ONE HOGWARTS STUDENT'S DREAM (SEEDVERSE FILKS)

I can't stop harping on on how Vento Aureo has much in common with Les Mis (in canon), Passione with the Friends of the ABC, and Giorno Giovanna, a blond, good-looking, and idealistic leader who wants to change the world and make justice, with Enjolras. And in my fan-made AUs, the references just reiterate the parallels. Especially in El semen de los ahorcados.

"I, Paragon Enjolras, have a dream" (and the core members of AS-SORTED doing the Torture Dance) to La Squadra Esecuzioni being anti-villains in the UK Starforce Auror gaiden (and in As the Luck Would Have It, the Toll AU).

During the pandemic, I came across One Cartoonist's Dream, a YouTube channel that makes filk song videos about JJBA, with hero song and villain song fics for every Part up to Steel Ball Run. As I listened recently to the Vento Aureo songs (versions of Go the Distance for the heroes and Kill the Beast for the villains), it clicked that these should be filks for the grand finale of El semen de los ahorcados, the one where everyone except Marius and Cosette (and a few others) dies.

ONE HOGWARTS STUDENT'S DREAM (SEEDVERSE FILKS)

SEE THE SUNRISE (HERO SIDE)

(Stanza 1)

GRANTAIRE:

I was as if dead,

I had quite the fright,

then once more, in my life,

I have seen the light...

ENJOLRAS:

I have got a dream, 

that like gold shines on and on,

and I solemnly swear

a new day will dawn!

(Refrain 1)

ENJOLRAS

And it will come true,

I can see the sunrise,

COMBEFERRE:

Everything you did

earns my sure respect...

COURFEYRAC:

Looking at the road,

long and winding road ahead,

EVERYONE:

It's the future that we will bring 

when tomorrow comes...

(Stanza 2)

COURFEYRAC:

Gather up your guts,

clear yourself a way,

through the deepest darkness

and the darkest wastes...

ENJOLRAS:

My resolve and dreams

show us all our way,

paths illuminated...

the sun won't lead us astray!

(Refrain 2)

GRANTAIRE:

And it's all all right,

I can see the sunrise,

GAVROCHE:

I am going too,

I won't abandon you!

JEHANNE PROUVAIRE:

I have followed through

and my will is true

EVERYONE:

This must be the reason

for which we all were born!

(Bridge)

GRANTAIRE:

Now I choose the path of suffering, the martyrdom ahead

right now, a sleeping zombie rears his head...

(Spoken): I did what I thought was right.

I have no regrets at all.

In spite of the ways of the world,

I want to walk the path I believe in...

ENJOLRAS:

(Spoken): With the legacy inherited from our ancestors,

we must keep moving forwards!

This sword... will make a new dawn rise!

(Refrain 3)

ENJOLRAS

(Sung) My inheritance...

We can see the sunrise

Now we must embrace

bringing truths to the light...

EVERYONE:

Blowing in our souls,

transcending our roles,

there's a shining sunrise

that will rise when tomorrow comes!

(Coda)

ÉPONINE:

Blowing in my soul,

in that empty hole...

there's a shining sunrise

that will rise when tomorrow comes!

******

OVERLORD (VILLAIN SIDE)

(Prelude - before the storming of Hogwarts)

MONTPARNASSE: 

(Spoken) Your Lordship, you should have your way, as usual. You deserve it...

DE SATIGNY:

(Spoken) I can feel a connection to that stripling... he's coming nearer and nearer!

Soon he will be at my feet, and bend the knee before me!

I can almost hear his footsteps!

MONTPARNASSE:

No way!

DE SATIGNY:

(Spoken) We can't rest until that lad is safely in my grasp!

We'll wipe them all out and capture Enjolras alive!

XENIADES CLUB (everyone)

YES, SER!

(Act I)

PRINCE ORLOVSKY:

We'll exterminate them all!

LORD HENRY:

Don't fire till they close in on!

GUNNAR MALSTRÖM:

Give me all of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade

to experiment upon!

COUNTESS CAGLIOSTRO:

Everyone already falters,

who'll come out victorious?

MONTPARNASSE:

We!

DE SATIGNY:´

I am standing on the summit,

follow Jean de Satigny!

(Act II)

DE SATIGNY:

Through the streets in the dark,

a mysterious cloaked figure

moving forth while they're concealing their true self...

MONTPARNASSE:

By the leader's right side,

I'll go where AS-SORTED gather,

and I stay calm and serene like a light elf...

I can feel his life ebb for the poison,

and his eyes only see what ain't right...

Hear the phones in the night,

see their screens burning bright

with blue light...

(Interlude I. The Xeniades Club have captured Grantaire)

MONTPARNASSE:

(Spoken): Don't you dare play with me!

