#marius is what the cool kids call...... a short king

[persephoneggsy]

had a really persistent brainworm today that said “draw your sebhawke but genderswapped” so yeah

Marius Hawke and Sebina Vael

[cynnymonsnaps]

Let the Tides of Change Come

Part 1

Pairing(s): Carlos de Vil/Jane/Oc, Ben/Mal, Evie/Doug, Gil/Jay

Word Count: 2,062

Summary: Sometimes the power to rewrite things comes in the form of jumping right into the Descendants universe and giving everyone a piece of your mind.

Doug’s stereotypical nerdy band kid shtick? Out the window it goes. The adults not knowing how to do anything right? Not on my watch. Kids being stuck on a prison of an Island? You’re all coming with me now.

For Micha, they’ve taken on the grueling task of heading to the surface to help teach the kids of Auradon and the Isle that it’s okay to talk things out and to not give into the rules and expectations of the older generation.Will someone at least give these teens a moment to breath in between saving the kingdom please? Jesus.

A/N: A few notes before we get into things: "Michael" is pronounced "MI-kha-ehl" "Micha" is pronounced "MI-kha" and "Marius" is pronounced "MA-ree-oos"

Having been a long way from any civilization, it took a while for Micha and the stranger (whose name they found out was Marius) to maneuver through all the vegetation and ruins. It seemed that because the Atlanteans were so focused on surviving they never truly stepped out of their city limits and stayed within its walls. Which, Marius remarked, was the reason why the two of them had ventured out so far initially; to search for any other clues behind their people’s past and possibly find more resources.

While the two moved along (albeit very slowly as Micha were getting slightly distracted by everything around them.) Micha had come to some conclusions:

The first thing was that they would take on the name of “Michael”. Or as Marius had called them, “Micha” for short. It’d be easier to take on a new name instead of trying to convince others that they were someone else. And seeing how they were stuck in this body for however long, they’d need to get used to the name change.

The second thing they found was that though they’ve never actually worked out in their previous life, the muscle memory for their current body was strong. Whenever it came to dangerous ledges or crumbling stones, they were able to instinctively get over any obstacle in their way. Climbing rock walls was easy without having to breaking a sweat. And if they wanted to, they could have gone up a couple flights of stairs with the energy they had left. Just from feeling the firmness of muscle on their body showed how often the previous Micha probably exercised. It was kind of scary, not gonna lie.

It was like they were thrown straight into a storybook. One where the main character got transported into a new body in a whole different universe. Which was kind of cool but also made them question a few things like: Where did the original soul go? Did they switch bodies when they were underwater nearly drowning? Did Micha straight up die in their sleep like all the other protagonists? Was this just an Atlantis plotline or some sort of weird Disney multiverse universe? How did all this work anyway?!

All these questions ran through their mind like race cars on a track crashing and swerving into each other. Just trying to pick them out from each other gave Micha a huge headache. So, they decided it was best to not think about it anymore and just kept their eyes on the trail. For now, it was best to decide what they were going to do from here on out. Lightly scratching their chin, they began to think of what others did in similar scenarios. Ah yes. What would that one anime protag do?

“Would you stop acting like a dazed fool? We’re here.” Marius called out to them. Snapping out of their stupor they hadn’t realized they had even passed into the city. They really needed to start paying attention to their surroundings.

Looking up, they saw Marius standing in front of a pair of doors. On the door there was a large engraved spiral going outwards from the center with door handles that were stone carved heads. Though it looked to be worn down with age, you remembered it that same exact door leading to the throne room in the movie. There were even guards standing next to the door who weren’t telling the two of them to go away. Not understanding why they were there, Micha gave Marius a weird look. Was he some sort of hot shot or something to be able to go to the throne room? But he said they were going “to Mother and Father.” Wait. Did that mean he was a part of the royal family? Were they a part of the royal family? Are they even siblings?

With no further explanations Marius nodded to the guards to open the door. He righted himself and stood with his arms behind his back like some sort of official. Not knowing what to do exactly Micha stood beside him awkwardly. “Stand up straight. It’s not good to slouch in front of the King and Queen.” He chided them, not even looking their way as he did so. They could only roll their eyes and did as he said, trying to push away the slight anxious feeling down in their gut.

With the doors fully opened, Marius sauntered in. Micha on the other hand, couldn’t help but lag behind to take in the wonder of the throne room. “Mother. Father. We’re back.” He went to formally bow but was stopped by a man with an American accent.

