Until an awkwardly airborne winged inventor with goggles on his face crashes through the roof, stunning himself and dislocating an arm, then having to hide in the wardrobe till he recovers; yet giving the prisoner his first look through a hole full of twilit evening sky.
From that moment on, everything changes, and not only for Paragon Enjolras, but for two of three nightling siblings and brave smugglers brave enough to go between Night and Day whose mother runs a pleasure-house, a drunken nightling artist and good-for-nothing fight club regular, a dayfolk-turned-nightling literary translator and hopeless romantic, the mayor's pampered stepdaughter among the dayfolk, the nightling-born self-made guildmaster of the Locksmiths, and of course the foreign fashion designer and his dayfolk inventor partner; not to mention, dayfolk and nightlings and strangers alike, the entire community at his feet...
Much of Twilight Robbery, and by proxy As The Luck Would Have It, takes place in a town called Toll, which is perched on the edge of a precipice with a raging river (the Langfeather) at the bottom. Toll's bridge has been worn and warped by time and weather, the rock of the ridge is crumbling and the little walled town has no army worth mentioning to defend it, and yet its townspeople are smugly confident. Why? Toll contains the mysterious 'Luck', and all the locals believe that no disaster can befall them while it lies within the walls of the town. As to what sort of thing the Luck really is, it is the person born under the most fortunate signs in the community.
Toll is two towns in one. Toll-by-Day appears a bright, safe and prosperous provincial town, where the streets are mysteriously clean each morning. As dusk approaches, the good people of Toll-by-Day slam shut their doors and tremble. New openings appear in the shadows, a black carriage rumbles through the streets and a wicked underworld emerges. It is time to discover Toll-by-Night – and it's a very different place.
The Committee of the Hours has the all-important task of deciding who has the right to live in Toll-by-Day, and who must be sent to Toll-by-Night.
The Frances Hardinge's Twilight Robbery AU As The Luck Would Have It may have crystallised Enj's first name as Paragon for all of StrixAlluka's crossovers, but it does more than so. It sews the Les Misérables characters perfectly into the niches of the people of Toll, be they dayfolk or nightlings (since they are a lot of them basically counterparts, or so Alluka has seen it!!); Éponine stands in perfectly for Laylow (with little brother Gavroche as a sometimes-accomplice), Théodule Gillenormand (by proxy for his family, here wealthy war profiters from an estate on Toll's outskirts) for Lord Feldroll of Millepoyse, Marius for Brand Appleton, Cosette for a reluctant Beamabeth Marlebourne who is actually manipulated by her fiancé (much like Anthy Himemiya, and she equally defrosts - being far more Anthy than Beamabeth), Valjean for Beamabeth's adoptive father Mayor Graywing Marlebourne, Javert for Locksmiths' GuildMaster Aramai Goshawk (an unusually corrupt Javert, with La Squadra di Esecuzioni plus Tiziano and Squalo as his Locksmith underlings)... and Enjolras for Luck of Toll Paragon Collymoddle, to the point that the character lacking a first name gets that of his counterpart, canonising the full name of Paragon Enjolras in the Allukaverse.
PS. The other Amis are also there - most notably Grantaire, cause you can't spell Enjoltaire without R, and he's a bohemian, drunken nightling who is a crazy artist (think something like Goya but younger, or Dalí but less cosmopolitan) He's partially based upon Clarín from La vida es sueño.
The Rapunzel elements also come into play at large, with a long-haired blond kept away from the outside and sheltered in a tower, until the outside knocks on his window-door (or rather crashes the roof of the tower using leather and clockwork wings) and flat out tells him what he's missing... that he realizes being the Luck is not an honour but a prison sentence. So basically mashing up Les Mis and the history of Toll also brought with it an Utena-esque deconstruction of Rapunzel (with some Happy Prince elements thrown in), echoing Calderón's dramatic play La vida es sueño; as he will finally set foot outside the walls of the tower, live between two drugged trances for a while in the outside world, and return to the outside of his own free will to start a revolution... Also, Courfeyrac, Grantaire, and Éponine sing Bellman songs. LOTS of Bellman songs!!
