#i can see her as a valvert girl though | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

leofemt · 6 years

Text

and suddenly the memory revealed itself

Madeleine's, the sign reads in pretty, delicate handwriting. The sky is still dark and navy gray, the rising sun unable to pierce its blanket of snowclouds, and the inviting glow of the yellow-tinted light and the scent of coffee spilling out of what appears to be a cafe steals Javert's attention, and he stops for a moment, staring across the street.

valvert, coffee shop au, 4.5k words.

on ao3.

Police Inspector Javert has no vices. He's proud of it- doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't seek companionship through the dark, cold nights.

Except...

One morning, heading into the precinct, customary black greatcoat wrapped tightly around his midsection, stride long and sharp, breath hovering icily in the air, a flicker of warm, incandescent light catches his eye. Ah- it's the small shop building across the street that had, until two months ago, been occupied by a trinket-store that had summarily lost on the expensive rent of a busy Parisian street. He hadn't realized the renovations of whoever had taken the space had completed.

Madeline's, the sign reads in pretty, delicate handwriting. The sky is still dark and navy gray, the rising sun unable to pierce its blanket of snowclouds, and the inviting glow of the yellow-tinted light and the scent of coffee spilling out of what appears to be a cafe steals Javert's attention, and he stops for a moment, staring across the street.

God, he wants some coffee.

Another day, he tells himself, because this morning he's left his apartment in the exact time to arrive at the precinct precisely on time, and any detours will make him late. He exhales into the cold, dimly-lit air, watching the puff of translucent condensation drift and dissipate into the dark, and continues on his way. The general population of Paris is beginning to wake with the sun. An increasing amount of tiny cars and bikes bumble past him, headlights flaring, and the sidewalk around Javert begins to fill with passerby.

~~~~~~

Javert's coffee steams on his desk.

It's not very good coffee. Actually, if one wished avoid mincing words, it's god-awful. Atrocious, terrible- somehow bitter and sour and burnt-acrid and watery at the same time- and Javert, reclaiming his chair and considering the cup, seeming to steel himself to lift the plain mug to his lips and take a sip, only to pull a face and set it back down, can't stop thinking about the scent of the coffee from the shop somehow wafting all the way across the street in the early hours of the morning, seemingly only to taunt him.

"God," he mutters, blaspheming.

At least he has his own office in which to silently lament the death of good caffeine. Outside, a phone rings, and there's a loud clanging and a shout. Javert groans and rubs his temples. His headache feel especially bad today.

A knock.

"Come in," he says.

An officer- Javert doesn't even know his name, he looks wet behind the ears, eyes wide, hair curling onto his forehead- pokes his head in hesitantly.

"Inspector Javert?" He asks.

"That's what they tell me," Javert grumbles.

The boy opens the door fully, revealing three case files in his pale hands. He's definitely a new recruit, probably a patrol cop, Javert thinks.

"I was told to give these to you," the officer mumbles. Javert would tell him to speak up, but he hasn't the energy. His cooling coffee mocks him from his desk, and he scowls back. He grits his teeth and makes a gesture towards the painfully shy officer.

"Yes, yes, give them here." He mutters.

The officer nods, and lingers.

"Thank you." Javert says, gruffly, opening the files without ado. The officer hovers for a moment longer, then awkwardly inclines his head and makes for the door. Javert is already consumed in the files.

The folders the officer have handed him are updates on the higher-profile cases this week- new activity by the Patron-Minette, and Javert feels something in him sink, rubs one hand frustratedly across his stubbled chin.

It's almost the lunch hour. He thinks if he sits here a moment longer, he may just lose his mind before he can lock those bastards up. Javert gathers his greatcoat, black cloth spilling out of his arms, pulls it on, fastening each silver button in meticulous order.

~~~~~~

Madeline's.

Javert hovers outside the door.

It's definitely open. A handful of patrons are already inside, and Javert can see a bright, bubbly blonde girl with her long, silken hair tied back in twin low bunches- she can't be more than twenty, and as he watches she offers a patron a muffin and a blinding smile.

The scent of coffee is intoxicating. He steps inside, letting the warm air of the cafe sweep around him, chase the chill from his bones and the lingering scent of snowclouds from the wool of his greatcoat.

"Welcome!" The girl beams at him. "I saw you looking from the window!"

"Ah," Javert says, realizing his contemplation may have intimidated, though the girl doesn't look at all disturbed. "I apologize for that." He makes his way stiffly up to the counter, removing his hat and coat. She looks expectantly at him.

"Can I get you something?" She asks, looking for all the world like an overly-helpful shopkeeper. "Inspector?"

He glances up.

"You-" He starts, but she laughs, teeth glinting in the warm light.

