Gossip Girl, building sets and singing on stage and being pressured into going out dancing in the City at one of the many 18+ clubs. She may have been the overly responsible one in comparison to the friend group she had chosen to hang out with, but growing up in the popular crowd, she went out of her way to fit in, even if she never could quite figured out her place no matter what crowd she chose to run with. She went along with her friends when they all decided to procure fake ids and begged her mom to buy her the latest outfits so that she could keep up with the ever changing trends that came with being a private school kid.

Meanwhile, Brielle’s summers moved at a completely different pace. At her dad’s, Bri would swap her contacts out for a pair of wide frame glasses. Her mini skirts and heels were exchanged for baggy tees and flip flops as she’d waste her summer propped up on the bar stool in her dad’s kitchen reading many a guilty pleasure book as her abuela made her teque��os or arepas con queso. She’d offer to help of course, but they all knew no one would ever take her up on it given how much of hazard Bri became the moment she stepped foot in the kitchen. So, instead, she’d be relegated to the living room where she would sprawl across her couch watching the latest cult classic on repeat.

She spent countless summers in that small coastal town in Oregon, all too thankful for her tías who would often look after her and her cousin Jonah while her dad was at work. Her father falling into the Rivas family business of medicine was the town’s local doctor while her aunt, his sister, went into dentistry. And her aunt’s wife, the brown-eyed book store owner, quickly becoming one of Bri’s favorite people in the world for the woman helped feed Brielle’s growing addiction for storytelling, exchanging out songs and musicals over the summer for literature.

Sure, Bri may have had a habit of teasing her cousin when it came down to his love for the sea, but she was hardly one to talk, having consumed just about every form of media there possibly was on anything remotely magical. It had started with her ironically picking up a copy of Twilight that her aunt had gifted her, promising her that 'all of the kids were reading it these days’. But, after binging the first season of the Vampire Diaries in one night followed shortly after by reading every book there was in the Vampire Academy series, Bri was hooked. It was a fascination that only the straight A student’s family knew about, going to great lengths to hide her interests from her fellow kids at school back in New York and, as far as, she knew, it was just that- pages of fantasy to distract oneself from her everyday anxieties and the stress that came with school, followed by college and shortly after by entering the work force. Only what was meant to be fiction seeped its way into reality the first year she had truly stepped out on her own.

Despite having been a performer at heart for most of her childhood, after college, she decided to heed her parents advice and choose something more 'practical’. So, rather than audition to be on stage herself, she got a job at a talent agency, running the castings for various movies and television productions for up in coming franchises. She hardly had a second to catch her breath between attempting to prove herself at work and moving out from the lofty townhouse she grew up in and into her very own closet sized studio apartment across town. And yet, Kiara, one her friends from high school who had always been far more wild than she was, had convinced her to take a night off. There was a club that had just opened in the East Village that Kiara had been dying to take Belle to and, in a very Kiara fashion, the girl ended up vanishing into the crowd after only a few drinks in. Kiara had a reputation of being able to track down a ‘good time’, so it had been no surprise to Bri when she spotted the girl, a few songs later, having emerged from behind the velvet rope with a glossed over look in her eyes. And yet, unlike the typical times when Bri would wait at the bar while Kiara would partake in god knows what, this time, Brielle could have sworn she noticed two hole-shaped marks against her best friend’s neck quickly disappear after Kiara had downed back what had looked like a reddish colored shot. It had to have been a trick of eyes- a few too many drinks fogging her senses- and yet, Bri couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that something was off. A feeling that only seemed to grow the more she returned to that club.

Week after week, Bri would watch as Kiara would disappear behind the velvet rope, before curiosity finally got the best of her and she got up enough courage to follow after her. An attempt that was quickly thwarted by the bouncer guarding the closed-off VIP section. She tried to plea with Kiara to make a case for her to be able to join her friend behind the velvet rope, but given that Bri was a lightweight and one who had never tried anything stronger than an advil, Kiara was hardly much of an advocate. Instead, a stunning brunette and regular VIP decided to break up the situation by offering to buy Bri a drink while her friend was otherwise preoccupied and, before Bri knew it, one drink ended up being two and a promise to meet up some other time. Somewhere where they could hear their thoughts and be able to get to each other for real. The VIP from the club’s name was Luna and if Bri hadn’t believed in love at first sight before, she had then. The pair quickly became taken by one another and Belle’s growing adoration for Luna almost quelled the curiosity she still held in regards to that club and its incredibly exclusive velvet rope. Almost, until Kiara mentioned in passing one day how, now that Bri was dating Luna, she would be willing to take Bri with her.

