LES MIS ROMAN AU | PART ONE: PATRON-MINETTE

the renowned quartet, slaves bound for death who rose above their own fates, infamous through the whole of the roman empire for their ruthlessness.  claxuss who fights in the shadows, masked and most mysterious.  gulemero is a hercules, looming over the arena and his unlucky opponents.  babetti is said to have delivered blows that can knock rows of teeth clear from a man’s mouth.   parnassius is young, a handsome deceiver whose greatest pleasure is gore and creating magnificent deaths.  their names are whispered in the shadows of the arena.  they are less than man and more than monsters.  they are the gladiators of hades and death is their fifth companion.  

ruthie henshall
—> i dreamed a dream

fantine greets eponine in the afterlife  

“then you do not hate me?” eponine asks, confused and no less sad than before.  the woman has been so kind to her.   “after what i did?  when we were children, i was cruel to the lark… and then when i found her again… i tried to… well, i…”  

fantine smiles kindly, turning to eponine and cupping her face.  ”we all make foolish mistakes as children, and when we are older do no less wild things to protect love and find happiness.”  she kisses eponine’s brow before leaning away.   “come in from the rain.  come into the light.”  

eponine takes her hand and follows, leaving the shadows behind her.  a gust of air blows over her, drying and warming her at once.  fantine does not drop her hand all the while, but continues to lead her on through the paradise.  

“and i know when my daughter joins us,” fantine speaks, “someday in a long while, that she will bear her cheek to you so that you may kiss it, and the pair of you will live in peace as sisters forevermore from then.  i promise you; just like that it is all forgiven.”  

tears prickle eponine’s eyes, but no longer from sorrow.  her chest swells with so much joy that she is certain she will simply burst.  

“like sisters?”  she asks slowly.  ”then might you be like my mother?  might i have a mother again?  one who will brush my hair and sing sweet songs and love me very much?”  

fantine smiles back at her.  ”i should very much like to have another daughter i can love.”  

and rain will make the flowers—

at the fall of the barricades, the bodies of students and working-men are claimed, gathered, and buried by their families.   and montparnasse knows, the moment the words fall, that no one will be claiming eponine, and she’ll be buried in the dirt, grave unmarked.  so he goes.  he goes and picks her out and takes her away.  he has her buried, has her grave named.  it’s small and it’s ugly but it suits its purpose, and he doesn’t stop staring once it’s all said and done.  

the man who approaches him is a doctor, one who helped gather and check corpses at the barricades.  though a servant of the state his personal politics align with the republic.  so he did what he could for those he might.   assuming montparnasse to be the husband of the girl he found, he offers a lock of her hair, a little piece he took - just in case, he always says.  at the mistake of being titled husband, montparnasse does not correct him.  he says nothing.  

but he takes the token anyway. 

“M O N T P A R N A S S E was a child; less than twenty years of age, with a handsome face, lips like cherries, charming black hair, the brilliant light of springtime in his eyes; he had all vices and aspired to all crimes. The digestion of evil aroused in him an appetite for worse… Few prowlers were so dreaded as Montparnasse.”  

victor hugo, les misérables
book vii, chapter iii

Her name was Eponine; her life was cold and dark; yet she was unafraid.

REMIXING LES MISÉRABLES: Modern Genderswap | Farouche

“Be serious,” said Enjolras.

“I am wild,” replied Grantaire.

Look down, Javert, he’s standing in his grave!

show me some way to help you