"Apologies," she says, smiling, "but your uniform! Do you work at the station across the street?"

Javert's mind goes self-consciously to the patch on the arm of his uniform, exposed from the removal of the covering of his greatcoat. He's unused to any amount of attention being paid to his dress by the general public besides 'oh, fuck, it's a cop!'.

"Ah." He replies, after shaking himself from the slight surprise. "Of course. Yes, my name is Inspector Javert," and, he glances over the menu, "can I get black coffee..." His stomach growls. "And a pain au chocolate."

He's not the type to buy pastry. The order surprises him, but the girl- her nametag reads 'Cosette'- marks down his order and beams up at him.

"Sure!" She chirps before turning and taking two steps, pushing the heavy beige door that, presumably, leads to the kitchen, and poking her head through. "Papa, are those pastry done yet?"

A harried voice comes, muted, through the door, and the girl's father must answer in the affirmative, because Cosette returns in a moment.

"Pastry'll be out in a minute, Inspector." She makes his coffee with swift, decisive movements- Javert regards the sudden deftness of her actions with slight surprise, then thinks to the intelligent sparkle in her bright eyes behind the gleaming smile, and realizes he shouldn't be taken aback. She's a capable girl. "Here's your coffee, there's sugar and cream over there if you should wish it-" She gestures towards a small table to the side of the counter.

"Thank you," Javert says, taking his prize in his hands and trading it for a few neatly creased bills. It's warm, and a heavenly smell wafts from the lid.

"Cosette-" A voice- a man's voice- comes from behind the door, still muted but much less so, "here are the pastry, is everything alright in the front-"

Javert blinks.

His first thought is that the man who emerges from the doorway- silver-white hair, probably a handful of years older than Javert himself, wrapped in a green shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a beige apron - is very attractive. His second is that this is the Cosette girl's father. His third is that the golden, buttery pastry lined on the tray, like delicious soldiers in a row, in his hand smell fantastic.

His fourth is that he thinks he recognizes this man from somewhere.

But from where?

The man stops in his tracks when he sees Javert.

"The front is going fine, Papa," Cosette says, not catching onto her father's sudden reaction, or the turmoiled thoughts of the man across the counter who has prompted it, "and the Inspector has bought a pastry, so could you please hand them over?"

The man- Jean, his nametag reads- jerks as though he's been shocked, shaking himself and hastily nodding. Javert frowns. He could swear he knows the man from somewhere.

"Of course," Jean smiles, though it seems a little wan, "Inspector, thank you for your patronage."

He wraps one pastry in a piece of brown paper and hands it off, the corners of his eyes crinkling, and Javert purses his lips and takes it- the man has done nothing to him, besides look vaguely attractive and vaguely familiar, but already he has that rising feeling in his chest, like he's a dog on a scent.

"Thank you," he says, instead of voicing any of his thoughts, and he retreats to a back table, resolving to drink his coffee and eat his pastry slowly enough to regain his composture sufficiently as to return to the precinct and not behead the first beat officer to ask him an inane question, but not so long as to neglect his post. He doesn't turn, but he feels the man's eyes tracking the shift of his shoulder blades under his uniform.

~~~~~~

Javert taps his pen against his desk. The ever-bustling sounds of the precinct leak through the cracks between his door and doorframe, and he stares unseeingly at a form for arraignment of a prisoner, or something. Darkness begins to fall outside, but the lights of the precinct's main room bleeds through, and he has neglected to turn on a light- the room is suspended in half-darkness, Javert's face cast into barely-illuminated shadow. If he were making any attempt to focus, he would find he could barely read the words on the page before him.

Jean.

Madeline's.

The feeling in his stomach says he's seen those eyes before.

He growls inaudibly and shakes himself, because he's an officer of the law, goddamnit, he shouldn't be so easily distracted by a man he only thinks he's seen before, no matter how the man's face abraises at the back of his mind.

(The taste of the coffee and that flaky, delicate, lightly sweet, all-too-indulgent pastry lingers like an afterthought on his tongue.)

~~~~~~

Three mornings later, Javert is early.

He pushes open the door to Madeline's. There's only a handful of patrons sitting at the tables lined along the wall, and Javert makes his way to the front counter without obstruction. The two at the counter today are an almost-ginger, pale-faced boy and a brown-haired girl-

He blinks.

"Inspector Javert?" The girl stiffens, then consciously relaxes, as if suppressing an instinctual reflex.

"Thénardier?" He says.

The boy glances between them. The Thénardier girl's nametag reads 'Éponine'- and yes, Javert remembers her name being something like that- and his 'Marius'.

"It's not every day you run into the man who arrested your parents," she replies, answering Marius's unasked question. Javert tenses.