Having your ‘it sounds so bizarre that you wouldn’t dare mutter them out loud’ suspicions that your girlfriend might be a vampire be confirm is one thing. But, finding out because she was momentarily jealous over another vampire being about to feed off of you was a whole other story. Bri barely had enough time to wrap her head around the fact that the VIP section wasn’t a place to do drugs but a place where full blown, real life vampires would feed off of consenting humans, when Luna had already grabbed her hand and began leading her out. Luna’s eyes were filled to the brim with concern as she scanned Brielle up and down and hoped that Bells wouldn’t now be afraid of her after what she had just witness. And she was right in the notion that Bri should have been afraid. Everything she had ever thought she knew about the world had shattered in under a handful of minutes and, yet, TV had clearly done Bri dirty, because instead of fear, the girl was consumed with a delusional sense of excitement that the world was actually as magical as she had secretly always wished it to be. In the storybooks, love conquers all and, at the time, Belle had no doubt, now that she knew the truth, the pair would be able to figure everything out together.

Which brings us up to Brielle Rivas’s death and the day she was shown that love can’t always conquer everything. Luna and Bri had been together for a little over a year. Bri was feeling under-appreciated at work and with layoffs around the corner and the state of her job now up in the air, it seemed like a good time as ever to take a risk. They pair could move out of the City and lay down some roots. It wasn’t safe in the city with the threat of hunters looming over them for Luna. But, there was a town not far out called Lunar Cove where the two of them could move to and start anew. Where humans and vampires could live out in the open rather than in hiding. It sounded perfect. It sounded like the Cove could be their own little slice of Heaven. And yet the closer they got towards move in day, the farther their happily ever after seemed to be. First, Brielle’s mother disapproved of the move, worried that Bri may be throwing her career away for a girl she barely knew. Then, Bri quickly realized that she couldn’t physically leave the town unless she wanted to forget all of the memories she had formed there. There went her hopes of still being able to commute back into the City for a broadway audition or two. That unfortunate news was shock enough alone, but as issues began to arise one by one with their new house - a broken pipe here, delayed construction there- their anxieties grew to an all time high. All Brielle had been trying to do was help Luna take the edge off a little bit by allowing her to feed directly from her. She hadn’t been considering the risk so much as thinking of it as a simple gesture of her appreciation for the other. Only before Belle knew it, Luna’s thirst became too much. Luna couldn’t stop and, only after Bri’s vision began to blur, did Bri plead for the other to pull back. But, by then it was nearly too late. Luna had drank too much and Brielle was growing faint. In a fleeting attempt to save her life, Luna did the one thing she could think of- she fed Bri her blood. They had both talked about a day when Bri might turn- Maybe it was happening sooner than the two of them had planned, but Luna would be there to help Brielle through the transition and they could still have their happily ever after.

Except Brielle never made it through the transition. The bite never took and she died in her love’s arms that day. End of story. Or so it should have been, only a year later, during Lunar Cove’s Masquerade Ball did a dark and twisted ancestral spell rewrite the course of history. Bri found herself re-awakening mid-transition. Her body might not have accepted the turn the first time around, but now with magic on her side, did she find herself staring down at what would mark her first kill. She had no clue who had brought her back from the grave. Returning from the dead didn’t come with a tutorial and she hardly knew of the clause that came with the curse that had been casted upon her. How if she killed another, she would be able to live on in their place. She had just been hungry. The bloodthirsty newborn vampire attacking the first human that came their way, draining them dry before they, themselves, could realize what they had just done. And now?

Now, Brielle has gotten her life back only to realize that she has not only broken the accords in the process, but has lost nearly three years of time. Three years in which she was declared missing, but not one of her relatives were aware yet over the fact that she had died. Three years in which the girl she loves has had time to move on. In which her cousin has settled down in the same town. She’s a newborn vampire whose realizing how little she knows about a subject matter she used to read and watch everything on. She’s a vampire who now has to be fearful of breaking out in a rash, or worse, combusting into flame if she spends too long out in the sun. A vampire whose struggling to feed. A washed up broadway performer who was working at On Pitch only to recently be hired as the Managing Director of the Pendulum Playhouse. And she’s a type A girl whose desperate to get back to some semblance of normal without the slightest idea as to how.