GRANTAIRE:

Are you there? Is that you?

DE SATIGNY:

Grantaire is already as dead as a dodo.

Let me show you the way like this!

GRANTAIRE:

You got here safely...

DE SATIGNY:

Surely Lady Alistair is sensing me!

LADY ALISTAIR:

I don't know where my husband is.

DE SATIGNY:

What is the goal of AS-SORTED?

'Parnasse, please guard this hostage!

MONTPARNASSE:

YES, SER!

(Act II)

MONTPARNASSE:

Overcome the ordeal,

MONTPARNASSE + DE SATIGNY (unison):

Was victorious in my salad days,

the golden stripling is of this the source...

DE SATIGNY:

Climbing up spiral stairs

without feeling any vertigo,

to send you all to Tartarus, of course!

(He drains the potion phial.)

I can feel power rise in my system,

it increases and burns in my veins,

overcoming the past,

for a dream that will last,

on a quest for Enjolras...

AS-SORTED (EVERYONE):

(Spoken) What kind of person are you?

And what are you changing into?

DE SATIGNY:

Changing into someone

who is stronger, better-looking,

everyone cannot help be afraid of me...

This is your requiem,

I feel the potion's power,

brace yourselves for Ragnarök...

This is the end!

(Interlude II.)

DE SATIGNY (in his biblically-accurate camp gay fallen angel form);

(Spoken) Ten times on the inside what I am on the outside...

Ten times on the outside what I am on the inside...

LORD HENRY:

There are a few droplets left! (Picks up the phial and drinks the few droplets that remained).

LADY ALISTAIR:

Sweetie? Is that you? Do you recognise me?

There's no escape, AS-SORTED are coming!

(LORD HENRY transforms also into a camp gay fallen angel, but with cyan plumage instead of magenta)

DE SATIGNY:

You have made these fallen angels quite irate!

LORD HENRY:

Full of sound and fury!

GRANTAIRE:

The best thing for me is to retreat... There's no place for me here!

And the Moon will soon be full!

COURFEYRAC, ENJOLRAS (wands and swords ready):

Will you honour me with this dance??

(The two no-longer Muggle fallen angels draw steel as well)

DE SATIGNY:

If we flee the scene, we'll lose our pride!

(Finale)

DE SATIGNY:

Can't retreat! Must advance!

Qualifying for controlling,

to be the chosen one who quaffed this draught...

I'm the camp overlord,

who at heart not changed the slightest,

I, Count Jean de Satigny,

the overlord!

MOOKS:

OVERLORD!

OVERLORD!

OVERLORD!

ENJOLRAS + COURFEYRAC (unison):

AVADA KEDAVRA!!!

(Enj kills de Satigny and Courf kills Lord Henry. All the Xeniades mooks retreat, while the two revolutionaries stand in shock. As the fallen angels die, both aristocrats regain their human forms)

Updates on AFTER LÜTZEN - Changes to the AU

 You already know from El semen de los ahorcados that Courfeyrac had an ancestor who fought in the Thirty Years' War (and whom he dressed up as for a masquerade -  before the rewrite, in which Courf dresses as Puss in Boots instead). Well, his story is about to be expanded upon, as a StrixAlluka 30YW AU with the Amis as Swedish Army deserters turned guerrilla soldiers of fortune (both their ancestors and who they were in past lives) is underway. It will be in Swedish and called "Efter Lützen". Enj is Prussian landed gentry and R a Moor by way of Marseille (Engelhart Schönherr and Razi/René)... most of the cast will remain French though with a few more exceptions (Musichetta, Leslie - Lesgle, Joellll - Jolllly)... Furthermore, Gustavus Adolphus will play the role Napoleon played in canon Les Mis!

The idea or bunny came partly from that reference to the musketeer Baron de Courfeyrac in El semen, partly from a mention of Lützen in Les Misérables canon, Colonel Pontmercy having fought in the Napoleonic battle. But I could not shake the idea of the 30YW battle off my head and wondered what if Les Mis had been set in that period and all the Amis sans Marius had been killed in that seventeenth-century war. And of course Colonel Pontmercy would have fought in a Swedish-French alliance and been killed at Lützen...

Engelhart Schönherr and Jules Combeferre + Hercule-Joffrey de Courfeyrac. There you have the rittmeister and his lieutenant and ensign respectively, who keep the ranks they held in the Swedish military. The young Prussian of the landed gentry and his French teacher's son, who has a plan to sort out all flora and fauna a century before Linnaeus, both joined the Swedish military in their late adolescence in order to fight for freedom of worship. The young Gascon baron and lieutenant of musketeers came to the heart of Europe as an envoy to the Swedish camp, representing the Cardinal (Richelieu), with a certain Moor by way of Marseille (R, aka Razi, aka René) for a valet (and cupbearer, and squire...).