"They were criminals of the worst disposition-" he begins, realizing as the words leave his mouth that they're both very defensive and entirely inappropriate, and dear God, he'd only wanted a cup of coffee, not a guilt-trip.

Éponine folds her arms.

"I know that," she says, "Monsieur l'Inspector, I am a legal adult making an honest living-"

"What can we get you?" Marius hastens to intervene before their shop is taken up with painful debate. Javert purses his lips. He's not one to talk of children being unable to raise themselves further than unsavoury parentage, so he keeps his mouth shut and asks for a black coffee.

He takes his drink at the table nearest the counter, feeling like a great big black greatcoat of a blotch in the homely, warmly-lit cafe, quietly taking in the knowledge of the Thénardier girl- a nasty case, involving one of the tightest crime rings in Paris, and one that had helped make his career- working at the odd little cafe across from his station. He's not above admitting he half-eavesdrops on Éponine and the Marius boy's conversation for a bit, but it seems to be mostly innocuous idle chatter, so he tunes it out after a while.

Until a new voice joins the fray.

He looks up, a surprising ten minutes later- he's not one to lose track of time, but it has seemed like much less than that- to see Jean at the front, conversing with the two young baristas. Javert catches some mention of mille-feuille, fresh almonds, and the name 'M. Valjean'. At one point, Éponine catches sight of him watching out of the side of his gaze and points him out, probably in not-too-kind words, but Jean smiles at him and inclines his head, and Javert feels an absurd flush rise to his face.

This is ridiculous. Javert tips his hat in return, finishes the rest of his coffee, and sweeps out of the shop in a non-melodramatic manner.

~~~~~~

It isn't until later that he realizes he now knows the mysterious Jean's full name. Jean Valjean. It sounds familiar. The thought itches in the back of his head, but he can't pursue it because M. Gisquet and Chabouillet are both riding him- the former blatantly, the latter more subtly- about the proceedings of the arraignment of some gang of street thugs that's been causing some trouble at the markets on the Rue de Rosiers.

"Damned," he mutters, "blasted, wretched, uncooperative people-"

The new officer looks sympathetically over Javert's desk, where he's assisting with poring through witness reports. They're not very helpful. No one but the street vendors care about a missing crate of apples or an overturned cart.

His stomach grumbles. It's far past the lunch hour, but he's Inspector- he's accustomed to long, early work-days with little food and even less reward for his efforts. Tonight he'll return to his tiny, sparse apartment, kick the heating unit when it decides to die on him during the coldest part of the night, and ignore the sound of constant dripping that's hopefully coming from outside his window as he tries to sleep.

He wonders if Madeleine's has sandwiches.

~~~~~~

Valjean is the one at the front counter one day.

Madeleine's is quickly becoming Javert's one vice- he's always been weak for good coffee, and working on one of the larger streets with cafes lining the cobblestone doesn't help his temptation. On the other hand, he could not justify the extra expense to himself or his bank statements, not when he mends his own clothes to avoid the threadbare elbows of his shirtsleeves offending the public, but Madeleine's coffee is so pleasantly inexpensive for a shop in the midst of the bustling urban center of Paris he wonders how they've been affording the rent. He's seen Cosette, Éponine, Marius, and a handful of others- a blonde boy with intense eyes, a rumpled brown-haired boy, one with remarkably curly hair and sideburns and one with a permanently dopey smile on his face. Half of them recognize him by sight. He fears he's becoming too comfortable, but the easy atmosphere of the cafe is addicting.

"Ah," Valjean says, his glowing smile warmer than any incandescent light in the shop, "Inspector Javert! Can I get you something?"

Javert bites back the sarcastic reply- why else would he be here if not for a caffiene fix- in favor of inclining his head, because there's a saying about biting the hand that feeds you, or something. He removes his hat instead and brushes a scattering of snowflakes off his shoulders before asking for his regular- a black coffee. Even though it's warm in the shop, he shivers slightly when Valjean quotes his price to him in his very nice voice.

In the next moment, he shakes himself out of it and hands over the money, taking his usual table, just near enough to the counter that he can hear what the staff are saying, at the right angle to sip his coffee and observe the street out the window and watch the door to his station.

After a few minutes, Valjean comes to his table and sets down a cup of steaming coffee and a plate with a delicate petit-four in front of him. He stares, perplexed, at the pastry before looking up at the man with a question in his eyes.

"I don't have many regulars to test new pastry on," Valjean says with another of those damnable smiles, though it's belayed a bit by his wide shoulders and broad chest hovering over Javert. "Allow me?"