"You know you don't need to be so stiff with us, right?" The American called in a teasing tone, coming closer to the two of them. Before them was Milo Thatch who didn’t look a day over 30. He was still lanky like before, but they could see he had grown some amount of muscle required to live here in Atlantis. "My own son, bowing down before me. Come on! Give your old man a hug." He stood Infront of Marius with his arms spread wide, a warm smile on his face. Marius looked like he wanted to resist, but Milo’s smile was too bright, he could only hesitate before slowly sinking into his father’s arms with a face full of embarrassment. Micha almost let out a laugh at the sight, but the daggers sent their way made them look away like they hadn’t seen anything.

Without anything really to look at, their eyes naturally landed on the older yet still charming Kida Nedakh. She hadn’t seemed to age as much either and retain much of her beauty. It felt like there was more of a mature aura around her now, and her hair had grown past her waist. She hadn’t lost the gleam of adventure in her eyes, but her posture told them that she had many years of knowledge under her belt. It must have been the magic of the crystal. Since it helped the Atlanteans be near immortal it must have cause them to physically age at a much slower rate as the years went by.

Kida was so beautiful that when she went to chuckle at the two men, Micha actually felt themselves blush. Feeling flustered they immediately looked down at the ground to avoid eye contact. For people they once thought were fictional, the couple were pretty breath taking to look at. It felt kind of wrong to look at them both for too long. How were you supposed to talk to breath taking people? Heck! How were you supposed to talk to breath taking heroes who were once cartoons? Oh god this was starting to get to real. Reality was starting to crash into them. They took in a shaky breath and held their head to try to regain some sort of ground.

"Michael?" Kida’s smooth voice called above them, bringing them back. Before they had realized it, Kida had made her way in front of them, a look of concern on her face. Usually when the two children would come into the throne room, Micha would always jump in at the prospect of Marius’ embarrassment and join in on the fun. It was odd that they were just standing there looking like they were out of sorts. It worried Kida a bit. “Is there something wrong my dear?”

Realizing their probably out of character behavior, they straightened themselves out and quickly shook their head. They didn’t want to speak out loud incase they’d say something else out of character. Though that probably wasn’t hard because who knew what the previous Micha was like before.

At Micha’s sudden muteness, Milo unwrapped his arms from Marius and went to kneel in front of them. “Are you feelin’ alright pumpkin? Usually you can’t wait to jump on your brother.” He reached to touch their shoulder, but the quick moment had Micha stepping back a bit. Not knowing what he did, Milo looked to be a little hurt by their action. They cursed at themself. Milo was a good guy, but Micha was just thrown into a whole new world with strangers that they didn’t know, and they weren’t really feeling touchy feely right now.

"I…" Micha began. They tried to find some way to explain themselves. Something to possibly relieve the tension, but things were coming up blank.

Seeing their troubles, Marius spoke up, “Michael almost drowned themselves today at the cove.” When the couple gasped in shock he further explained, “There was nothing wrong with them physically. However, they have been acting strange ever since.” Of course, he had to make the situation worse. What did they expect? Since they’ve first met, he’s only been a jerk to them and now, he had to open his big dumb mouth. They gave him a dirty look, hoping it could somehow beat him over the head or something.

Before Micha could look back to see the older couple’s reaction, they were suddenly embraced and cradled like a baby. Kida pulled back enough to try and find any injuries while Milo took to crying in their ear about the thought of his child almost drowning. “Oh, my baby! That must have been horrible! Daddy’s so sorry you had to go through that!” He whaled as his embrace tightened.

“Please… let go.” They squeezed out.

Not hearing them, Milo proceeded to only hug them tighter. So much so that their face started turning blue. Thank god Kida smacked him over the head to let them go or else they would have popped like a balloon. “Can’t you see that they’re suffocating? Let go already.” Realizing his mistake, he gave an awkward laugh and let go.

He stood up besides the two and scratched the back of his neck. “Sorry. Force of habit.” Kida gave him a nod and brought Micha closer to her, rubbing small circles in their back as they gathered their breath.

“No Father. Do go on. I don’t think Micha’s been squished enough.”

“Well if you say it like that, I’d have to say someone else needs more hugs than Micha right now.”

“I prefer to disagree.”

“Aw come on. Not even for your pops?”

“Especially for you, your highness.”

“So cold.”

“Enough you two.”

With all the chaos going around them, Micha didn’t know where to focus exactly. The Nedakh family were so comfortable with each other that they could bounce off each other like pin balls. It made it hard for them to try to interject. They had questions that needed to be answered, and though this little family back and forth was funny, they needed the information now. With renewed confidence they shot out a question on top of their head.

“Are… Are you guys my family?"

…

Oh my god! Micha smacked themselves in the head. Really? The one question to start out with and that was the one they just had to pick? Fuuuck! I’m so screwed.

