Another sketch. I ended up not bothering to take the laptop to be fixed after all. orz Sooo… let’s just hope it won’t blow up. But at least until then I can draw more.
And of course here I go posting just the sketch again. I’m just so laaazy. I’ll finish these eventually. Once I they start bothering me enough (actually the first already kinda does…) This one is a bit more finished, though. Or the people are. Probably because it gave me more trouble. Or maybe I’m just getting used to drawing?
Left to right: Jehan (drafting a petition), Courfeyrac (one arm around Jehan’s shoulders and feet in Marius’s lap), Enjolras and Combeferre (“conspiring”), Marius (with Courf’s feet in his lap and trying to help Cosette with her books even though he can’t get up), Cosette (lugging a giant stack of books about alternative energy)
Okay, those books look more like the collected works of Victor Hugo… Also I’m pretty sure that stack ways way more than Cosette could have carried. Maybe she’s just super strong, I guess. xD Can you inherit strength from your adoptive father? (Shut up.) Btw my Cosette headcanon is that she has one those adorable upturned noses. Not sure if I drew that very well (it’s hard from this angle) but whatever. I can still change it if it’s too much.
Actually this set up makes Courf look kinda like an asshole. xD Well, let’s imagine he’s about to lift his feet up so Marius can go help Cosette?
ENJOLRAS WITH A BLUE SHIRT. *everybody faints out of shock* Well, the author said he had clothes in other colours than red! I took advantage of the opportunity. He looks so awkward, though. I had to draw him like three times practically from scratch and I’m still not satisfied. By now I’m just so tired of drawing him that I can’t right now.
Okay, okay, I admit, he looks weird without red clothes… I didn’t expect this to be so jarring. I did consider making his notebook red. Should I? Make it The Little Red Book of Chairman Enjolras?
No ladybug sweater for Jehan. I’m saving it for later. (Okay now I gave it away, yeah, I’m actually planning on doing even more of these. orz Um… I just got inspired? I like fun stories… They’re fun to draw. (Also I’m procrastinating on school work. Always the best inspiration, isn’t it?))
This sweater… well, funny thing, actually. I originally drew it kinda cute and actually almost like something I might wear. Then I looked at it and went “wait, no, it’s supposed to look horrible”. So I redesigned the whole thing and now it kinda hurts my eyes. xD But er… mission accomplished? I think. (Okay it’s still cute. Just… in a different way.)
Oh, right I made Jehan left-handed… I just always sort of imagine him as left-handed? Idk. Also Grantaire and Lesgle. Unless otherwise mentioned I’ll always draw those three as lefties. I can change this, though. Not a big problem.
Yes, I know I’m still missing characters. Like the bloody protagonist, for a start. That’ll be handled next.
So as you can tell this is just a sketch but I’m impatient and I know I’ll have to take my laptop to be fixed tomorrow so I won’t be able to draw this properly. So, a sketch it is! (Honestly I might just sketch a bunch of pictures and then later do them all properly. It’s kind of more fun that way, no need to get stuck on one picture for a long time.)
I’m so glad I asked about their looks (yyyeah, that anon was me. Idk, I’m nervous about messaging new people sometimes and I wasn’t sure if I’d actually get around to drawing this so…) because OMG WONDERFUL DETAILS. I would have loved to hear those things even if I wasn’t drawing fan art! 😀 They helped a ton too.
Left to right: Feuilly (trying to read), Bahorel (arguing with Musichetta), Musichetta (arguing with Bahorel), Joly (poking Bossuet), Bossuet (about to be poked by Joly)
Somehow I ended up starting with the side characters…. Idk, I just felt like drawing them first? I had this sketch for a big group picture but then I decided it was too big and split it up. I’ll draw the others too, eventually. Once I get my computer back, I suppose.
Of course Bahorel had to get a kitten shirt, come on! How could I NOT?!
(I was considering using the suggestions but I just happened to run into this while googling Schrödinger’s cat shirts and it was just too good not to use. Perfect Joly! Seriously, tell me he wouldn’t reply like that to the “is the glass half-full or half-empty” with “it’s full! Because the other half is full of air!”)
For the record, I know practically nothing about Homestar Runner… I just googled “homestar runner shirt”.