Javert almost- almost!- stammers, and it's a close call. He bites his tongue instead, trying to reply, because Valjean is suddenly very close and watching him quite intently, and he really has no choice but to pick up the tiny, crumbly pastry and take it into his mouth, feel it melt on his tongue like a puff of dusted sugar, and take a drink of coffee.

"It's a bit sweet," he says automatically, licking his teeth, because he can't lie, "but very sweet things have never been my forte."

He glances up, and Valjean is looking at him with an oddly considering look on his face- only because of the pastry, Javert tells himself, or maybe because he also recognizes Javert from somewhere like he does Valjean.

"It's good, though," he hastens to add. Valjean chuckles.

"Thank you for your input, Inspector," he says, turning away, but almost on instinct Javert's hand shoots out to grab Valjean by the wrist. The other man freezes, and Javert drops his arm as though he's been burned.

"I-I apologize," he mutters, "that was- unspeakably rude-"

Valjean turns back.

"Was there something else?" He asks, lips still turned upwards but his eyes shuttered now, and Javert looks helplessly up at him.

"Have we met?" He blurts. "Before?"

And-there- that's what Javert has been looking for, that flicker of recognition that's been concealed behind the facade of good customer service.

"I don't think so," Valjean says, mouth quirking, but it doesn't reach his eyes, and Javert would be tempted to believe him but his experience as a law enforcement professional and his gut tell him otherwise. "I would remember a face like yours, Inspector."

And he ambles back to the counter. Javert frowns after him.

He waves to Valjean when he leaves the coffeehouse, and Valjean waves back, but even as he's leaving the precinct that night he can't figure out the intention behind the man's last statement.

~~~~~~

"So this is the cafe that's contributed so to the fearsome Javert's great mood!" Henry exclaims in a clear display of insubordination and unprofessionalism, beaming like a schoolboy, following him into the coffeehouse, much to his consternation. "A homely affair- I'm surprised, Inspector."

"What was that?" Javert raises an eyebrow, and Henry backtracks, a flush rising to his cheeks.

"I didn't mean-" He starts, but Javert is tired of stringing him along already, so he rolls his eyes and strides up to the counter. As he'd remembered, Madeleine's does have a small assortment of sandwiches for lunch, so he inspects the glass display case, a hand going unconsciously to the scruff on his chin.

"Inspector!" Cosette, who's at the counter today, beams. "Good to see you for lunch!"

Javert's stomach grumbles.

"I feared I may have a riot on my hands if I didn't reveal to Henry the reason for my newfound good humor in the mornings," he sighs, and gestures to where the officer behind him is cocking his head at some decorative plant. He almost groans in frustration. "Henry."

"Yes, sir," Henry comes to the front, glances between Javert and Cosette, and Javert wants to cuff him over the head. He instead reminds himself that violence against junior officers is a punishable offence. They end up ordering sandwiches, and Javert takes his usual table before Henry can open his mouth and make a suggestion as to where they should sit. Cosette plates their sandwiches and brings them to the table. She smiles at them when she retreats.

All in all, Javert returns to the station, Henry in tow, in a remarkably better mood.

~~~~~~

It takes an accident for Javert to remember where he's seen Jean Valjean before.

There's a commotion one day, around lunchtime, when Javert has decided to indulge himself after a week of barely eating, barely sleeping, tirelessly hounding his one lead on the ghostly dregs of the Patron-Minette- they've finally got their last member in chains, and he checks his wallet to ensure he has enough for lunch and maybe a cup of coffee from Madeleine's.

A cart's been upturned in front of the cafe. Javert's stride speeds up at the sound of the spectacle.

"What's happening here?" He begins to ask, before three things happen in quick succession- the crowd parts for his navy uniform and starched collar so he has an unobstructed view of the source of the disturbance, an older man cries out loudly in pain from under the cart, and the broad figure of Jean Valjean ducks under the cart and hefts it upwards in one monstrous, straining movement. A couple of bystanders drag the old man out from under the cart, and Valjean lets it fall with a heavy grunt.

Jean Valjean.

Javert remembers.

When the man- Fauchelevent, or something- has thanked Valjean profusely for rescuing him, and an ambulance has been called to take him to the hospital for treatment of his undoubtedly broken arm, the crowd milling around begins to disperse. Javert sees Cosette and the blonde boy- Enjolras- setting what remains of Fauchelevent's cart to rights, picking up its spilled contents and moving it out of the way of the cobblestone walk.

Javert strides forward.

"Valjean," he says, grabbing the man's sleeve, and Valjean starts, looks around at him. "You-"

"Ah," Valjean says, with a sheepish smile, and Javert suddenly thinks that he must know that Javert knows, and he must also know that Javert knows that he knows, and if they don't get this situation cleared up soon Javert may have a stroke from the little game of cat-and-mouse that they've both apparently been playing. "Javert."