[squadron-of-damned]

3, 6 and 29 for the fic writer asks!

3. What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

That is going to be either Cosette Chapeau or Never is the end. The latter is objectively better if only be the virtue of being written by an older, more experienced Tolpen, but Cosette Chapeau, as unfinished as it is, still holds very well compared to what I am writing now despite being 4 years old.

6. Are there any fics from others you reread all the time?

I am returning to my favorite passages in the Griffon and Peacock. And once a year or so I look up Eridan Ampora's Kismesis Is A Loser and Also Needs to Keep His Fingers Out of Vital Fuckin' Areas and read it again, to remember my roots (caliginous).

29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic. (If you don’t have either, just share a random fic idea you have that you don’t plan on getting to.)

Let's be honest: I don't write fics that I am not going to publish. No point in that. As I am beholden to no publisher or editor besides myself, there is a very little editing process in my writing which consists solely of automatic spelling check (which I ignore anyway) and the ocassional "let's rewrite the last sentence so it makes sense" or "actually the timeframe makes no sense, let's change these 'four days later' at the beginning of the chapter to 'a few days later'". A scene that was "cut" from a fic is one that did not make it at all in the first place.

So I am going to share a fic idea I am having and don't really have the motivation to write: How To Date A Fancy Guy by Ral Zarek, a recollection of moments he was painfully pinning after Tomik Vrona, while Tomik himself is mulling over "I've complimented his lgihtning generator three times this hour already. What part of 'I want to drag you to my private chambers and rip your clothes off' is Ral not getting?"

Hey, this was fun. Let's do that again!

[syrupsyche]

Instead of working on the actual fic, I'm going to be sharing headcanons on my canon era Enjsette siblings au. I would probably mention some parts of it in the fic(s) I'll be sharing but if they never see the light of day, here are some of them! Shoutout to @pumpkinspice-prouvaire for inspiring this post <3

Fantine absolutely adored getting matching EVERYTHING for her kids: that goes for their names (Eugène and Euphrasie), their outfits, and even their hairstyles. She likes to match her hairstyles with them as well :')

Speaking of hair, since Enjolras has the same hair as her, she lets it grow out so that she can comb and style it. He may be 3 years old but he sure has a ton of hair

When they get placed with the Thenardiers, just as how Mme. Thenardier was Cosette's main tormentor, M. Thenardier would be Enjolras'

Other than the canonical heavy labour Cosette had to do, Enjolras would be sent out to pickpocket from the inn's customers and the rest of the town's inhabitants as well

Whenever Enjolras got caught, Thenardier would put on a big act and punish him in front of whoever was the victim ("My sincerest apologies, good monsieur/madame! He must have gotten his nastiness from his good-for-nothing mother.") before taking him away and just punishing him once more for getting caught

(And I'm not saying this is where Enj would get his immensely deep-rooted sense of injustice from but im NOT not saying that either :))

Cosette and Enjolras would try to take the brunt of the punishments for each other but that just became getting twice the punishment. Eventually, they learnt to just rely and comfort each other afterwards

When Valjean comes to find them, he buys Catherine for Cosette and a toy soldier for Enjolras. He named him Jacques.

Enjolras took longer than Cosette to warm up to Valjean (M. Thenardier was his tormentor after all, so his trust in male authority figures was already low), but eventually grew to trust him once his sister did

Enjolras especially loved hearing Valjean read to him. Valjean read the usual children's books and fairytales but when Enjolras began begging for more, he just gave up and started reading anything he could get his hands on: history, philosophy, etc. (which is why Enjolras turned out Like That)

When they move to the convent, while Cosette went to school, Enjolras stayed in the hut and continued being taught by Valjean (and Fauchelevent!) While Cosette was intended to become a nun, Enjolras was to take over as the convent gardener

Cosette would run up to the hut and chat with Enjolras whenever it was playtime- they would exchange whatever they had learnt during the day

Slowly, Enjolras got his hands on more and more radical books, teaching himself about the current political climate of France and devoting all his time to reading and (attempting to) write his own essays

Eventually, when the family left the convent, it was partially to allow Enjolras to pursue his new-found interest in politics as well as the canonical reason of letting Cosette explore society.