Musichetta’s skirt is supposed to have some cool pattern but err… it just looks weird now. Ignore it please. Also don’t ask about her hair. It was a good idea in theory.
I would have given ‘Chetta and Bossuet hats but… couldn’t be arsed to. Maybe if I draw another picture. Musichetta didn’t get a cool jacket either, sorry. 😦 (They’re indoors!)
I meant to draw their bags on the floor but then I forgot. Oops.
Two angels in a garden / have nothing to explain
Two soulmates intertwining / don’t have a need for words
Yes, I dreamed of being / the one in Marius’ arms / to take her place
But seeing them like this / so heaven blessed / there’s no jealousy left
They walk by / they don’t know / it’s their story
It’s like chance / looking out / for some luck
They were sent / to this world / for each other
Born to act / as the leads / of the play
They came down from the clouds / Radiating in their grace
To make themselves a path / of love above this Earth
They barely shared a glance / but they could recognize...
Without a single doubt
Happiness / fits quite well / in their story
A blind man / in his heart / he could see
But their joy / as it is / may hurt others
When they don’t / have a role / in the play
But in a two-man act / There’s no lines for the rest
We are just the crowd that cheers
They walk by / they don’t know / it’s their story
Mr. Chance / has just met / Lady Luck
Loving one / now means loving / the other
That’s the lesson / to learn / from the tale
Holy shit. O_O
Omg, wow, I DID NOT EXPECT THIS. Holy shit. Wow. Brb, trying to figure out how words work again.
Okay, that was amazing. And I am definitely in favour of translating this song into English too. There were maybe a couple of lines that sounded a bit awkward? I mean at least to me, though I know I’m not native so… But then again others sounded just perfect.
It’s like chance / looking out / for some luck ^This sounds a bit off to me but I don’t really know how to fix it either.
They barely shared a glance / but they could recognize… ^I think in English this needs the “each other”. Otherwise it’s kinda like “recognize what?” Maybe it could be in the next line, in place of the “without a single doubt” which is not entirely necessary, I think.
Okay that’s all the criticism I had, actually. xD; The rest was wonderful.
Mr. Chance / has just met / Lady Luck ^This. This is just perfect. Great translation of the line. 😀 (And I love the original line so… good job!)
Actually the whole last verse (is that what it’s called? A verse? Or stanza? Is that just in poetry? Sorry, I don’t know words. The last four lines.) It’s beautiful.
But seriously, amazing work. Both with the singing AND the translation. This was like way more than I was expecting or even hoping. o.o Thank you! ❤
That’s it, I thought I’d keep this one simple. Because I need to try and describe this to you. Because some serious feelings happened. Not sure if anybody cares but…. hey, my blog and all.
My visit to this place, or its timing specifically, was kind of a coincidence, actually. My original plan had been to go there on Saturday but Dad vetoed it since first he wanted to go to the Notre Dame (the queue was ridiculous. No, we didn’t go in.) and then he decided that he was too tired to make another detour and wanted to go straight back to the hotel to rest. (We still walked there and could have easily just walked past the spot but oh well. I figured I could go there later.)
My plan B was to go there on Sunday afternoon, after I’d visited my other must-sees. I’m so, so glad I decided to change that plan on the fly.
What happened was that I woke up early and left the hotel sometime before nine, alone. Dad wanted to do his own thing (plus he didn’t want to wake up so early) so we’d agreed to split up and meet in the afternoon. My plan was to go to the Châtelet metro station and take line seven to Place d’Italie to go see the Gorbeau Tenement. But, as it turned out, line seven wasn’t stopping in Châtelet because of construction works or something. There was a sign suggesting that I should walk either to the Pont Neuf station or the Pont Marie station and take the line from there.
My first thought was that obviously I should go to Pont Neuf, since it was closer, but then I thankfully realised that I could pass Javert’s suicide spot on the way to Pont Marie.
This was an excellent decision.
I can’t even begin to describe how much better it was than if I’d gone there in the afternoon. No, this is definitely a place that should be visited early in the morning when nobody else is around (unless you have suicidal tendencies; in that case take a friend with you or go later in the day, just to be sure (sorry, I just… worry about the whole suicide thing because of Reasons)). Sunday morning is probably even better. It’s downright eerie, how quiet it was. Just a couple of joggers and that’s it. And these are definitely not quiet streets normally.