"It's been a while," he replies, feeling emotions flicker across his face in rapid succession- exasperation, frustration, confusion, surprise- "Jean-le-Cric."

Valjean exhales.

"It's been a while since anyone called me by that name, too," he sighs, rubbing his bruised shoulder. "Can we talk inside?"

Javert follows not two steps behind. Valjean leads the way into the shop, instructing Cosette and Enjolras to finish cleaning up quickly and return to the counter. He makes two coffees for himself and Javert, while Javert sits at his usual table, fiddling with the fingertips of his gloves.

"Why did you lie?" Javert asks immediately, as Valjean sets the coffee down in front of him. "When I asked if we had met before?"

Valjean shrugs.

"Cosette knows nothing of my past, man," he says, and the kindly warmth of his face hasn't disappeared, but seems muted. He glances up at Javert. "I heard the Toulon bakery case did quite a bit for your career, though."

Javert snorts.

"There is no reason for you to hide," he mutters, picking up the coffee cup and swirling it absently, "you were absolved of all guilt in the proceedings- the jury ruled you innocent, and you spent only days in prison."

Valjean glances away, then back.

"Nonetheless." He says, but the smile returns marginally to his face as he takes a sip of coffee and looks Javert in the eyes. "It was a surprise to see you walk in my doors, though."

Javert doesn't reply, and busies himself with his own drink. He feels the strangest urge to reach over and touch Valjean's shirtsleeve again, or encircle his wrist in his fingers. He ignores it.

"Will you return?" Valjean asks, still watching him. "We are glad for your patronage."

Javert scowls.

"I wish you had not lied to me," he says, standing in a flurry of coarse black wool, retrieving his cane from where it is propped against the wood of the table. "Thank you for the drink."

He leaves enough money on the table to cover the cost and sweeps out of the door, not looking back, not entirely sure why he's doing what he is- it doesn't matter, he thinks, because Jean Valjean jumbles his thoughts and makes his chest tighten and soar, and it will do good to take some space to sort out his feelings.