Enj is actually a Winged Hussar from Küstrin, on the Prussian-Polish border, yes, and those golden angelic wings are as impressive as they sound; he sells them to Sr. Álvarez/M. Thénardier in exchange for a big hen that turned out to be a meat chicken instead of an egg layer - and then, at the tail end of the war, he makes himself new wings, Icarus style, from all the woodland fowls that he's hunted.

Combeferre studied at Leipzig University, but was expelled for being a freethinker (agnostic) and subsequently press-ganged into Catholic service in a tavern (under the influence) then taken prisoner at Breitenfeld and joined the Swedish ranks.

Courfeyrac is from a Huguenot background and he fled Gascony to escape from an arranged marriage to a girl of his rank whom he didn't know.

All of the characters are sharing the same personality and character arcs as in canon, but adapted to the 30YW setting. Pairings are also the same as in the rest of my AUs (Enjoltaire, Courferre, Éposette, Montponine, Mariusette, Jolesgletta, Valvert, Baholly, etc)

Razi (René), the Moor who never has laid eyes on his parents' birthplace of Castellón, started out with his widowed mother Miriam (Marie) on the docks of Marseille; her husband having been killed in a street fight on those same docks. He became a petty servant in Courfeyrac's entourage, and then the Baron's confidant, thanks to circumstances beyond his control.

R was born on the ship from Valencia to Marseille; when Miriam died and he was orphaned, friends of the family on the docks took up a collection to send him to Paris. He happened to save Cardinal Richelieu's shoes from a muddy puddle by throwing his cloak upon the puddle, and became the Cardinal's personal cupbearer, secretary, and cat-feeder. Before being the personal assistant to Courf, he had those ranks and offices for the late King of Sweden.

The Álvarez (actually Thénardier) family - camp followers, confidence tricksters, and corpse plunderers, whose wagon home can always be found when an engagement has just taken place. Cosette's former guardians, who pretend to be Spanish nobles (according to the Thénardiers themselves, he's from Barcelona ---Fawlty Towers reference!--- and she's from Santiago de Compostela). Éponine alone, their firstborn, is not supporting this elaborate confidence trick; unlike her younger siblings Azelma and Gavroche - although the latter joins Engelhart's company alongside his eldest sister, as per canon

Cosette, Marius, and Valjean "the snowy owl..." Innocent orphan adolescent Fantine was, in this era, ravaged by a thirtyish officer when her home village was raided; she entrusted her daughter to the Thénardiers just like in canon for the same reasons and became a worker in a uniform cloth factory in Wallenstein's province of Friedland, with Valjean for an overseer - his backstory is also just like in canon (older sister and fatherless nephews, bread theft, prisoner camp... lock stock and barrel - only sans kindly bishop and with Wallenstein instead).

Musichetta - here she is a North Italian (Ferrarese) opera singer who was soubrette until a while ago to fairytale collector and primadonna her southern friend Adriana Basile (who compiled the Pentamerone alongside her brother Giambattista!). Not long ago, they parted ways when she decided to move up north into the war torn heart of Europe with the half of the company that preferred opera buffa to opera seria - in order to bring smiles to the regions with commedia-dell'arte style plots and gags.

The ending is just like in canon, and framed like the stories Marius tells his daughter with Cosette, Catherine Pontmercy.

Feuilly is now Romany and nonbinary; Jehanne Prouvaire is trans and descendant of Cathars (she hears angelic voices like Jehanne of Arc). Bahorel is still  the thug-faced farm boy with the heart of a plushie. 

Leslie (Lesgle)/Bossuet is a half-Scottish, half Mali mulatto ex-chamber Moor (Moor as in dark-skinned person, not as in Muslim) from a ducal court. And Joly went from being a Sephardic Jew called Joel... to being Jo-Lee "Jo-lee-lee-lee" from Joseon, who found himself in Europe due to mysterious circumstances (due to the historical webtoons I now read, Joseon is now my latest special interest!)

And Montparnasse is still the same old sociopath, a former street rat and self-made officer with a killer instinct...

The group name is now Freiheitskinder (instead of Friends of the ABC) and they at first live nomadically in the woods, then take an abandoned estate mansion, which they call the Engelsnest, as their headquarters

rapsòdia bohèmia en clau de ditiramb

 rapsòdia bohèmia en clau de ditiramb

Per Sandra Dermark – sobre personatges de Victor Hugo,

amb fil musical de Queen

I.

És açò un somni, o és la realitat?