While Micha was screaming at themselves silently, they hadn’t noticed the room fall silent. It wasn’t until Milo threw his hands up in hysteria that they noticed.

“Oh my god! They don’t remember us! What are we going to do?!?” The room filled with his panic like the world was coming to an end. He grabbed onto Marius and began shaking him wildly back and forth as he dissolved into crazy ramblings. Being the unfortunate victim of his father’s chaos, Marius tried to calm him down but was thrown here and there by Milo’s mysterious strength.

Ignoring the commotion behind the two of them, Kida knelt down on her knees and gently touched Micha’s shoulders. She searched their eyes for something. When she couldn’t seem to find it, her face melted into something of concern and something else that was unreadable.

"Do you really not remember who we are?"

There was something in Kida’s clear blue eyes that made them want to tell the truth, but at the same time they couldn’t. There was no way of telling how all of them would react. What if they thought Micha was some sort of crazy person? Would they be locked up forever because of it? Of course, they knew that Kida and Milo were at least going to hear them out, but would they actually believe a small child?

Micha’s expression scrunched more and more with all the heavy thoughts weighing down their mind. They were so lost in what to do. And they had only just came to this world not even an hour ago.

Seeing the intensity in their face, Kida squeezed their shoulders to get their attention again. She brushed a stray hair behind their ear and without missing a beat she looked them in the eyes and gave the gentlest smile. “Whatever is on your mind. I will listen. Anything you have to say, I will not judge you for it.” The words filled Micha with warmth. Kida was trying to reassure them, and it was somewhat working. Her touch seemed to ground them, calming their nerves and helped them drown out everything else.

Kida and Milo believed in each other to find the truth. And when they found it, they protected it with everything they had. The two of them wouldn’t judge a person just because they said some improbable things and would absolutely listen to them all the way through. Not to mention if Micha wanted to get through this whole situation, these two were probably the best help they could get.

Micha only hesitated for a second longer before gathering up all the courage they had. With tightly clenched hands, they began. “Have you ever heard of reincarnation?”

There was a confusion in Kida’s eyes. It didn’t occur to them that with the crystals help, their people had rarely died out and tended to live for long periods of time. So of course, she had never heard about reincarnation before. In their effort to try to explain it somehow to the older woman they hadn’t realized that things had gotten quiet around them.

"You mean like a rebirth of a soul into a new body?" Milo interjected, suddenly kneeling down besides Kida to join in on the conversation. There was an unseen sparkle in his eye.

Give it to the man who’s a linguist, cartographer, and plumber to also know philosophical concepts. Micha nodded their head, glad to know at least someone knew about what they were talking about.

"Father I don't understand." Marius called behind the two.

"Well, it's a philosophical and religious concept that non-physical essence of a living being starts a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death." Milo began, turning to Marius like he was an audience member. "It's a central tenet of Indian religions, namely Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism, although there are Hindu groups that don’t believe in reincarnation but believe in an afterlife." God it was like he was a Wikipedia article listing off all the information like a machine. Before he could completely lose himself in his history lesson, Kida cleared her throat to bring him back on track. He coughed awkwardly and faced Micha again, giving them a somewhat serious look. Behind his glasses they could see the scholarly look he had and there was something else behind it too. "Usually reincarnation happens after death, but there have been cases of near-death experiences triggering some sort of past life memories."

It took Kida a bit to catch on, but as she pieced things together her eyes slowly drew back to Micha. A look of astonishment crossed her features. "So, Michael almost drowning-"

"Could have been the trigger for such a thing to an occur, yes." Milo finished.

Marius frowned. "That would explain the amnesia and personality difference."

Giving then all a moment to figure it all out, Micha couldn't help but be surprised on how well they all were taking it. Granted Milo was an exception because he was a history nerd and he liked going deeper into unsolved theories. But they couldn't shake the feeling of guilt. The whole thing about transmigration was that the original host had to die for them to use the previous owner’s body. Meaning they had basically lost their own flesh and blood and was now met with a stranger wearing their skin. Just the thought of it all made them feel sick to their stomach.

"Micha, my sweet child." Kida called to them, pulling them into her arms with a warm embrace. The sudden hug gave them a start and on reflex their whole body stiffened. As you've probably guessed, they were never one for close contact. Whether or not that was the social awkwardness from their previous life or just the fact that they were guilt stricken, they just didn't know. Though the longer they were in her arms, the more they seemed to relax. It didn't even take two minutes before they just accepted it and leaned into Kida's touch. "No matter who you are, whoever memories you possess, or whoever you feel like being, I will always love you to the absolute core." She held them with a delicate firmness, careful to let them break free whenever they wanted to but still showing that she wanted to be as close as possible. She was so close in fact, that they could smell the remnants of the sea in her hair mixed in with a dull scent of bitter incense. She had been nothing but kind to them since they've shown up and it really moved them. They could hear the sincerity in her words as they hit their heart. All in all, it almost made Micha want to hug her back. And they did. They slowly yet surely snaked their arms around her waist and returned her hug, earning them a soft chuckle from the older woman.