There’s something absurd about walking right in the middle of the busiest centre of a city of millions of inhabitants and at least thousands of tourists and barely seeing anybody.
It was such a peaceful morning and it was nice to walk alone by the river. I can’t even… I suck at describing it now. But it was just perfect. And (once I got there) really chilling because of the scene in question.
But anyway, the actual place.
First the Prefecture of Police of course.
A view from Quai des Gesvres (the higher level). This is right between two bouquiniste’s boxes, which were of course closed.
Steps down to Voie Georges Pompidou and the view east where the sun was rising. (Also two people! zOMG!)
Pont Notre Dame
Pont au Change
Île de la Cité, Quai de la Corse and the Triburnal of Commerce is the building on the right.
The water. Can you see those swirls?
I couldn’t help thinking that this would still be a good place for a suicide even now… >_<; Please don’t take that as a suggestion, take it as a warning. I’m sorry I keep saying this but I’m paranoid about the subject. Because of Reasons.
And Pont Notre Dame again.
So, anyway. I had all of the chills because of the Javert feelings and the loneliness and everything.
And then on top of it all on Île de la Cité rang the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, BELLS OF NOOOTTTRRREEEE DAAAAAAMMMMEEEE
Yeah, they started ringing while I was taking my pictures and they kept ringing half the way to Pont Marie. At this point a few cars started appearing too and a few more people. But the ~magic~ of Paris in the morning was still there.
A couple of off topic pictures from my way there since this post isn’t going to have anything more anyway:
Île Saint-Louis (left) and Île de la Cité (right). Just for the pretty. Here it’s even nicer to walk, btw, because the lower level gets a walking lane too and stuff.
Graffities on the pavement by the river next to the Hôtel de Ville. “Proud Dykes” and “Proud Trans[people]” or something like that. I dunno how to translate the latter because the word fières is a feminine plural but I’m not sure what the feminine is implying here. Is the word trans feminine? Does it imply transwomen specifically? Is it short for “personnes trans”? Is it just for the hell of it? Don’t ask me. But it’s a nice little graffiti anyway. (Edit: actually never mind, now I think I get it. Note to self: always try Google first.)
Map:
Pont Marie was too damn far so I left it out. I doubt you need it anyway.
The fact Marius is canonly quite attractive but unaware of it is one of my favourite of his little quirks as it resulted in him running away from a girl and crying until Courfeyrac had to explain to him that he was handsome.
Hi! I know I’ve been kind of inactive lately… But I did manage to at least write something.
Actually I meant to continue The Little Birds but… this one is more fun to write. ^^; I kind of take that one too seriously so I end up feeling like nothing I write is good enough so it’s just going nowhere where as this is just something I write to amuse myself.
Oh well.
Okay, this time: Lesgle and Valjean M. Fauchelevent go see Musichetta and Courfeyrac’s team makes it to Montfermeil. Btw, don’t expect future chapters to be this long. I don’t know what happened with this one.
Btw, I know I’ve said I don’t like people predicting the future in fiction and I did have another possible idea for Musichetta in this ‘verse but in the end I just felt like it was too obvious not to use, the fortuneteller’s eyes thing.
Oh, I almost forgot: a million thanks to pilferingapples for the idea for Bahorel’s power. It’s perfect. I just hope I managed to execute it as well as it deserves.
The bit with Musichetta is great, and a really good job of talking about her powers without just inbfodumping. I LOVE what you did with Bahorel’s superpower, that is EXCELLENT, I’m so glad you went that route!
I feel kinda like I’d like to comment on this because I kinda live in a country that’s more-or-less a Nordic welfare state (less so nowadays but still…) but I’m not sure if I have the energy right now…
Well, I will say that sadly at least Finland is going more right wing all the time nowadays. There’s some massive propaganda around against the welfare state and it bothers me. Also there are a ton of problems with the system but I kinda suspect most of them could be fixed by just not cutting funding for services. Not all problems but a lot at least.
But hey, remind me to talk about how higher education is free here and you get paid to study… I’m not kidding, that’s literally a thing here. Seriously, guys, the way some countries *coughusacough* treat their students is not okay. I keep telling people about the system here because I want you all to get angry and fight for your rights.