Obre els teus ulls i mira cap a amunt…

Sens escapar, en un racó atrapat…

Del teu despit impossible és fer fum:

calen molts ous i molt d’ibuprofen,

i tu no vols ni sentir ma ferum…

Jo no en tinc d’ous ni en tinc d’ibuprofen;

de simpatia aliena res no me’n cal,

no importa ni la direcció del vent

per a un bohemi fet d’aquest tergal,

que, tan prompte com toca el seté cel,

cau en la desesperació abismal…

*****************************

II.

Vull contar, sense plaer,

en torn al jove Grantaire.

És nat al port de Marsella,

s’acostuma a la botella

i també apren a lluitar.

Un dia mata un català:

d’un colp de peu massa fort

el xiquet li ha donat mort.

De sa mare s’acomiada

i els estalvis li demana:

“Mare, me’n vaig a París,

és urgent i molt precís.

Faré carrera de Dret;

un nou home m’haré fet”.

Una nova vida enceta,

no és precisament d’asceta.

Falta a classes cada dia,

tant en son trellat confia.

I viu, a la capital,

vida com un carnaval.

No creu en res, però heus ací

que descobre el seu destí…

El company més atractiu

desperta en ell desig viu,

però els seus ulls color de glaç

rebutgen besos i jaç

(Mais oui, donc, voilà Enjolras!).

Quant més el company s’aparta,

més vol ell que un llamp el parta.

Per la columna un calfred

li descen: dolor, destret…

I l’ardenta set l’espenta

a ofegar-se en absenta.

“Adéu siau, amant cruel,

de rínxols d’or i ulls de gel:

vaig a una altra realitat,

a enfrontar la veritat.

Tot i que no vull morir,

desitjo mai existir…”

***************************

III.

EL JO.

Veig una petita silueta – un efeb – un donzell…

L’ALLÒ

Chi all’esca ha morso

del ditirambo

spavaldo e strambo,

voglio veder lui

danzare il fandango

e tutto gira intorno alla stanza…

EL JO.

Llamps – trons – gota freda – trombes d’aigua – ensurt que glaça la sang

COR DE LES FADES VERDES.

Come on – you boy-child

you winner – and loser

come on you stranger – you legend – you martyr – and…

L’ALLÒ (director del COR DE LES FADES VERDES).

And SHINE!!

EL JO.

Un bohemi fet d’aquest tergal

no té qui l’estime, tots li volen mal…

COR DELS ESPERITS DE SUPERACIÓ.

Només és un bohemi miserable

d’ascendents marsellesos marginals.

Tot i que s’ha escollit en estes Falles

l’únic ninot que va a ser indultat,

deixem viure a aquest xic sa curta vida

i morir lliure d’aquest fred parany…

****************************

IV.

EL JO.

U, tan prompte com toca el seté cel,

cau en la desesperació abismal…

Digueu-me, m’anireu a alliberar?

L’ALLÒ, COR DE LES FADES VERDES.

Lliure, tu? En absolut, per descomptat!

COR DELS ESPERITS DE SUPERACIÓ.

Tingueu pietat!

L’ALLÒ, COR DE LES FADES VERDES.

Lliure, ell? En absolut, per descomptat!

COR DELS ESPERITS DE SUPERACIÓ.

Tingueu pietat!

L’ALLÒ, COR DE LES FADES VERDES.

Lliure, ell? En absolut, per descomptat!

EL JO.

Tingueu pietat!

L’ALLÒ, COR DE LES FADES VERDES.

Lliure, tu? En absolut, per descomptat!

EL JO.

Tingueu pietat!

L’ALLÒ, COR DE LES FADES VERDES.

Lliure, tu? En absolut, per descomptat!

EL JO.

Tingueu pietat! Tingueu pietat, tingueu pietat…!

L’ALLÒ, COR DE LES FADES VERDES.

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!

EL JO.

Si us plau, si’s plau, sisplau, tingueu pietat!

L’ALLÒ, COR DE LES FADES VERDES.

Per mi, l’infern escons buits ha deixat…

ha deixat… ha deixat… 

********************************

V.

aixina que et creus que

el meu cos és massa cairut

la meua ferum a aiguardent

i a suor de lluites al carrer

els teus ulls blaus disparen dards de glaç

els meus foscos ulls són les dianes

sempre encertes enmig del punt negre

aixina que et creus que,

tu, aroma de lavanda i roses

suau pell blanca i vetejada de venes

com el marbre de Carrara

o el sucre de llustre,

que el que dius és ironia, una figura retòrica

i m’estimes de veritat,

res de compassió, sinó vertader amor

per primera vegada

i per darrera vegada

per a nosaltres dos…

i em deixes morir en el meu estupor

mentre estic dormint

i la fuselleria artilleria armes blanques ens envolten

em deixes morir a traïció amb els meus vicis?

