marching in a straight line;
one of them was left behind,
and then there were...
Nine little lantern-sticks,
hastening not to be late;
the gates closed in on one of them,
and then there were...
Eight little lantern-sticks,
four their records given (Every second lighter is issued a small book called a record to note down any lamps in need of repair for the seltzermen to attend to.);
...,
and then there were...
Seven little lantern-sticks,
still but lantern-sticks;
...
and then there were...
Six little lantern-sticks
left so far alive;
...
and then there were...
Five little lantern-sticks
bolting the cothouse door;
...
and then there were...
Four little lantern-sticks,
struggling to break free;
...
and then there were...
Three little lantern-sticks,
few, yet hardy few;
...
and then there were...
Two little lantern-sticks
stood right before a gun;
one took a bullet to the chest,
and then there was...
One little lantern-stick
thought he would be a hero;
he looked his death straight in the eye,
and then there were zero.
Or (bowdlerised version, the one Aunt Gillenormand 'the Old Maid' used to tell)
One little lantern-stick
took his ladylove to wife;
they cared for one another
and soon brought forth new life.
With our Musain crew plus Éponine, Montparnasse, and later on Gavroche as lantern-sticks suddenly turned fully-fledged lamplighters in the Ichormeer, StrixAlluka actually created a shorter series than The Seed of the Hanged, yet one that delivers a powerful punch in its simple three-act structure:
- I - the training at Winstermill (fodicar drilling, lighting of lamps along the Pettiwiggin... the basics), disappearance of Jehan Prouvaire in the woods, and sudden change of Lamplighter-Marshal after Pontmercy's demise (there is a short custody war for Marius against his maternal family), with suspicions that the new commander of all lamplighters might be a war criminal - Book the First: The Rise
- II - the perilous eventful cross-Ichormeer journey of Q(uarto) Pontmercy from Winstermill to Cripplebolt, having suddenly received a promotion all of them (Captain Enjolras, Lieutenants Combeferre and de Courfeyrac, Sergeant Thénardier the Younger, and their lampsmen of various ranks), in order for the new Lamplighter-Marshal to get them out of the way since they know he's a war criminal (on the way, they encounter Cosette and her companions and chaptins -calendar senpai- as well as Jehanne Prouvaire, who is now in the Right of the Pacific Dove as well and has undergone sex-change surgery; this chara is always meant to be trans by Alluka) Book the Second: The Journey
- III - settling down at Cripplebolt, reveal of a dark secret (R's identity) that makes the whole quarto defect from the ranks and seals their fate, and the subsequent wartime battles against their fellow lamplighters, including a siege of Cripplebolt, betrayed by Montparnasse, in which the party dwindles echoing the nursery rhyme about the ten little lantern-sticks, their wounds, referred to in the nursery tale, being the same as in canon, (Enjolras and Marius mirroring the two polarly-opposite versions of the final stanza). The person Enjolras gets killed for having killed is Franz d'Epinay, in single combat; he and Grantaire are killed off by a shocked Albert de Morcerf. Book the Third: the Fall
Crossover is of course also present in A Light To Their Path, mainly Les Mis/Monte Cristo (Albert and his parents move into Winstermill when Ferran [Fernand: Alluka uses the Catalan names for both him and his wife Mercè/Mercedes] becomes the next Lamplighter Marshal after Pontmercy's untimely death due to an ostensible "stroke"; Eugénie Danglars and Louise d'Armilly, with the same social ranks as in canon, fled their hometown of High Vesting and arranged marriage to join the Right of the Pacific Dove, and became Cosette's senpaitachi Ena and Wiske) ---- even though cameos from other series are added, for instance Ritsu Sohma gets a funny cameo at one point (at the expense of young Lt. Gillenormand when he thinks to have bedded a wench).
Of note is not only that Grantaire is a rossamünderling or humanoid monster (the R on his foundling's swaddling stood for that) who is in star-crossed love with Enjolras... and this reveal leads to the defection of the entire quarto to protect the innocent enemy in their midst. Also that the relationship between Lesgle/Bossuet (a dexter - ie a kind of super with both electric and psychic powers, with arrows like Aang's tattooed on his skin) and Jolllly (his factotum - ie healer manservant), alongside their calendar ladylove Musichetta, is even better developed in A Light To Their Path thanks to the constraints of the setting; one can tell the chemistry - no pun intended - and even feel the survivors' angst once one of them is killed off.
Also of note are Ermengarde Johannitz (St. John in canon), Wendy Darling, and Christine Daaé, as well as Musichetta and Jehanne Prouvaire, as Cosette's companions at Herbroulesse and later on as part of the Takarazuka-esque theatre troupe Eugénie and Louise wind up leading in the ending.
The Mariusette/Lougénie finale is heartwarming straight on, - even after the revelation that Ferran shot himself as per canon when facing the facts that he was a war criminal as a young lieutenant, and his career has been founded on corruption and betrayal. -
At the end, it is revealed that the straight surviving couple, caladine (lone high-ranking calendar) Cosette and herbalist Marius in High Vesting, are singing the "ten little lantern-sticks" nursery rhyme as a lullaby to their daughter Éponine (Catherine in The Seed); they later on watch, for the evening after tucking her to bed, a performance by the queer couple, of a story eerily similar to Swan Lake or the Little Mermaid Disney film with Eugénie as the prince and Louise "Wiske" as the villain enchantress, introducing Christine Daaé in the title role; Wendy and Musichetta as scriptwriters. We then get the POV of Lougénie and Chrisraoul and it's as satisfactory as Mariusette's... (even a marriage between Éponine Pontmercy and Gustave de Chagny, both as toddlers, is discussed in the finale... and these two, as adults, wind up being the authors and compilators behind this epic!!).