Due to their difference in interests, Enjolras and Cosette grew apart, though all 3 family members clearly still cared for one another deeply

Understanding the dangers of dabbling in politics, he decided to go by a moniker in order to keep his private family away from his public affairs. Thus, Enjolras was born.

This is where my fics begin to pick up from so I guess no more spoilers (??) Hope this made some bit of sense or at the very least, the drawings were enjoyable! :D

[lesmislettersdaily]

Authority Reasserts Its Rights

Volume 1: Fantine; Book 8: A Counter-Blow; Chapter 4: Authority Reasserts Its Rights

Fantine had not seen Javert since the day on which the mayor had torn her from the man. Her ailing brain comprehended nothing, but the only thing which she did not doubt was that he had come to get her. She could not endure that terrible face; she felt her life quitting her; she hid her face in both hands, and shrieked in her anguish:—

“Monsieur Madeleine, save me!”

Jean Valjean—we shall henceforth not speak of him otherwise—had risen. He said to Fantine in the gentlest and calmest of voices:—

“Be at ease; it is not for you that he is come.”

Then he addressed Javert, and said:—

“I know what you want.”

Javert replied:—

“Be quick about it!”

There lay in the inflection of voice which accompanied these words something indescribably fierce and frenzied. Javert did not say, “Be quick about it!” he said “Bequiabouit.”

No orthography can do justice to the accent with which it was uttered: it was no longer a human word: it was a roar.

He did not proceed according to his custom, he did not enter into the matter, he exhibited no warrant of arrest. In his eyes, Jean Valjean was a sort of mysterious combatant, who was not to be laid hands upon, a wrestler in the dark whom he had had in his grasp for the last five years, without being able to throw him. This arrest was not a beginning, but an end. He confined himself to saying, “Be quick about it!”

As he spoke thus, he did not advance a single step; he hurled at Jean Valjean a glance which he threw out like a grappling-hook, and with which he was accustomed to draw wretches violently to him.

It was this glance which Fantine had felt penetrating to the very marrow of her bones two months previously.

At Javert’s exclamation, Fantine opened her eyes once more. But the mayor was there; what had she to fear?

Javert advanced to the middle of the room, and cried:—

“See here now! Art thou coming?”

The unhappy woman glanced about her. No one was present excepting the nun and the mayor. To whom could that abject use of “thou” be addressed? To her only. She shuddered.

Then she beheld a most unprecedented thing, a thing so unprecedented that nothing equal to it had appeared to her even in the blackest deliriums of fever.

She beheld Javert, the police spy, seize the mayor by the collar; she saw the mayor bow his head. It seemed to her that the world was coming to an end.

Javert had, in fact, grasped Jean Valjean by the collar.

“Monsieur le Maire!” shrieked Fantine.

Javert burst out laughing with that frightful laugh which displayed all his gums.

“There is no longer any Monsieur le Maire here!”

Jean Valjean made no attempt to disengage the hand which grasped the collar of his coat. He said:—

“Javert—”

Javert interrupted him: “Call me Mr. Inspector.”

“Monsieur,” said Jean Valjean, “I should like to say a word to you in private.”

“Aloud! Say it aloud!” replied Javert; “people are in the habit of talking aloud to me.”

Jean Valjean went on in a lower tone:—

“I have a request to make of you—”

“I tell you to speak loud.”

“But you alone should hear it—”

“What difference does that make to me? I shall not listen.”

Jean Valjean turned towards him and said very rapidly and in a very low voice:—

“Grant me three days’ grace! three days in which to go and fetch the child of this unhappy woman. I will pay whatever is necessary. You shall accompany me if you choose.”

“You are making sport of me!” cried Javert. “Come now, I did not think you such a fool! You ask me to give you three days in which to run away! You say that it is for the purpose of fetching that creature’s child! Ah! Ah! That’s good! That’s really capital!”

Fantine was seized with a fit of trembling.

“My child!” she cried, “to go and fetch my child! She is not here, then! Answer me, sister; where is Cosette? I want my child! Monsieur Madeleine! Monsieur le Maire!”

Javert stamped his foot.

“And now there’s the other one! Will you hold your tongue, you hussy? It’s a pretty sort of a place where convicts are magistrates, and where women of the town are cared for like countesses! Ah! But we are going to change all that; it is high time!”