No.

Açò mai no m’ho pots fer, amor.

Ets un cabdill de veritat,

i mai gosaries ni tan sols pensar-ho.

En torn al meu jo el silenci, sol amb els meus pensaments

inquietantment sinistre

espero que tu seguisques amb vida

mentre recullo forces per a eixir d’ací…

**************************

VI.

mentre tot calla

despertar, de nou conscient:

EL LÍDER SÓC JO!!

*************************

VII.

Grantaire s’était levé.

L’immense lueur de tout le combat qu’il avait manqué, et dont il n’avait pas été, apparut dans le regard éclatant de l’ivrogne transfiguré.

Il répéta : Vive la République ! traversa la salle d’un pas ferme, et alla se placer devant les fusils debout près d’Enjolras.

— Faites-en deux d’un coup, dit-il.

Et, se tournant vers Enjolras avec douceur, il lui dit :

— Permets-tu ?

Enjolras lui serra la main en souriant.

Ce sourire n’était pas achevé que la détonation éclata.

Enjolras, traversé de huit coups de feu, resta adossé au mur comme si les balles l’y eussent cloué. Seulement il pencha la tête.

Grantaire, foudroyé, s’abattit à ses pieds.

KOНEЦ.

AMIS DE L'ABC ROLL CALL!!!

 WINE SHOP OF REVOLUTIONARY LOUNGING ABOUT

MARIUS finds new buddies to hang with. They're into revolution and stuff. Are you ready? Roll call!

ENJOLRAS: Beautiful, celibate leader, present.

COMBEFERRE: Philosophical leader, present.

JEAN PROUVAIRE: Poet and musician, present.

FEUILLY: Poor, generous workingman, present.

COURFEYRAC: Witty, playful friend, present.

BAHOREL: Roguish loafer, present.

L'AIGLE a.k.a. LESGLE a.k.a. BOSSUET: Happy, unlucky guy, present.

JOLY: Medical student, present.

GRANTAIRE: Irreverent skeptic with a crush on Enjolras, present.

VICTOR HUGO: Yes, I will be mortally offended if you can't keep all their names straight.

MARIUS: (to his new buddies) OMG you guys, I am such a Napoleon fanboy. Don't you love him?!?!

COMBEFERRE: *sigh* Newbie.

****************************************************

Narrator: Now here is where we put in several descriptions. Enjoy them!

Enjolras: A major hottie. Serious. Gay. Has secret feelings for Grantaire, though he'd never admit it. Is in a polyamorous relationship with Grantaire, Feuilly and the Narrator. Is born into the rich family, though he cut ties with said family over a difference in opinions.

Combeferre: A large nerd. Loves watching insects. There had been many a time when he inconvenienced bug-catchers by cutting their nets open. Also has a flair for dramatics.

Courfeyrac: The anti-Tholomyes. Respects the rights of women. Has a crush on Marius.

Feuilly: A working class representative of the group. The true son of France. Loves to discuss political situations in other countries, especially Poland.

Bossuet: A bald man who is especially unlucky. Is married to the Narrator as of Chapter 12, though they are in open relationships.

Joly: Bossuet's flat-mate. A hypohondriac.

Jehan Prouvaire: The only member of the group with the canonical first name. Is born into a rich family. Is an even bigger nerd than Combeferre. Friend to all living things, including plants. A member of Green Peace group, or whatever equivalent there was in 19th century.

Bahorel: The muscle of the group. Has no sense of direction. Gets lost easily.

Grantaire: Also known as R. The Narrator affectionately refers to him as their chaotic kinnie. Has feelings for Enjolras, which may or may not be reciprocated. Tends to fall asleep during the meetings rather often.

Marius: An affiliate of the group. He rarely shows up, and when he does, he mostly talks about Napoleon and his love life.

WHERE THE DAY EMBRACES THE NIGHT

But Grantaire, still keeping his tender and troubled eyes fixed on him, replied:–

“Let me sleep here,–until I die.”

———————————————

are you all having a miserable barricade day(s)?

I sure am.

_{“This barricade is made neither of cobblestones, nor of timbers, nor of cold iron; it is made of two mounds, a mound of ideas and a mound of sorrows. Here misery encounters the ideal. Here the day embraces the night, and says: I will die with you and you will be born again with me." [Enjolras; volume v, book i]}

LA FÉE VERTE - FEUILLETON INTRODUCTION

La Fée Verte - Une nouvelle en cinq chapitres

A rather silly and somewhat strange retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen story.

Originally printed in the 2017 Advent calendar Once Upon 24 Times and owing much to Hans Christian Andersen. And CLAMP. And Kunihiko Ikuhara. And Pink Floyd. And Genesis. And William Shakespeare. And Michael Ende. And Günter Grass. And Julio Cortázar. The list is endless. 