The story employs a switching POV chapter by chapter just like Westeros, but generally using the records Combeferre, Feuilly, Marius, and Éponine, as well as Wendy, J. Prouvaire, Musichetta, and Cosette, keep as a framing device and a first-person (think of all these "Dear Diary" fiction and you get the idea).
There are also stories within the story, most of them told as fireside yarns throughout the trip across the Ichormeer; - one of them, told by Éponine, is how the Thénardiers got their inn and it's basically the Cat's Arm legend (the severed paw of a gigantic housecat turns out to be a human hand, and a female nearby has suffered a hand amputation-proving she's the werecat). Also, Courfeyrac, Grantaire, and Éponine sing Bellman songs. LOTS of Bellman songs!! And Carmina Burana!
The Twilight Robbery AU As The Luck Would Have It may have crystallised Enj's first name as Paragon, and Madame Defarge being Madame Thénardier's mother (ie the siblings' maternal grandmother), for all of StrixAlluka's crossovers, but the Half-Continent is a rococo world as enticing as the fortress village of Toll (by Day and by Night), aside from one more territorial and militaristic - and it shows, the leading cast cutting a figure in their military ranks and uniforms - linking A Light to Their Path to El semen de los ahorcados, with uniformed and ranked characters at an academy of adventure setting (well, only at the start of Light compared to Hogwarts AU Seed) as a way to find common ground.
A LIGHT TO THEIR PATH
An Ichormeer Scenario
The story employs a switching POV chapter by chapter just like Westeros, but generally using the records Combeferre, Feuilly, Marius, and Éponine, as well as Wendy, J. Prouvaire, Musichetta, and Cosette, keep as a framing device and a first-person (think of all these "Dear Diary" fiction and you get the idea).
There are also stories within the story, most of them told as fireside yarns throughout the trip across the Ichormeer; - one of them, told by Éponine, is how the Thénardiers got their inn and it's basically the Cat's Arm legend (the severed paw of a gigantic housecat turns out to be a human hand, and a female nearby has suffered a hand amputation-proving she's the werecat). Also, Courfeyrac, Grantaire, and Éponine sing Bellman songs. LOTS of Bellman songs!! And Carmina Burana!
The Twilight Robbery AU As The Luck Would Have It may have crystallised Enj's first name as Paragon, and Madame Defarge being Madame Thénardier's mother (ie the siblings' maternal grandmother), for all of StrixAlluka's crossovers, but the Half-Continent is a rococo world as enticing as the fortress village of Toll (by Day and by Night), aside from one more territorial and militaristic - and it shows, the leading cast cutting a figure in their military ranks and uniforms - linking A Light to Their Path to El semen de los ahorcados, with uniformed and ranked characters at an academy of adventure setting (well, only at the start of Light compared to Hogwarts AU Seed) as a way to find common ground.
A LIGHT TO THEIR PATH
An Ichormeer Scenario
- lanternsticks amis - all + éponine in the same quarto (q pontmercy)
- enjoltaire
- courferre
- mariusette
- lougénie
- franzbert
- jolesgletta
- montponine
- éposette
- enjonine friendly
- courfeyrius friendly
- courfsette friendly
- cosettaire friendly?
- calendar!cosette
- calendar!musichetta
- calendar!eugénie - calendar!louise
- calendar!christine daaé
- captain!enjolras
- lieutenant!combeferre - lieutenant!courfeyrac
- lamplighter sergeant!éponine
- healer!combeferre - healer!jolllly
- dexter!bossuet (with air nomad arrows)
- factotum!joly (with joestar birthmark)
- trans!lamplighter-turned-calendar!jehanne prouvaire
- rossamünderling!lampsman!grantaire
- lamplighter sergeant!sgt. thénardier
- winstermill cook!mme. thénardier (formerly wayhouse landlady)
- lamplighter marshal!pontmercy (dead "of stroke" actually poisoned) and his aide lieutenant théo gillenormand (the foxglove poisoner)
- lamplighter marshal!ferrán mondiego (as successor) - mercè and lieutenant!albert (captain!franz senpai at winstermill)
- lieutenant!raoul de chagny
- foundling!gavroche (joins the quarto as servant from his mum's wayhouse)
- cameos from oc:s
- cameo from lady syntyche vey (as expected)
- cameo from toddler threnody vey
- cameo from hikaru sulu (lamplighter in same quarto as albert+franz)
- cameo from count jean de satigny
- cameo from lt. paul d'arnot (still a polyglot, still goes m.i.a. and returns)
- cameo from lt. charpentier (still d'arnot's childhood friend)
- cameo from alistair mccooley (from oscar pill book series; lamplighter in same quarto as albert+franz, ie q eastwood -- for charles eastwood, not clint!)
- cameo from lloyd asplund + cécile croomy
- cameo from ritsu sohma (as an okama in highvesting)
- and these are only a few of the cameos
- +over with other works
- like hanged men's seed but in the ichormeer instead of hogwarts (and sans condesce or lady alistair or "chewblacka" bossuet)
- like in gankutsuoh; except that enjolras (taking on edmond's role) is the one to duel and kill franz in lieu of albert, and albert kills enj (+r) for revenge
- three acts - winstermill as prentices (academy of adventure) - en route to cripplebolt - cripplebolt