He stared intently at Fantine, and added, once more taking into his grasp Jean Valjean’s cravat, shirt and collar:—

“I tell you that there is no Monsieur Madeleine and that there is no Monsieur le Maire. There is a thief, a brigand, a convict named Jean Valjean! And I have him in my grasp! That’s what there is!”

Fantine raised herself in bed with a bound, supporting herself on her stiffened arms and on both hands: she gazed at Jean Valjean, she gazed at Javert, she gazed at the nun, she opened her mouth as though to speak; a rattle proceeded from the depths of her throat, her teeth chattered; she stretched out her arms in her agony, opening her hands convulsively, and fumbling about her like a drowning person; then suddenly fell back on her pillow.

Her head struck the head-board of the bed and fell forwards on her breast, with gaping mouth and staring, sightless eyes.

She was dead.

Jean Valjean laid his hand upon the detaining hand of Javert, and opened it as he would have opened the hand of a baby; then he said to Javert:—

“You have murdered that woman.”

“Let’s have an end of this!” shouted Javert, in a fury; “I am not here to listen to argument. Let us economize all that; the guard is below; march on instantly, or you’ll get the thumb-screws!”

In the corner of the room stood an old iron bedstead, which was in a decidedly decrepit state, and which served the sisters as a camp-bed when they were watching with the sick. Jean Valjean stepped up to this bed, in a twinkling wrenched off the head-piece, which was already in a dilapidated condition, an easy matter to muscles like his, grasped the principal rod like a bludgeon, and glanced at Javert. Javert retreated towards the door. Jean Valjean, armed with his bar of iron, walked slowly up to Fantine’s couch. When he arrived there he turned and said to Javert, in a voice that was barely audible:—

“I advise you not to disturb me at this moment.”

One thing is certain, and that is, that Javert trembled.

It did occur to him to summon the guard, but Jean Valjean might avail himself of that moment to effect his escape; so he remained, grasped his cane by the small end, and leaned against the door-post, without removing his eyes from Jean Valjean.

Jean Valjean rested his elbow on the knob at the head of the bed, and his brow on his hand, and began to contemplate the motionless body of Fantine, which lay extended there. He remained thus, mute, absorbed, evidently with no further thought of anything connected with this life. Upon his face and in his attitude there was nothing but inexpressible pity. After a few moments of this meditation he bent towards Fantine, and spoke to her in a low voice.

What did he say to her? What could this man, who was reproved, say to that woman, who was dead? What words were those? No one on earth heard them. Did the dead woman hear them? There are some touching illusions which are, perhaps, sublime realities. The point as to which there exists no doubt is, that Sister Simplice, the sole witness of the incident, often said that at the moment that Jean Valjean whispered in Fantine’s ear, she distinctly beheld an ineffable smile dawn on those pale lips, and in those dim eyes, filled with the amazement of the tomb.

Jean Valjean took Fantine’s head in both his hands, and arranged it on the pillow as a mother might have done for her child; then he tied the string of her chemise, and smoothed her hair back under her cap. That done, he closed her eyes.

Fantine’s face seemed strangely illuminated at that moment.

Death, that signifies entrance into the great light.

Fantine’s hand was hanging over the side of the bed. Jean Valjean knelt down before that hand, lifted it gently, and kissed it.

Then he rose, and turned to Javert.

“Now,” said he, “I am at your disposal.”

[artzychic27]

What if the science kids were in evilustrator, What would they think of evilustrator at first?

Cosette: ... Is no one going to point out the obvious Akuma standing right there?

Simon: Sshhh. We're background characters, Cosette. Nothing we can do but watch and spectate.

Mireille: Is that Nathaniel? How'd he get akumatized?

Denise: From what I heard, he was drawing in class, Mme. Mendeleieve sent him to the office, he tripped, Chloé saw his drawings, and then outed his crush on Marinette... So I've heard.

Jean: I keep telling him, he can't keep drawing in her class.

Simon: Hey, everyone's gotta have something to do with their hands. Otherwise, you just scratch at every inch of your skin until you're sure you can see a bone.

Marc: Simon, please.

Lacey: Oh, there he goes. And he is... Drawing, look at that.

Cosette: Did he just- He just made a bunch of berets appear!

Marc: Oh, Chloé's in for it now. If he can draw stuff to life, then she's a dead woman.