Last year, I had the Fairytale Tarot by Lisa Hunt given to myself as an encouragement gift, right before Christmas (Spanish edition, published by Editorial Sirio). And I had the idea to let 2017's Advent Calendar be based upon the premise of drawing a card of the day from that deck and retelling the tale as a fic, a story with original characters of mine, or a poem.

It turned out to be a most pleasant surprise. Many bunnies from my old bunny farm came back, all of them pêle-mêle, thanks to that impetus.
Including the one for an Enjoltaire Snow Queen AU. A bunny which had been lying dormant for years, like a puzzle whose pieces I was struggling to put into place: Enj as Gerda and R as Kai, first things first: Grantaire is the realist at best and cynic at worst, dark-haired, stubbly, more muscular one (making him the more masculine-looking one) and he struggles with addiction but still has Enj for a guiding star and redeeming factor... Enjolras looks distinctly girly, with long golden hair, and a slender waist and limbs, and is dressed in scarlet, just like Gerda (most illustrators and character or costume designers have her wear red to symbolise the warmth of her feelings; the icing of the cake is the royal velvet ensemble in Christian Birmingham's illustrations, trimmed and frogged with golden soutaches making her look even more Enjolraic)!

You see what I mean? 

And here we can see her with Kai

And most surely Marius and Cosette as the Prince and Princess. A better-looking dark-haired bohemian and his fiancée-young wife; also, my straight OTP to mirror my queer OTP in the leading cast. And the Mariusette pairing arc in canon also mirrors the Fourth Story subplot of the fateful test-interview (not to mention Shakespeare's Portia, which was most likely the inspiration for Andersen!). The hair colour of the princess is something that fluctuates between adaptations: Christian Birmingham made her a brainy brunette, for instance, Edmond Dulac gave her powdered hair, and in the Atamanov film and Manuel Sumberac illustrations, she is a ginger. Fair nutbrown, like caffè latte, in The Fairytaler. But there are versions, like the Elspethdixon fic or the Nicki Raven retelling, or the illustrations by Sanna Annukka or Enrique Bernárdez or Rie Cramer (below), in which she is golden-haired or Titian-haired, as a young adult Gerda to her prince's young adult Kai -and of course Cosette may be the straight Enjolras to Marius's straight Grantaire!

Sanna Annukka 

 

Enrique Bernárdez

Rie Cramer

The next piece fell into place the winter before the AU was published (2016), as I did the FutureLearn MOOC course "Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales", and had a chat with a French coursemate of mine. Our chat went on something like this:

• Fabienne Ellis23 NOV
• Going back to the Robber girl...is it just me or does she remind anybody of Gavroche in Les Miserables or rather the depiction of Gavroche on Delacroix's painting "liberty leading the people",where, just like the robber girl, he brandishes his two pistols ?
  ...or maybe that is just me being far too French..

Sandra Elena Dermark Bufi

23 NOV

Yes, she reminds me of both Éponine and Gavroche.

23 NOV (Fabienne)

True, she has Eponine's plucky personality too ! 

Sandra Elena Dermark Bufi

23 NOV

And she renounces to Kai to let him have his Gerda, much like Éponine when it comes to Marius (only that, unlike Éponine and the Little Mermaid, the Robber Girl does not sacrifice her own life).

Emma Robertson 24 NOV

Okay, I have to see Les Miserables now!

And from that moment on, I had cast the robber maiden in my Enjoltaire fusion. The icing on the cake is that the Thénardier girl is the spitting image of the dark-featured robber maiden!
With her Maman as the robber woman and the rest of the Patron-Minette as the other brigands.

Christian Birmingham

Anastasia Arkhipova

I felt that I had left 'Ponine to deal with the korrigans and not given Enj enough demanding tasks by means of having him run thrice around the fort. So the thorn bush came in handy; it also echoed Sleeping Beauty and added more symbolism of warmth and blood to the story and to Enj's character arc in both canon and this Snow Queen fusion.

Rie Cramer

Angela Barrett -- this illustration inspired A LOT of the Enjonine chapter

But still something seemed to be amiss. It took yet another year to realise that the original Andersenian Snow Queen was not the right villainess for the story.

After re-reading Les Misérables and re-watching Moulin Rouge that winter 2017, and then a subsequent re-read of The Silver Chair, it suddenly clicked. It just said click when I thought of the Green Faery of Absinthe, as a Lady of the Green Kirtle - click, like that - and the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. It all suddenly made sense. The shard of the shattered mirror of truth was, in consequence, replaced with absinthe - the green blood of the temptress - as the catalyst for Grand'R's downfall.