Now for the person who literally crashed into the clocktower rooftop and spent half a year, arm in a sling and fed in secret, in the Luck of Toll's wardrobe. Having left too-provincial Toll in order to see the wide world, Combeferre returns an accomplished scholar, able to fly over the walls of his birthplace, yet unsure of how his relatives will accept the marital partner he has chosen, the famous Ludist fashion designer and Baron de Courfeyrac, who introduced him to the revels of the Feast of Dolls (basically las Fallas) and the Ludist pastry specialty that 'Ferre at first, as well as many dayfolk of Toll, call "cracking bush" (croquembouche). The far more open-minded and cosmopolitan Quadaran quadrant of Ludia, from the Four Dead Queens universe, is the scene for a great many Courferre flashbacks in this series. And so is the Altavian mountainside village of Paleth, next to Bahaka, the Altavians' cavern entrance to the underworld (see Crankrats, Chapter 19); a lushly green rural village society where gender is no object - the powerful local chieftain Sayleen is a platinum-haired pregnant young woman, divorced from her raven-haired ex-wife - lady-of-war-courtier Lady Torren at the Garrison (the ruling council of Altavia) - and remarried to a redheaded young man; and her scar-faced brother Sigvald, who shares her hair colour (he got his scars when he stood for his sister in a blood match, an old Altavian tradition where you call your opponent's blood into question and fight till they submit; he fought for Sayleen because she was pregnant with her toddler daughter Alaana at the time and could not risk it), he has a raven-haired husband called Cyran (I guess it's pronounced KAI-ran, like "Kieran") and both are guards at the village gate --- there in Paleth, surrounded by greenery, Combeferre and Courfeyrac harvest yams and cabbage in the communal sowing plot, play kaeva - a popular Altavian strategy board game - for days on end, and, most importantly, get bonded, ie married Altavian style. Sometimes Altavian people find a kindred soul in another. So they split their pains and bond their blood. They become family, comrades-in-arms, or sometimes lovers or marital partners, such as Sigvald and Cyran. It's a very sacred pairing, blessed by the Great Mother, the only goddess in the Altavian religion. The bonding ritual is performed by both bonded slashing the palm of their hand and then shaking hands or high-fiving one another. In such a way, Combeferre has become Courfeyrac's bonded and vice versa. (PS. Ludist society is so into free love that there is no marriage; as a wise strategist/statesman would say; "Perhaps an abundant lifestyle permits more egalitarian views, ...")
Until nostalgia sets in and Combeferre decides to return home with his bonded in tow to tell his parents and siblings he's still alive... Then, Fish-out-of-water shenanigans ensue for Courfeyrac in Toll, both by day and night.
Soon everyone is embroiled, on one or the other side, dayfolk or nightlings, aware or unaware of the scheme, on a plan by the Locksmiths to abduct the Luck of Toll. And it all begins like Gurren Lagann, with two lads looking up at the twilit evening sky -- Enjolras, as he puts Combeferre's arm in an improvised sling of bedsheets, before concealing him from his keepers in the wardrobe (in a pretty Third-Reichy hiding-a-persecuted-person move).
Though, though at first this starts with Courferre (not to mention friendly Enjolferre) as the only pairing in Act the First, there is Enjoltaire in this story!! (as well as Mariusette, and Mariunine, and Montponine, and Éposette, and Valvert, and Tizialo -- each pairing gets as much screentime, showing a series of parallel vignettes of the happenings in Toll, by day and by night, that entwine gradually until flowing together as one)
The town of Toll in Twilight Robbery takes the prejudice Up to Eleven, as half the population not only have to wear badges proclaiming their status as nightlings to the world and live and work as second-class citizens, but are not permitted to exist during daylight hours, and must hide themselves indoors until night. The fact that it is totally nonsensical is, of course, the point.
Rousseau Was Right: The dayfolk of Toll live their lives thinking of the Night people as the local bugbears. However, when fire threatens Toll in the climax, the residents of Toll-by-Day smash through locked doors and false walls to save the nightlings.
The Scottish Trope: Pretty much Toll's policy. Don't talk about what goes on after dark, don't go into detail about the Luck of Toll, don't question the curfews, and really don't acknowledge the weird jingling noises that come at dusk and dawn.
Though, though at first this starts with Courferre (not to mention friendly Enjolferre) as the only pairing in Act the First, there is Enjoltaire in this story!! (as well as Mariusette, and Mariunine, and Montponine, and Éposette, and Valvert, and Tizialo -- each pairing gets as much screentime, showing a series of parallel vignettes of the happenings in Toll, by day and by night, that entwine gradually until flowing together as one)
The town of Toll in Twilight Robbery takes the prejudice Up to Eleven, as half the population not only have to wear badges proclaiming their status as nightlings to the world and live and work as second-class citizens, but are not permitted to exist during daylight hours, and must hide themselves indoors until night. The fact that it is totally nonsensical is, of course, the point.