Aurore: Then Euros says he can erase stuff from existence.

Ismael: I'll take you up on that. Twenty says he nearly kills Chloé.

Lacey: Count me in! So, what do we think in terms of style? Yay? nay?

Reshma: I like how the hair looks similar to a paintbrush's bristles. And that windswept look is doing wonders for him. The suit, though? More could have been done.

Ismael: I would have gone for an edgy street artist look with spray paint cans, a respirator mask, and some loose pants with chains hanging for no reason.

Marc: Oh, and definitely some combat boots.

Ismael: YES! This guy gets it!

Aurore: Picturing it, loving it! Are our hearts set on the beret staying?

Jean: Leave that as maybe.

Cosette: Should we just... I don't know, critique and redesign Akuma outfits? 'Cause, I've got some ideas, especially for Pharaoh.

Jean: Oh, I love that!

Marc: Is it happening? Are we doing it?

Denise: I feel good about this!

Simon: I zoned out. What's happening?

Cosette: We're gonna critique and redesign Akumas.

Simon: Cool... Oh, hey, Eillustrator's gone.

Reshma: I guess we got sidetracked. Where do you think he went?

Aurore: Probably to kidnap Marinette and make her be his birthday date.

Marc: No, Nathaniel wouldn't do that. He's not one to push a person into doing what he wants them to. Since he likes her, I bet he'd ask her out in a romantic way with a small bouquet of roses drawn to be her favorite color despite it being his birthday and he should be the one getting gifts. And then he'd depart, but not before giving her a chaste kiss on the hand and then setting up for a private date, I assume. Probably candle lit with rose petals scattered along the ground. And if he could, I bet he'd make his own constellations to spell out his confession to her. And it's perfect, and he asks Marinette to be his boyfriend- I mean, girlfriend!

Science Kids: ...

Cosette: Simp.

Marc: Am not! I just... I happen to know him well.

Ismael: Yeah, because you sit under the stairs and hear his conversations.

Marc: ... It's not my fault he draws where I write!

[crackspinewornpages]

Les Misérables 360/365 -Victor Hugo

351 

In the mayor’s office they were dressed in finery and nice clothes Gillenormand had to give away Cosette as Valjean broke his thumb. (how does this hinder him from giving her away) “Evil does not come from man, who is good at bottom.”p.870 Gillenormand declares everyone to be happy and also, he no longer has any political opinions. (they would be happy to hear that) They returned to a home full of flowers and a party of relatives, Theodule was now a captain, Cosette and him didn’t recognize each other. At the banquet Valjean told Cosette he was content and laughed at her command but as the guests entered the hall Valjean wasn’t there, he left with the excuse of his ailment. (just a broken thumb stop being a baby) Gillenormand makes a toast that there can't be too much love, women must be loved, impossible for God to make people anything but for it. The couple left for the wedding night, “To love, or to be loved-this suffices. Demand nothing more, there is no other pearl to be found in the shadowy folds of life. To love is a fufilment.”p.875 (that’s a theme of this tome) 

352 

When no one was paying attention Valjean slipped away to the chamber he had carried Marius eight months before. He listened to the party and left returning to Rue de l’ Homme Arme, the house was empty and bare. He took out Cosette's childhood mourning clothes he saved and thought of that December, thinking Fantine would be pleased she was mourning for her and was warm, broken hearted, he sobbed. 

353 

Valjean struggled once again, how many times has he been through this, a crossroad and heart-rending question. Marius and Cosette was his doing but should he retain Cosette, as a father, as he is in disgrace, in the law. He had clung to Cosette and ascended from disaster, should he let go, the Champmathieu affair is nothing compared to Cosette’s marriage. Reentrance to the galleys, to the void, should he impose the galleys to those children, sacrifice Cosette or himself, he thought of it for twelve hours. 