"Yeah! It won't change the fact that you're our little troublemaker. And heck we'll just have to spend more time with each other to get to know one other better." Milo cheered as he ruffled their hair. At the amazed look they gave him, he laughed and gave them a quick side squeeze before wrapping his arm around Kida's waist.

Milo and Kida shared a look before they turned their attention to Marius, who was staying in the back with his arms crossed. It wasn’t surprising he was distant. He was the closest in age to the original “Micha” and probably spent the most time with them before the incident. To his stand-offish attitude, Milo and Kida began a physic chat with him through only their eyes. It wasn't until he gave a heavy sigh that they knew he had lost. He came over and knelt in front of Micha, putting his finger right on their forehead. "You may not have been "Micha" before, but you are "Micha" now. We're family now and will be for a long time." He pushed his finger hard enough on their forehead to make a mark and chuckled when Micha grumbled in pain. He looked away triumphantly when his mother gave a scolding look. Even though the poke had hurt a lot, Micha couldn’t help the smile that spread across their face. They didn't want to admit it but right from the beginning he had already acted like their big brother through and through. Just the thought made them burst out in laughter.

Their laugh was infectious and soon everyone was laughing along, filling the atmosphere with a relaxing warmth. Micha took the opportunity to look at each of their family members, taking them in. It felt right to let them into their walls. The journey was quite a hard one, and maybe just maybe they could get through it okay with their family by their side.

When the laughter died down Milo gave an excited grin, holding out his hand for Micha to take. “Now that we’ve got things straighten out, how about we go sit down and talk more? We could even show you around to get used to the scenery and everything!”

Micha gave one look at his hand and grinned. Grabbing on with a firm grip, they looked up at him smiling ear to ear. “Let’s go Dad.”

One couldn’t hear it, but Milo’s heart seemed to explode from the cuteness that was Micha. He couldn’t help but cover his chest and take a breath before slowly leading them off. The others following close behind.

[vapaus-ystavyys-tasaarvo]

The Basic Anglophone Les Mis Adaptation Formula

Or BALMAF for short

If you’ve seen more than one non-musical Les Mis movie in English (whether it’s American OR British), you might have noticed that sometimes they’re eerily similar to each other. I’m talking about the 1935, 1952, 1978 and 1998 movies, as seen above.

I honestly think these are all at least somewhat based on each other. They all follow the same rough structure, they share suspiciously specific details… it’s not really hard to make the connections. So I figured I’d try to put that structure into words.

Disclaimer: I’m not necessarily saying these are all bad things. (Although most of them are.) They’re just shared features and I get that plot needs to be streamlined when you adapt a giant novel into a movie. But it’s amusing to make fun of them. Also I only included the ones that show up in at least three of the movies.

BASIC STRUCTURE:

1: This is the story of Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert, everybody else is mostly just there to drive the plot forward.

2: Prison porn, lots of prison porn Okay okay not literal porn but you know what I mean. (exception: ‘98)

3: Fantine? Who’s that? Oh right Cosette’s mom. I guess we should give her a couple of scenes then… (exception: in '98 Fantine gets an actual story arc.)

4: We should really linger on this Montreuil-sur-Mer part of the plot, that’s the good stuff (but we can’t call the town “Montreuil-sur-Mer”, that would be ridiculous.)

5: The Thénardiers can only appear once, when Valjean goes to pick up Cosette, or not at all. Who needs all those plot points later on, this story is about the EPIC CHASE between Valjean and Javert!

6: You can have either Gavroche or adult Éponine but never both and they’re not related to the Thénardiers because we’re done with the Thénardiers already, didn’t I just tell you? Child Éponine may be allowed with the Thénardiers but she’s never named and has no lines.

7: Wow, Hugo really went off the plot rails after they arrive in Paris, didn’t he? There’s barely anything about Javert hunting Valjean in here! Let’s fix that and remove all this irrelevant stuff about all these side characters. We’ll just keep the love story because you gotta have a love story

8: I guess the revolution thing is kind of cool as a set piece for Valjean and Javert’s DRAMATIC REUNION. But we don’t really need to explain the politics and ideology and the fighting and all the minor character stuff, all that has nothing to do with Valjean and Javert!