I had the bunny for a Snow Queen Enjoltaire AU just like this one since long ago. Including whom to cast as the prince and princess, and the robber maiden (some unrequited, one-sided Enjonine, aside from obvious Mariusette!): I knew exactly how they would fit into the grand scheme of things (ie Cosette, Marius, and the Thénardier family). As well as the whole "Enj is Gerda and R is Kai" thing, and not the other way around, knowing who was the most feminine and the most masculine of the two (and, the icing on the cake: Enj is a blond in scarlet, while R has this addiction...). This classic adventure story fit this pairing, just like it fit Jaimienne, like a glove. Et voilà, it became my first Enjoltaire, and my first Mizzie, story EVER!! I figured out how to fit most of the Les Mis characters into it, for one thing. That bunny took a while to star the Green Faery as the titular villainess (I must clarify she is not my OC, but still she is the Green Faery from Moulin Rouge, with a dash of Lady of the Green Kirtle; while the Mizzie characters look as they do in the musical film of 2012... except for Enj's hairstyle: that long golden queue is from the WMT anime and the manga by Arai, aside from the SunNeko Lee manga! And I am as weak for men in low ponytails as for Enjoltaire... In the animated version, all the characters would be just like in the anime Shoujo Cosette or the Arai manga, but the Green Faery would look like Alala in Pichi Pichi Pitch!).

Alala - though I imagine her as older and larger, though with the same Perky Female Minion personality!

A lot of inspiration also came from the Laboulaye story "Perlino" (http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12120/pg12120-images.html), a Snow Queen/Pintosmalto nineteenth-century French retelling with an addicted, frozenhearted love interest "saisi d'une soif ardente" by the drug he ingests dissolved in liquor, but saved in extremis by a persistent heroine (this is the same plot, but adding Andersen elements and at least slightly queered, starring my Mizzie OTP!).

An illustration of a frozenhearted Perlino (in canon, like in this illustration, he looks far more like Enj than R, but no matter)

 Also, the effect of the intoxicant, including the withdrawal symptoms, is that of rauha. I just adore this take on the fairytale sleeping-draught and thought of absinthe with rauha...  There are also "Goblin Market" references in the form of that bloodstained awakening kiss... and Rossetti's poem, the third fairytale that inspired me for this AU, is also one of the great Victorian fairytales concerning drug addiction and sacrificial love, starring a queer couple (Laura and Lizzie, said to be "sisters," and living under the same roof; but, just like the "sibling" bond of Gerda and Kai, or Enj and R for that matter, this may rather be referring to moirallegiance). The final releasing kiss, that thaws the frozen heart, and much of the scene there I paraphrased in prose from "Goblin Market", in particular from this illustration (just think these two are Enj and R, hair colour obvious, and not Lizzie and Laura respectively)!

The potion being made from the villainess's blood and trapping the antihero in an addiction-fueled toxic relationship is from the cautionary tale "La adormidera" in the collection La vida de las flores, another of my sources. The story being a cautionary tale, however, ends in a far more tragic fashion - unlike Kai or Laura, Martín has no one to look after him and save his life, and he dies of an overdose. 

From the MOOC, I also took another Andersenian element that I mentioned as being echoed by Oscar Wilde in my comments, the painful ordeal of embracing a thornbush: As for the barren thornbush that blossoms when watered with heart's blood once a loving character's chest is pushed against the thorns...
That qualifying test of warming the thornbush had always been a poignant image, all the way since childhood. Jacob Böggild, the educator on the MOOC, gave the following analysis of the qualifying test of the thorns:
[···] contains several of the basic components of the folk tale.
[···] initiates a quest to get [···] back. Before being able to meet and fight [···] adversary, [···] must overcome a number of obstacles. 
Firstly, in order to acquire information about which way to go, [···] must [···] and then warm up the thorn bush with heart blood. 
But the story is also a psychological allegory; an allegory about what one could call the work of mourning.
[···] mental pain is then translated into physical pain by the thorns which draw blood. 
And I replied to Böggild: "as for the thorns-into-chest-heart's-blood-make-barren-rose-bush-blossom, it's such a beautiful metaphor for the good that can spring out of suffering." So a thread sprung from this, just like the Éponine/robber maiden simile:

Ritva-Liisa Cleary

30 NOV

Thank you for pointing to the other similar 'rose/thorn' stories. I read the episode as partly physical pain, but also indicating the psychological pain or sharing pain with others - other people benefited from empathy.

-----------------------------

22 NOV

I would add to the symbols of deep sorrow the scene with thorn bushes. If 

 [···], can the scene with the bushes, when  [···] clasps the bushes to  [···] breast and they go deep into [···] flesh and blood comes out, symbolise that  [···]  hurts [···]self unconciously in pain?