Rousseau Was Right: The dayfolk of Toll live their lives thinking of the Night people as the local bugbears. However, when fire threatens Toll in the climax, the residents of Toll-by-Day smash through locked doors and false walls to save the nightlings.
The Scottish Trope: Pretty much Toll's policy. Don't talk about what goes on after dark, don't go into detail about the Luck of Toll, don't question the curfews, and really don't acknowledge the weird jingling noises that come at dusk and dawn.
- Toll is not an important town, but it is built on the ruins of a castle. There are giant walls enclosing it, tight security for the two gates, and the enormous Langfeather river as a moat on one side. What's more, the town owns the only bridge crossing the river, so everyone wanting to travel south has to go through Toll.
- Crapsaccharine World: Toll-by-Day is peaceful, welcoming and remarkably sanitary. Too bad it's hiding Toll-by-Night, and both are effectively ruled by the Locksmiths.
- Psycho for Hire: This is what the mayor of Toll believes the Locksmiths to be. He learns why this is bad idea when they steal the Luck.
- according to town traditions, the Luck must live locked away in the clock tower.
- Master of Unlocking: The emphasis on "Master" is why the Locksmiths Guild is The Dreaded. As they build all the locks and strongboxes in the Realm, they always have the means to open every single one of them; Nothing is safe from the Locksmiths.
- The Syndicate: After they realized a Master of Unlocking makes for the best thief, the Locksmith Guild became the synonymous with the criminal underworld. The Guild Master is, for all intents and purposes, The Don.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: The Locksmiths seem to be an all-men gang at first, but then we learn that the Guild Master hires ladies, too.
- Conspicuous Gloves: One sure way to identify a Locksmith is that they wear gloves at all times to hide the key-shaped brand burned into their hand.
- Counterpart Culture: The Fractured Realm is meant to resemble 17th century England. There are also mentions of travelling "gypsy" girls in the Realm and the Seissian islands, which sound like a representation of Iran/Turkey/Arab lands or some blend thereof.
- Master of Unlocking: The emphasis on "Master" is why the Locksmiths Guild is The Dreaded. As they build all the locks and strongboxes in the Realm, they always have the means to open every single one of them; Nothing is safe from the Locksmiths.
- He has famously small and tender white hands and wears a chatelaine, like the rest of the Locksmiths - chatelaines were normally an attribute of housewives.
- the Locksmiths, who otherwise fulfill the position of The Dreaded in the Realm.
- Fictional Holiday: The Night of Saint Yacobray, a Grim Reaper-esque figure who is patron to killers and rides a skeletal horse called the Clatterhorse. The traditions are vaguely similar to Halloween, with children going door to door, asking for treats, with hobbyhorses made to look like Yacobray's steed. In Toll, however, the night is used by the Locksmiths as a creative way to extort money, with the Night townspeople leaving vegetables with coins hidden inside on their doorsteps, symbolically feeding the Clatterhorse. If the nightlings don't pay up, more than a few cabbages and potatoes go missing.
- Gilded Cage: The top room of the clock tower where the Luck of Toll is kept. Paragon Collymoddle/Paragon Enjolras, the current Luck, is given expensive food and clothes, sleeps in a downy bed, and plays with dolls all day, but hasn't been outside in twelve years. It's not until someone comes crashing down his chimney and flat out tells him what he's missing that he realizes being the Luck is not an honour but a prison sentence.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: As the name implies, the town of Toll has steep prices for whoever enters its walls.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: The truth about the "Luck" of Toll is a relatively mundane version of this. Whoever has the best, most majestic name in all of Toll is locked away in the top of the clock tower, so their innate good fortune will spread to the whole town. It just happens that the person with the best name is Paragon, a boy of much youth.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: This philosophy is the reason Toll-by-Night is a moral cesspit as well as a poor slum. After the Committee of Hours decides you are a ticking time bomb unworthy of existing during the day, it's hard not to become the liar, thief, cutthroat, or anarchist your fate determines you to be.
- Fortunately, the people of Toll are especially uneducated and superstitious people, so it works.
- People being forced by their government to wear badges that publicly announce they were "born wrong." Like with the Nazi regime.
- Locksmiths' Guild - once they only made locks and strongboxes, but now act as a mafia providing a wider range of security services. A Locksmith will always wears gloves as the outline of a key is branded on his right palm. The head of each cell wears chatelaine at his waist which match the brands of all the men that answer to him.