Valjean watches him leave with an unreadable look on his face.

~~~~~~

Javert thinks he's going through withdrawal.

It's been two weeks since he's visited Madeleine's, and the entire station is feeling his change in mood. The officers steer clear of him when he stalks through the corridors, a black look on his face, the always-present coffee cups on his desk remaining full and cooling. He tells himself he can find another cafe, but the rest of the ones on the street are either overpriced or not to his taste.

The lights of Madeleine's glow from across the street of the station, taunting him when he arrives in the morning and leaves in the evening and steps out for lunch in between, and he thinks he may go mad soon enough.

He breaks when he snaps at Henry for something as foolish as a misspelling in a witness report. Even Javert can recognize his own behavior is unprofessional at best and unacceptable at worst, and it rankles at him that Jean Valjean should cause such a chip in his armor, and the fact that it is unintentional is even worse. He steels himself to make that trek across the street.

The bell above the door jingles when he pushes it open.

"Inspector!" Cosette smiles at him as though nothing has happened. "We haven't seen you recently! Papa was ever so worried, though he tells me he hasn't been."

Javert purses his lips. The visions of Jean-le-Cric, the man who could lift a millstone on his back, and Jean Valjean, the handsome man with a charming smile who seemed to want to keep Javert around, war in his mind.

"Oh, wait, I'll go get him," Cosette continues before he can even get one word out, "Papa," she calls behind her, and towards the door to the bakery, "the Inspector's returned, isn't that good news?" Valjean comes through the bakery door.

"Javert," he says.

Javert scowls at him.

"Black coffee, please," he mutters, not taking his eyes off Valjean. Cosette looks between them and shakes her head, takes down his order, and Valjean is the one to break eye contact first. It sends a tiny thrill of triumph through Javert's body.

"We're glad to see you back," Valjean says, avoiding Javert's eye now, turning to return to the back room.

"Valjean," Javert says, loudly, watching the way his head comes back around to meet Javert's eye, "do you think I would relinquish the only decently priced coffee on the street?"

Valjean stares at him. His shoulders begin to shake, and soon he's laughing, eyes crinkled, and Cosette looks at both of them as though they're quite mad.

a note about the title:

Borrowed from Wikipedia: In In Search of Lost Time (also known as Remembrance of Things Past), author Marcel Proust uses madeleines to contrast involuntary memory with voluntary memory. The latter designates memories retrieved by "intelligence," that is, memories produced by putting conscious effort into remembering events, people, and places. Proust's narrator laments that such memories are inevitably partial, and do not bear the "essence" of the past. The most famous instance of involuntary memory by Proust is known as the "episode of the madeleine," yet there are at least half a dozen other examples in In Search of Lost Time.

"No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me it was me. ... Whence did it come? What did it mean? How could I seize and apprehend it? ... And suddenly the memory revealed itself. The taste was that of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because on those mornings I did not go out before mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Léonie used to give me, dipping it first in her own cup of tea or tisane. The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it. And all from my cup of tea." — Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time

#valvert #les miserables #jean valjean #javert #les mis #mine #my writing

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pilferingapples · 7 years

Text

Les Mis 2k 3.3: Make It Stop

warning for illness, depression, character death and abuse and incest mentions under the cut, because oh yeah, this disaster is GOING THERE.

OKAY.

Valjean goes over to talk to Marius and the servants at Maison Gillenormand are like "haha, he's still asleep after a long night bangin' your daughter, hahah, good for him, right? NUDGE NUDGE WINK WINK" which like..why. Who does that. No.

but eventually Marius comes down and Valjean is all WELL YOU LOOK HAPPY (because you're banging my daughter) (no seriously this is strongly informing Valjean's delivery) and Marius is like YES but I will never be TRULY HAPPY until I find the man who saved me from the sewers! And...

oh gad

okay I"m gonna have to basically transcribe this to get across the sheer levels of NOPE

Valjean tells Marius that JAVERT IS THE ONE WHO SAVED MARIUS. Marius: ...that makes little or no sense. Valjean: it's super true tho. Marius: ..he killed many of my comrades. Valjean: you can be mistaken about people.

OKAY so FIRST: No, Javert didn't kill ANYONE, even in this trainwreck, second WHY ARE YOU LYING TO MARIUS ABOUT THIS

We will never know, because Valjean leads from that straight into "I was in a convict labor camp" and the whole bread thief-and-escapes thing

Marius , to his credit, responds along the lines of"Well that's a thing that happens, society is so cruel, I totally understand why you kept that secret and it sucks that you suffered this way!"

Valjean, DIRECT QUOTE: You're too soft, Marius. You should become harsh, even ruthless.

YEAH MARIUS, THE WORLD NEEDS MORE CRUELT.Y. THE TRUE MESSAGE OF LES MISERABLES.

Anyway Valjean goes on to tell Marius that Everything is a Lie, and that he, Valjean, doesn't even know Cosette's real name (what? dude yes you do) and that he "bought her for 1500 francs"

Marius, horrified: LIKE AN ANIMAL?

Valjean, trying desperately to climb back on a tall equine: ANIMALS ARE TREATED BETTER THAN SHE WAS THERE

Anyway Marius is like "it's chill, dadbro, Cosette will never hear about it from me, your business is your business--anyway why'd you even tell me?" And Valjean is like "BECAUSE I'M LONELY AND MY BOYFRIEND DIED ;__; "