22 NOV

Jacob BøggildLEAD EDUCATOR

i think the physical pain reflects or symbolizes mental or psychic pain, Gayane.

Marianne Stecher-Hansen points out that "this sacrifice may represent the creator's sacrifices for their art: when one's blood flows for the thorn bush, it is the artist offering their heart to the public." Just like both Enjolras and Yours Truly, and so many other authors who have echoed the motif, have done. The motif has been echoed in subsequent literary tales by Oscar Wilde and Magda Bergquist. 
I just felt that such a cathartic motif would never be out of place in an Enjoltaire gothic fusion fic like this; it encapsulates Enjolras' character perfectly (and also echoes the refrain of La Marseillaise to a certain degree = ie the blood that will water the meadows and furrows of France). That qualifying test of warming the thornbush had always been a poignant image, all the way since childhood. I felt that I had left 'Ponine to deal with the korrigans and not given Enj enough demanding tasks by means of having him run thrice around the fort. So the thorn bush came in handy; it also echoed Sleeping Beauty (the prince making his way through) and the Tireur d'Épine in the first chapter, and added more symbolism of warmth and blood and hearts/chests to the story and to Enj's character arc in both canon and this Snow Queen fusion. Furthermore, the Biedermeier (early Victorian idyl) style in which the original tale is written unfurled in the 1820s-1830s that are most popular choice of setting for illustrators, theatre groups, and filmmakers when it comes to adapting Andersenian tales. The same historical setting of Les Misérables, long story short.
As the AU went on, it gradually unfurled into a novella, even longer than the French versions that Louis Moland and Alexandre Dumas translated of "La Reine des Neiges" by adding more detail (their mis-translation of Finnmark as "la Finlande" aside). And that notwithstanding that I pruned away all the big-lipped alligator moments in the Andersenian tale: the middle and last thirds of Story the Third (the whole flower garden of eternal springtime) and the first half of Story the Sixth (the Saami wise woman, just like a bureaucrat, merely redirects Gerda to the Finnmark wise woman with a message to deliver). So, cutting out all these big-lipped alligator moments, the basic story of The Snow Queen fits neatly into a classical Shakespearean five-act structure, I thought; and the five-act structure was implemented into this Enjoltaire fusion.

Also, Éponine became a Finnwoman+Robber-Maiden composite. I couldn't find the right people in the Mis-verse... I thought of casting Fauchelevent/Valjean as the owner of the springtime garden, but I was obliged to portray him as Cosette's guardian, so I have skipped that chapter entirely (and got earlier to Mariusette)... Ditto for finding out who would be the Finnwoman.

Then there was the inspiration from Shakespeare, from symphonic rock tunes and lyrics (Genesis: mainly Lilywhite Lilith, The Musical Box, and The Fountain of Salmacis - Pink Floyd: Crazy Diamond, Lunatic, Wish You Were Here, any song dedicated by Roger Waters to Syd Barrett [might as well be an Enjoltaire song, sent from the leader to the drugged prodigal without whom, at the end of the day, makes the group what it is]- Yes: that Roundabout that became the ending tune to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure sagas 1 and 2), from Celtic lore, from Mylène Farmer videoclips (where the French popstar has always got something of Éponine in her), from One Piece (kuroashi fighting style, which was inspired by savate), from the anime adaptations of CLAMP manga series, and many other sources; aside from my own Mediterranean upbringing and first brushes with the Scandinavian climate...

*********************************************
It wound up being faaaaaar longer than its Westerosi counterpart and spiritual predecessor, The Queen Beyond the Wall, because there is so much more lore (knowledge, culture...) to nineteenth-century France, and to nineteenth-century Europe as a whole, than to Westeros!
However, the story "La Fée Verte" I have published for Once Upon 24 Times was sentenced to be but a Director's Cut, due to the constraints of the size limits of blog posts.
It seems that La Fée Verte is exceeding the length allowed by the size limits -I have had this problem before with other fics-. So I cut out most of the commentaries -and the epilogue- from the original document in order to make it fit. I hope I can write as much as I want about this world and these characters... I wish I could, indeed. XOXO
As mentioned earlier, if your one post already exceeds the 1MB limit, there is little you can do except to split that article into separate posts.
"Your readers might be happy, if you were to segment your narrative..." I heard that advice and resolved to pay heed to it.
There is autopagination. So there is nothing to do but surrender, and leave this as but a draft-first version-director's cut of the integral story (ditto for the Baratheon saga, I must say).

And thus, for this year's Samhain (this is a pretty adult, scary version, though not bereft of fluff) I decided to post the uncut version in chapters.