354 

On February 17 there was a visitor, Valjean returned to Gillenormand’s, he has to speak to Marius privately. Neither Valjean or Marius had slept well (we know you don’t have to say it) but Marius was happy to see him and they want him to live here. Valjean tells him he is an ex convict and it took a while for Marius to understand. He faked his injury since it wouldn't be right to forge the marriage documents, he’s not related to Cosette, she just needed him, he fulfilled that duty. “We have all undergone moments of trouble in which everything within us is dispersed; we say the first things that occur to us, which are not always precisely those which should be said.”p.883 

Marius asks why confess, he could have kept it a secret, what’s his motive, honesty. He doesn’t belong here, he doesn’t belong to family of men, (you stole a freaking loaf of bread and escaped prison decades ago) it all come to an end with Cosette’s marriage, he could lie for her but not himself, his conscience made him confess, he couldn’t have them share his taint. (again you stole a loaf of bread) He condemns himself and evaluates by degrading himself in his eyes, a galley slave with a conscience. (like nobody in prison have any redeeming qualities) “There are encounters which bind us, there are chances which involves in duties.”p.885 When one has a horror over their head, (you stole bread and escaped prison) it’s not right to make others share it without knowledge, Fauchelevent lent his name but he has no right to use it, he once stole bread to live and today he won't steal a name to live. (do I need to beat you with a newspaper too) 

Imagine if he said nothing and one day someone called out Jean Valjean and revealed him, he is a wretched man, Marius says he can get him a pardon, he’s presumed dead already. (yes this is the 1800s modern forensics and photo records don’t exist he’s believed to be dead for like a decade now how many people know his name and face and remember when the public saw you risk your life to save somebody they wanted you pardoned) It was then Cosette entered the room and thinks they are talking politics and won't have it, Marius tried to say they are talking business, then she’ll stay and listen but he wants to talk privately. She sees Valjean is pale and asks if he’s well, no and he smiles for her, and Marius convinces her to leave. Marius worries when she’ll find out, but Valjean has him swear to keep it from her, she was frightened enough of the passing galley slaves. He starts crying, wanting to die, Marius tells him he’ll keep it secret. Valjean asks if he shouldn’t see Cosette anymore, he thinks it’s for the best. As he leaves, he says he desires to see Cosette, but he had to tell him for nine years he was a father, he’s not sure if Marius understands, he’s told he can visit in the evening. 

355 

Marius was upset he felt instinctively enigmatic about Valjean and it was the galleys, was he and Cosette’s happiness condemned to it. He had entered this love affair without precautions and life amended it little by little. (that’s what happens when you marry someone you only knew for a few months) He had never told Cosette of the Gorbeau house affair, the fleeing victim, the Thenardiers, Eponine, he was so intoxicated with Cosette at the time nothing but love. (that’s obsession) Weighing consequences if he had told her and found out Valjean was a convict would it change anything, no, so nothing to regret. Valjean might have been hidden forever in an honest family but didn’t for conscience, Marius tried to find balance from Fauchelevent and Valjean, he went to the barricade for Javert out of revenge it seems. (you could clear this all up by asking him) How had to come to Cosette and kept her for so long, her childhood sheltered by a criminal, he couldn’t think of it without getting dizzy. 

How did he educate her, why raise her, that was Valjean and God’s secret. Marius knew God has his tools and Valjean was one for Cosette. He wouldn’t dare question Valjean, (seriously a third act misunderstanding stop being stupid) Cosette was pure and that was enough for him, so Valjean’s personal affairs didn’t concern him. “Jean Valjean was a passer-by. He had said so himself. Well, he had passed. Whatever he was, his part was finished.”p.893 The man was a convict, not even on a social ladder, Marius had found it simple, breeches in law should be followed with suffering, then there came Valjean. He should have freed his house of a man like Valjean but he made a promise and Valjean held his and one must keep their word, but his first duty was Cosette and through questioning her found the nettle protected the lily. (yeah it’s almost as if felons can still be good fathers) 

BOOK EIGHTH FADING AWAY OF THE TWILIGHT 

356 

The following night Valjean knocked on the Gillenormand house and was let in, fatigued, he sat in an armchair and dozed until Cosette came to him. He doesn’t move to embrace her and tells her not to call him father but Jean if she wants. She wants to know what he means, what happened, she doesn’t understand, she no longer needs a father since she has a husband. She’s furious at this (oh actual emotion besides weeping) and Marius’s strange behavior, is he angry at her because she’s happy, her happiness was his life now his days are over. She embraces him, he pulls her off and leaves and won’t address her formally again. 