9: Oh wait I guess we should still kill off whichever not!Thénardier kid we decided to include, though, for Dramatic Effect and to show how Tragic and Horrible revolutions are. (Exception: in ‘52 Gavroche doesn’t die)

10: Obviously Javert should go to the barricades to find Valjean, that’s much more important to him than “spying on the revolutionaries” lol (exception: '78)

11: Sewer chase scene! Yes, finally we’re back to the REAL story of Les Mis! Javert chasing Valjean in the sewers!

12: Well, Javert is dead so I guess we’re done now. VALJEAN WON! WHOO! HAPPY ENDING!

(more details under the cut)

CHARACTERIZATION:

- Javert is obsessed with Valjean! That’s what his whole character is ABOUT, you know?

- Okay we can’t give Valjean a proper love interest but he should at least fall in love with someone. Too bad there’s only two women to choose from so it HAS to be either Fantine or Cosette! (exception: '78 (because that one just fully embraces the homoerotic subtext option… and I’m pretty sure it’s intentional.))

- Cosette should actually get to do some stuff and find out about Valjean’s past DURING the story rather than after it’s over (exception: '78) 

^ (Ftr, I have no problem with the above point. I’m all for Cosette having more agency. Not all changes are bad.)

- Does this Marius guy really need all this backstory and hobbies and personality and whatever? He’s basically just Cosette’s love interest. This is all way too complicated for movie audiences, I mean is he even a revolutionary or not? We can’t tell! We should just fuse him with the Enjolras character to kill two bird with one stone. This makes perfect sense. (’78 doesn’t have him fused with Enjolras and does have at least a hint of a backstory but otherwise this still applies.)

MISCELLANEOUS:

- All these French names are so weird and hard to remember. What was the Bishop’s sister’s name again? Actually never mind, I’ll just come up with something that sounds French. Also “Monsieur Madeleine” sounds stupid, let’s just not use his name at all, it’s not like anybody will notice. And Montreuil-sur-Mer is too hard to pronounce, let’s just change the name or awkwardly avoid saying it. 

(”Hey guys, what’s the name of this town where we live?” “The Town, obviously.” “What’s our mayor called again?” “He’s called The Mayor.”)

(Alternate options: Monteis-sur-Monteis. Vigaux. Monsieur Madleen.)

- How many years did Valjean and Cosette spend at the convent? Nah, it’s too much trouble to look it up. Let’s just say ten. (What year even is this? Which uprising? Who’s the king we’re talking about here? HOW old is Cosette again? WE JUST CAN’T KNOW.)

- Historical accuracy, what historical accuracy? (THERE SURE ARE A LOT OF TRICOLOR FLAGS IN BOURBON RESTORATION FRANCE. Also What The Hell Are You Wearing Cosette. Valjean are those culottes? Is that a pilgrim hat?? What era IS this? Did you just raid the studio’s costume storage for whatever vaguely old-fashioned clothes you could find? Actually that’s totally what you did, wasn’t it?)

- Valjean needs to be hot and shouldn’t age too much during the movie. I mean we don’t really even know how time works so why should he age anyway? Okay fine, ‘78!Valjean, you get a grey wig and a beard.

- Cosette first sees Marius  '35: when he’s giving a speech which is interrupted by guards '52: when he’s running away from guards after giving a speech '78: when he’s with Enjolras who is giving a speech which is interrupted by guards and spied on by Javert '98: when he’s giving a speech which is spied on by Javert

- Valjean takes the wounded Marius to Cosette rather than to Gillenormand (exception: ‘78 where it’s never shown where he takes Marius)

- Valjean witnesses Javert’s suicide (exception: '78)

I think there are also some similarities in editing and blocking and cinematography but it would get really technical if I tried to explain them and I’m not even sure I know enough about the subject to really talk about it. Also there are a bunch of really mundane similarities that I didn’t think were worth mentioning (like the glass walls thing).

I didn’t include the 1917 silent film because I haven’t seen it. I don’t know if it fits this pattern.

Anyway, feel free to add things!

EDIT: Okay something I left out earlier but should be pointed out is the focus on ~*~Redemption~*~ that these movies have. (With the exception of ‘52.) And ‘78 especially does this what with Valjean actually escaping from prison rather than being released and then he just flat out assaults a guy and we never even see if the guy lives. So suddenly the focus is on Valjean being a sinner, rather than on him having been wronged by society.

‘35 does this in another way, having Valjean actually consider killing Javert at the barricades. ‘98 does it by having Valjean be a huge dick. I mean I think that’s what that was about anyway.