No seriously , more Actual Dialogue:

Valjean: You have no idea how horrible it can be to be the only one who knows who I really am... Javert knew, but he died...

--OH YEAH I forgot to mention when Valjean was talking to Gillenormand he had a whole speech about how he thought Javert knew him, really KNEW HIM, but it turns out *sob* Javert really neverrrrr saw him theeeeeere and it's SUPER WEIRD , SUDDEN VALVERT OUT OF NOWHERE anyway moving on

Marius is like "o...kay....but like there's no reason to tell me in particular" which is SUPER TRUE this is a crappy thing to dump on him , dude, he was in a coma two weeks ago , but then Valjean is like "I need you... to help me leave Cosette. I don't want to go, but I could ruin everything" and Marius, bless him , is Not About That and doesn't see the need, he's all "...I don't want to hurt you??"

AND THEN okay I Need a Moment To Prepare *deep breath* AND THEN

...MORE ACTUAL DIALOGUE:

Valjean: ...I love Cosette.

Marius: YES! As a father! (like obviously dude)

Valjean: No. I...loooooooove Cosette.

Marius, making exactly the same expression all of us are making right now: I'D PREFER IT IF YOU'D LEAVE.

LES MISERABLES, BY V. C. ANDREWS

and then instead of the usual endgame with Valjean sadly trying to cut himself off from Cosette, we get Creepy Pedo Valjean coming back to the house and trying to worm his way back in while Marius, stuck with a really appalling secret and trying to protect his wife, has to..sfkhsghk...has to cockblock Valjean REGARDING HIS OWN DAUGHTER and THIS IS THE WORST WORST THING

Valjean: so heyyyy has she...asked about me yet? is she missing me??? What'd you tell her, has she realized I'm really still here?

Marius: I told her you're in London on business and I lost the letter you wrote. I'm distracting her with parties and good times so she can forget you (you creepy creeper).

Valjean: tsk, you're not going to make her so shallow. And I have to come home from London sommmme tiiiiime ; ) ;) ;)

Marius: YOU CAN LEAVE AGAIN. YOU CAN LEAVE FOREVER.

Valjean: hahah nooo I caaan't, you have all my moneyyy

and then there's a whole IIIIII DON'T WANT YOUR BLOOD MONEY exchange, and it all ends in Valjean taking back Cosette's dowry AND THEN HE ASKS FOR HIS CANDLESTICKS BACK and Marius is like FINE WHATEVER JUST GO A W A Y and I have never sympathized with a Marius giving JVJ the cold shoulder SO MUCH

and! I can tell! this adaptation wants us to just sort of forget the incest thing! but YOU CANNOT UNFIRE THAT CANNON, MINISERIES. Not when the whole thing's been rife with Valjean ogling Cosette and making jokes about how she shouldn't be in his bed WHEN SHE WAS AN ACTUAL CHILD and comparing her to her lost hot mom and screaming at her when she talked to other people and sending another old man to stalk her and report on her

you have lost all plausible deniability and this isn't an Okay Thing!! At all!! you cannot make it ok!

..but this miniseries is gonna try.

First it has Gillenormand's servant go to the Rue Plumet with the candlesticks and apparently tell?? Gillenormand? that Valjean is in a bad way? And Gillenormand cares, and sends a doctor over, and when Marius finds out he's like wtf, we don't need to have anything to do with that guy, and there's a whole argument with Marius and Gillenormand where Marius CAN"T SAY WHY HE'S MAD ABOUT IT and it's just. So upsetting.

There's a whole thing with Cosette crying because her TERRIBLE STALKER DAD doesn't love her anymore , and if this were any other adaptation I'd just be so sad with her, and I'm STILL sad with her but now it's because she's got a TERRIBLE STALKER DAD and is so deep in the shadow of his abuse that she doesn't even realize how he treated her was wrong

Marius goes on just treading water family-secrets wise and Valjean goes on dying in private until Thenardier shows up and is like I KNOW YOUR FAMILY'S WORST SECRET and Marius is like I BET YOU DOOOOON'T THOUGH and EVEN HERE is like "yeah yeah Valjean stole bread, he paid for it , he paid more than you'll ever pay, don't try to make him look worse than he is"

like it is HIGHLY ESTABLISHED that Marius doesn't care about Valjean's criminal record or social standing; he doesn't think Valjean killed Javert; he doesn't KNOW about Madeleine; there is NOTHING LEFT for him to dislike Valjean for except that Valjean is, you know. A Creepy Creeper. Which is exceptionally valid!

AND YET, because we've just got to go through the Stations of the Canon, Thenardier's AHA BUT HE SAVED YOU FROM THE SEWERS makes Marius go "ugh, FINE" and tell Cosette that Valjean's there

(so they rush over with Cosette in her nightdress? AAAAH)

And then Marius even SAYS he was scared when Valjean said he loved Cosette?? and Cosette is like "...I don't understand but I'm pissed" which is TOTALLY FAIR but also like ...just to be clear...there is going to be ZERO closure on the whole "Valjean wants to molest his actual daughter" thing

we DO get Marius saying "My grandfather is a better person than me"

and we DO get TEN MINUTES of The Worst Valjean dying and rambling on about how no one appreciated him, and Cosette's a Bad Girl for not telling him he was hot sooner,

and Valjean saying he's never managed to forgive IN HIS LIFE holy shit? holy shit

anyway, IN CONCLUSION, Redemption is impossible, once a thief forever a thief, social change is an illusion, and Jean Valjean only loves Cosette because Cosette reminds him of her dead mother, who he only met while she was sick and dying. We’re all damned and deserve it and that’s totally the point of Les Miserables. AND YET WAIT, A GLIMMER OF HOPE AFTER ALL:

it is for me! I AM OUT OF HERE. GOODBYE, TERRIBLE ADAPTATION! GOODBYE.

#Les Mis 2k #Les Miserables #Les Mis #adaptation reviews #warnings for...please check the warnings #incest mention #abuse mention #major character death #y'all #y'all this is SO BAD

