(no subject)

[never_shall_yield]

 Bonjour, mes amis!

...I have no idea if I've said that right. ANYWAY. Valjean and Gavroche had an interesting back-and-forth last night, wherein Gavroche asked Valjean to find his little brothers and help them (thread can be perused here if anyone's interested). I'm totally up for it because it'll give Valjean something to focus on in his new life - plus, there's no way he'd turn down the chance to help a couple of kids. This led to OOC discussion with Lark and Gen, because obviously it impacts Marius in particular with regards his grandfather paying for these kids who weren't his, and whether Marius knew about this, etc. Plus, we'll have to god Gillenormand's (and Mlle Gillenormand's) reaction to being asked about the kids in order to find them, which I don't think should pose problems, but if anyone has one then do say so!

Anyway, I spoke to Kate while the thread was ongoing and she mentioned that in an ideal world, we could find some way to get Azelma away from Thenardier also. If you're still up for it Kate, this is potentially doable! But it does raise issues with the fact that we'd have to basically NPC a character that is still available for apping, PLUS involving Monsieur T who we did have at one time. And Maru - I know Madame is actually dead at this point in canon, but it's her family we'd be playing around with, so obviously want to get input on what  you think about it.

The vague idea is that Monsieur would turn up and try to blackmail Marius as he does in canon, which obvs won't work because the truth is out re: Valjean. Or something else different entirely, depending on what would work - Valjean knows about Azelma vaguely, from seeing her as a kid and in the Gorbeau house. Marius knows about her. Javert probably does (though likely hasn't taken much notice) through knowing T as a criminal. It would need one or some of these guys to decide to help her - or a nudge from Gavroche? - and then figure out a way to do it...but obviously this is quite a big canon digression, involves godding and NPC'ing characters and needs input from people, so we're just kind of throwing it out there to see what people think/if they have ideas.

Ultimate endgame would either have the kids be in a good school, or paid a stipend (probs from Gillenormand, at least for the boys) to live on. Unless Gavroche wants to have them in London Below? 

SO. Are people OK with us working something out? Maru, thoughts on Madame? I guess we'd also have to figure out whether Monsieur actually goes to America after all - I guess since Javert's AU anyway, he could arrest him and stop him, but I hadn't considered that before now - and also what Azelma's NPC'd reaction to all of this would be. Lark, Gen, did I forget anything? Probably lots.

:D?

Comments

[heartbeneathastone]

For what it's worth, as I said above, Marius will almost certainly still give Thenardier some money.

[yakalskovich]

Then Azelma has that option, and I somehow feel she would stick with it. Mistreating some poor defenseless human beings the way she had been mistreated would probably appeal to her.

In the meanwhile, Dr. Hannibal Lecter is pumping Gavroche for information about how canon is changing -- he would be interested in helping, given the fact that he generally acknowledged to be the Worst At Helping, he could be easily persuaded to do some spot of dirty work nobody else really wants to touch upon, in regard to Monsieur and/or the remainders of the Patron Minette.

[genarti]

The problem, of course, is that there's so little canonical personality to go on for Azelma -- we know she's mistreated and starved and abused, we know she's quieter and shyer than Éponine, we know she's more willing than her older sister to stick with their parents (which may be personality or age or both), and... beyond that, it's mostly guesswork, yeah? Maybe she's got something of her dad's self-centered cruelty, maybe she's just cowed and clinging to the only constants she has, maybe she goes along to America hoping for a fresh start, maybe something else, I dunno. Which is fine for a fic, but in RP gets into the awkward territory of godding characterization for a character that someone might want to app.

As far as I'm concerned, at least, my hope for Cosette's part in this is to avoid having to NPC or handwave anything too detailed regarding Azelma, whether or not we rescue her. Because: laziness!

(As for Lecter, uh, I guess that's up to whether any of the people who are capable of letting him through to Paris would be willing to go for that! I think I can safely say that all the Amis would be going HELL NO NEVER about the entire idea, but they're also not people who can open the door for him anyway.)

[heartbeneathastone]

Ditto on NPC laziness as regarding Azelma. :D

And Marius will probably be disinclined to just let people he doesn't know well into Paris-- and certainly if the amis say that he shouldn't.

[never_shall_yield]

Fwiw, I'm very interested in the idea of Azelma not wanting to be saved, because it's a nice twist rather than 'everyone wants a better life'. But as Gen says, and the reason this post is up at all, is because NPC'ing an appable character is shaky ground.

On the other hand, Valjean is AU now he's still alive, so anyone who did app her would be able to play her however they wanted. Also, if she didn't want to be saved and Marius gives Thenardier money, we wouldn't have to worry about the work of NPC'ing her in future times, because she'd be off in America with her dad.

[genarti]

She could also always take her own share of money, shoot a suspicious and jealous eye at everybody, and vanish. With her dad to be a slaver in America? On her own in France? To make a better life for herself? To embark on a life of crime? Out of 19th-century-melodramaesque coincidental circumstances that prevented her from getting in touch with them again? WHO KNOWS. Possibly a future mun, if one appeared, but not our characters! That might be a good way to give her the means of some more opportunities without specifying what she does with them.

And yes, of course, any hypothetical future mun could certainly play her as being from a different AU anyway. But we've been generally glossing over the differences that make characters from different AUs, including bookverse/musicalverse, so I'd like to leave room for no one to ICly notice the difference in case a hypothetical mun did want to play things that way.

[heartbeneathastone]

Yeah, maybe Marius can be persuaded to make sure that she receives a share of money separately from Thenardier's, and then we can just say they both go off with their money and no one knows if it's together or separately or what happens to them.

[genarti]

If Cosette is -- GASP -- actually involved and talked to, and if at this point she has any memory of the Thénardiers back, she could certainly push for that. Not that she'd want to meet him or have much of anything to do with them, and her feelings on Azelma and Éponine would be solidly It's Really Complicated, but she would point out that there's no reason to trust him to use the money for anyone else's benefit. (And she's Valjean's daughter enough, and bourgeois enough, to be able to roll with "let's just shove some money at them and then never see each other again awesome" as an approach under certain circumstances, like these.)

[harryhotspur]

I like that! And I like that as a conversation for them to have!