…
ANYWAY, I’d like to point out that Ha-Joon Chang, an economist in the Cambridge university, has made some really good points about how this model actually makes economical as well as moral sense.
Here are some quotes from his books (though mostly just one of them):
On the effects of “big government” on growth (emphasis mine):
A well-designed welfare state can actually encourage people to take chances with their jobs and be more, not less, open to changes. This is one reason why there is less demand for trade protectionism in Europe than in the US. Europeans know that, even if their industries shut down due to foreign competition, they will be able to protect their living standards (through unemployment benefits) and get re-trained for another job (with government subsidies), whereas Americans know that losing their current jobs may mean a huge fall in their living standards and may even be the end of their productive lives. This is why the European countries with the biggest welfare states, such as Sweden, Norway and Finland, were able to grow faster than, or at least as fast as, the US, even during the post-1990 ‘American renaissance’.
About Korean job market insecurity:
As in our Korean example, a lack of job security can lead youngsters to make conservative choices with their career, favouring secure jobs in medicine and law. This may be the right choice for them individually, but it leads to a misallocation of talents and this reduces economic efficiency and dynamism.
On the realities of being unemployed in the US and it’s effects on those still working:
Most US workers are unable to put up an organized resistance, but those who can – unionized workers – will, understandably, do everything they can to preserve their current job distribution.
Comparison to bankruptcy laws (different rules for corporations and people again) (emphasis mine):
As the above examples show, greater insecurity may make people work harder, but it makes them work harder in the wrong jobs. All those talented Korean youngsters who could be brilliant scientists and engineers are labouring over human anatomy. Many US workers who could – after appropriate retraining – be working in ‘sunrise’ industries (e.g., bio-engineering) are grimly holding on to their jobs in ‘sunset’ industries (e.g., automobiles), only delaying the inevitable.
The point of all the above examples is that when people know they will have a second (or third or even fourth) chance, they will be much more open to risk-taking when it comes to choosing their first job (as in the Korean example) or letting go of their existing jobs (as in the US–Europe comparison).
Do you find this logic strange? You shouldn’t. Because this is exactly the logic behind bankruptcy law, which most people accept as ‘obvious’.
Evidence (emphasis mine, also I cut a lot of the numbers to keep this short; if you want them, send me an ask or something):
Until the 1980’s, the US grew much more slowly than Europe despite the fact that it had a much smaller welfare state. For example, in 1980, public expenditure as a share of GDP was only 13.3 per cent in the US […] Despite this, between 1950 and 1987, the US grew more slowly than any European country. […] Obviously, the size of the welfare state is only one factor in determining a country’s economic performance, but this shows that a large welfare state is not incompatible with high growth.
Even since 1990, when the relative growth performance of the US has improved, some countries with large welfare states have grown faster. […]
The interesting thing, however, is that the two fastest-growing economies in the core OECD group during the post-1990 period are Finland (2.6 per cent) and Norway (2.5 per cent), both with a large welfare state. […] Sweden which has literally the largest welfare state in the world […], recorded a growth rate that was only a shade below the US rate. If you count only the 2000s (2000-8), the growth rates of Sweden (2.4 per cent) and Finland (2.8 per cent) were far superior to that of the US (1.8 per cent). Were the free-market economists right about the detrimental effects of the welfare state on work ethic and the incentives for wealth creation, this kind of thing should not happen.
The problems of welfare state and what kind of welfare is better (according to HJC) (emphasis mine, also I added a paragraph break for easier reading):
Of course, by all this I am not suggesting that the welfare state is necessarily good. Like all other institutions, it has its upsides and downsides. Especially if it is based on targeted, rather than universal, programmes (as in the US), it can stigmatize welfare recipients. The welfare state raises people’s ‘reservation wages’ and deters them from taking low-paying jobs with poor working conditions, although whether this is a bad thing is a matter of opinion (personally I think the existence of a large number of ‘working poor’, as in the US, is as much of a problem as the generally higher unemployment rates we see in Europe).
However, if it is well designed, with a view to giving workers a second chance, as it is in Scandinavian countries, it can encourage economic growth by making people be more open to changes and thus making industrial restructuring easier.