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the-crowe-and-the-magpie · 7 years

Text

WIP Meme

Tagged by @caitallolovesyou

This is a callout post to myself TO STOP STARTING THINGS UNTIL YOU FINISH SOMETHING, GODDAMN IT

**Works in Progress**

*Untitled* Quantum Leap Fic #1:

Basically this fic is a leap, like an episode, where Sam leaps into a teenage girl who has just had sex. He comes to find out that the boy she’s seeing is dating her best friend, and is verbally and emotionally abusive towards her. His objective is to get her out of this toxic relationship and break all ties with the boy, though this might mean offloading him onto the friend. There’s going to be vague insinuations of feelings between Sam and Al in this, and also there’s going to be a moment at the very end where they are able to touch, after they leap out together into a new location.

Pity the Tale of Me:

The long-awaited third part to my Modern AU Valvert trilogy. Javert knows that Madeleine is the culprit in a case where someone has been stealing and distributing prescription drugs to the homeless and poor (who need them but can’t afford them). But Javert is conflicted, because he’s let Madeleine see a freer, kinder side of himself, and they very nearly had sex the morning after an eventful night at a Christmas party. Several officers below Javert in rank seem to know this happened, and he’s losing his authority on top of everything else.

Let Us Try to Understand the Mystery of This Thing:

Bear in mind I started this literally several years ago. Basically it’s a mashup of the Sherlock and Marvel universe, where Loki is somewhat reluctantly helping Sherlock and John catch Moriarty, who was mortally wounded when Moran (Moriarty’s sniper) hit him instead of Loki (owing mostly to the fact that Loki is a god). However, one of Loki’s strongest enemies, the Sorceress, has healed Moriarty both for the hell of it and to seek Loki’s end, and see Moran attempt to kill Sherlock. Mixed up in this is a little orphan girl named Molly, who seems to share Sherlock’s clinical interest in the macabre, but takes an immediate liking to John. In this version, John has feelings for Sherlock (a fact Loki uses for his own amusement more than once) and Sherlock is asexual.

You’ve Done Some Bad Things and I Was a Killer:

Characters from the British 1961 film The Singer Not the Song. Anacleto is a boy who grew up not knowing who his father was, and knowing that his mother worked as a prostitute to make money for herself before abandoning her young son completely. He’s living with a drunk, conniving man he calls Uncle, who raises Anacleto to follow in his footsteps; basically, to run the small Mexican town of Quantana by keeping its inhabitants in a state of fear for their personal safety, and by making sure the church has little or no power. This story is a prequel to the film, dealing with Anacleto as a young boy and introducing Locha, the girl who he kidnapped as a baby (in an attempt to impress Uncle) and who now, as a little girl and into her teenagehood, looks up to him and learns certain criminal skills from him, right up to the point where a new priest, one who is not so easily silenced or cowed by threats of violence, arrives in the town. Anacleto, who has never shown any interest in women, finds himself beguiled by this priest, and fights against the feelings which will eventually lead to both their downfalls. Running alongside this is Locha’s eventual growth beyond her mentor, and realizing that Anacleto is poison, and that she can be strong without him.

*Untitled* Quantum Leap Fic #2:

Lovingly nicknamed the Secretary Sam fic. Sam leaps into Lydia Fox, a secretary in 1950s Philadelphia. Unlike in What Price Gloria, Lydia’s boss is kind and fair to the women who work for him, and seems to have a special soft spot for Lydia. It doesn’t hurt that he very closely resembles a young James Garner. Tina is assigned as Sam’s guide on this leap, after both she and Dr. Beeks decide not to put anyone through what happened to Al the last time Sam leapt into a beautiful woman. Al is not aware that this has happened until he wakes up, several hours after Tina has actual entered the imaging chamber. Tina reveals to Sam that the object of the leap is to get Lydia and her boss together, as they are both single and have been in love with one another for several years. Lydia has apparently been hesitant about making a move because her boss is recently divorced and she knows she could lose her job if her feelings are revealed and not reciprocated. The big issue for Sam and eventually Al is that Ziggy specifically says that Sam must consummate the relationship as Lydia, an idea that Sam is secretly not all that broken up about but spells trouble for Al, who might happen to be there to see it.

Our Ruins Will Be Prodigious:

A loose sequel to my Lewis/Hathaway fic “An Assurance of Things Hoped For”. This is after Robbie has returned from New Zealand, mutually separated from Laura. He’s realized his feelings for James, something that was touched on at Jean Innocent’s farewell party (in “Assurance”). He wants to make himself known but even in the midst of his planning, he’s reflecting on his multifaceted relationship with his old boss, Morse. There were nights after or during troubling cases where Morse would reach out to him, sometimes a little forcefully, in ways that went far beyond a professional relationship or close friendship. Memories of these bittersweet encounters haunt Lewis as he struggles with the decision to make himself known to James, or just accept his separation from Laura and stay out of a relationship of any kind, seeing as how poorly so many of them have gone.

#goddamn it I need to finish these #ESPECIALLY THE OLD ONES #I'm calling myself out #christ #fanficion #my fanfiction #fanfic #my fanfic #morse #lewis #quantum leap #sherlock #the singer not the song #AO3 #shut up Sarah #caitallolovesyou #tagged #my wips

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