357 

Valjean came the next night and Cosette wasn’t as warm, Valjean came every day and Marius arranged to be absent, no one knew the reasons behind it. Weeks passed like this and Cosette fell into married life, only wanting Marius to be with her and eventually Valjean became a different person, she doesn’t like it, who is he, she doesn’t know how good he is, she’d be afraid of him. Over time he visits became longer and once Cosette slipped and called him father he felt joy but said to call him Jean, she doesn’t see him cry. (you ever wish you could beat some sense into fictional characters as much as I do) 

358 

Then there was no more familiarity, he talked of her childhood, one day Marius took Cosette to the garden of Rue Plumet and forgot the time when Valjean would visit and Cosette didn't notice she didn’t see him. Valjean points out that she should have a carriage and hasn’t replaced Toussaint, why not profit from her riches, it adds to happiness, Cosette didn't respond. To stay longer Valjean talked of Marius, it was nice to forget by her side. One day Cosette mentioned to him Marius wants to live frugally on three thousand a year, (I don’t know how much that is in 1833 but in 2023 that is way below poverty line) Valjean didn't say anything to her but Marius believes he came into that money by nefarious means. (could have this cleared up instantly by just asking him) The lack of fire and distant chairs in the room was a subtle way of showing him the door. Once the chairs weren't there and a servant said they weren't expecting anyone to visit, the next day Valjean didn’t come Cosette inquired why and was told he was traveling. She only noticed he didn't come one day, it was two. 

359 

Summer 1833 shopkeepers noticed the same passerby in black from Rue de l’ Homme Arme he walked slowly and slowly shortened his journey, what was the use. (so he’s getting ready to die) 

BOOK NINTH SUPREME SHADOW, SUPREME DRAW 

360 

How terrible happiness is to make one forget duty, Marius regretted the promise so gradually estranged Valjean from Cosette, he considered it necessary and just. He tried to restitution the six hundred thousand francs and wouldn’t condemn Cosette to this knowledge, (again how is he a love interest he’s just terrible) who mechanically did as he wished, she was attached to her father but loved her husband. (she really has no personality of her own does she) Occasionally she asked if he returned from his journey and Valjean gave the answer no. Cosette allowed herself to be taken away from him, (really no personality or will of her own) it is the ingratitude of nature, youth go where there is joy, old age the end. (you have no idea how happy I am that this is almost the end) 

NEXT

[eristic-kaleidoscope]

The Truth Will Set You Free | AIRika | Trial 2.4 | Re: END, Kenshin, Just Erika

"Wait-"

On the discussion of the identity theft, AIRika immediately speaks out, but they stop. They look very hesitant to share at first, letting others speak before them... but they can't just back out now, can they?

"END, you're wrong about the whole identity theft thing. It's not your fault- you wouldn't know, but it's none of those people. Shit. I didn't want to say anything, because it really wasn't my business, but... Cosette was the one behind the identity theft. They told me this themselves after the first round of the motive in private. They were enrolled in school under a false identity. They told me they were going to vote themselves. They were the one correct vote on the crime."

They really don't feel good sharing this information, but they didn't want the trial to spiral down a path that wouldn't be fruitful. They need justice. They just hope Cosette will forgive them for sharing. They take a deep breath, trying to gather their thoughts before they continue to speak.

"Kenshin is right. Motive absolutely matters here. Someone didn't want their crime leaked. We have three crimes accounted for right now, with Cosette, Byrne, and Erika L's. 

I think I might know another. One round, I voted randomly, and then after, that crime actually had a correct vote. I know Byrne voted on the same crime. It was aiding and abetting. One of us got it right. That's not really enough to narrow it down, though, and it's not even likely that this person is our killer.

They have a hunch on their guess, but they don't say it just yet. They're definitely keeping it at the front of their mind.

"So. The killer? An ability to change their handwriting and preferred a trap over a direct kill. Likely, this person didn't think they could take their victim head-on. The trap is clever, too. They've thought this out.They have experience with covering their tracks and keeping their hands clean.

They look back at Kenshin.

"It's simple. The gummies say that they put you into a happy state before they kill you. My group checked, and we found chunks of the gummy in Cosette's mouth, meaning they didn't even finish it. 

With the cause of death being heart attack, the gummies were used. I believe that Cosette fought back, and the killer weakened them enough to the point where they were forcefed the gummies. I know them well. There's no way in Hell they went down without a fight... oh, and before I forget-"

AIRika holds out their arms. They were already wearing a sleeveless outfit, so no rolling up is needed. There's some bruising as they mentioned earlier, but no other injuries.

"Again. Kickboxing. Erik A will have the exact same bruises."