Also, from another chapter:
The best way to boost the economy is to redistribute wealth downward, as poorer people tend to spend a higher proportion of their income.
Also, competition is supposedly the basis of capitalism and competition is only possible if everybody can participate fairly (again, emphasis mine):
Equality of opportunity is not enough. Unless we create an environment where everyone is guaranteed some minimum capabilities through some guarantee of minimum income, education, and healthcare, we cannot say that we have fair competition. When some people have to run a 100 metre race with sandbags on their legs, the fact that no one is allowed to have a head start does not make the race fair. Equality of opportunity is absolutely necessary but not sufficient in building a genuinely fair and efficient society.
― Ha-Joon Chang, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism
And this quote is just wonderful (and relevant to the video’s point about people supposedly not having incentives to work):
why do we need to make the rich richer to make them work harder but make the poor poorer for the same purpose?
― Ha-Joon Chang, Economics: The User’s Guide
(Guys, seriously, read his books. At least 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism. It’s very readable, even with minimal knowledge of economics and it offers some great rebuttals to conventional arguments in favour of the current ideals.
I’m sure there are other books like this around too but well, I happen to own this one so I tend to refer to it. I’m not an economist, btw, not even close. My background is one introductory course on economics and just reading some socialist theory, that’s it.)
What if Gavroche’s real name was Jean, though? (Gavroche was just his name for himself, wasn’t it?) And maybe Éponine’s middle name was Jeanne! It totally works! And maybe Fantine’s missing mother actually named her Jeanne too but nobody knew.
Hi! I know I’ve been kind of inactive lately… But I did manage to at least write something.
Actually I meant to continue The Little Birds but… this one is more fun to write. ^^; I kind of take that one too seriously so I end up feeling like nothing I write is good enough so it’s just going nowhere where as this is just something I write to amuse myself.
Oh well.
Okay, this time: Lesgle and Valjean M. Fauchelevent go see Musichetta and Courfeyrac’s team makes it to Montfermeil. Btw, don’t expect future chapters to be this long. I don’t know what happened with this one.
Btw, I know I’ve said I don’t like people predicting the future in fiction and I did have another possible idea for Musichetta in this ‘verse but in the end I just felt like it was too obvious not to use, the fortuneteller’s eyes thing.
Oh, I almost forgot: a million thanks to pilferingapples for the idea for Bahorel’s power. It’s perfect. I just hope I managed to execute it as well as it deserves.
OH MYYYYYYYYY. I swear this gets better everytime!!! i cannot imagine how much better it would be if you wrote in your language, but still, as i told you before, i would buy 100 copies and make it an obligatory friendship reading if you ever decided to go pro.
and i love bahorel’s power lol is the best thing ever. also, puns.
is there a story behind cosette’s last name?
and, musichetta as yuuko is perfect btw.
^///////^ Thank you~~! ❤❤❤❤ You’re too nice, gah. I’m blushing. (Seriously, though, thanks… I was worried nobody was reading this anymore.)
I love Bahorel’s power too! I can’t take the credit for that, though. 😀
Cosette’s last name: I’m not even sure if I remember because I came up with it so long ago… I think I just looked up like names used when the name isn’t known, you know? Because nobody knows Fantine’s surname so I thought it would be a kind of a stealth joke. Not sure if it worked. xD; I didn’t ask any French people whether it is a thing or not. (Probably should have.)
Yeah, I wasn’t even meaning for ‘Chetta to be like Yuuko (well she isn’t really, I’m just being silly) but I’ve always liked the scene right in the beginning where she’s like “Watanuki Kimihiro, Watanuki Kimihiro…” and then she tells him about himself. (spoilers for xxxHolic: rira gubhtu vg’f gbgny ohyyfuvg orpnhfr fur NYERNQL XARJ NYY BS GUNG)
Idk, somehow I just ended up sort of equating several the characters in this fic with CLAMP characters without even really meaning to. xD; (Wait, is Lesgle Himawari then? That makes a weird amount of sense. Not in relationship terms (although HimawarixYuuko would be hot… if kinda creepy) but you know, personality and problems.)
Okay self, stop talking about CLAMP in your Les Mis blog.
liberté • égalité • amitié 