valvert soulmate au where the scars you gain appear on your soulmate and javert is constantly tugging his sleeves down over his wrists to hide scars that can only have been left behind by handcuffs
Look I love the idea for this au but I feel the need to point out that canonically, Valjean would have scars around his ankles and neck, not on his wrists. Which makes things slightly more interesting imo.
But what makes things REALLY interesting is that he would:
A) probably have flogging scars on his back
B) have the brands “GAL” (along with a fleur-de-lis) on his sternum and “TP” on his right shoulder, from being sent back to prison after M-sur-M (they didn’t brand prisoners during his original sentence but they did for his second one). This would mark him undeniably not only as a galley slave but as a galley slave sentenced for life.
Consider:
-Javert, who is not even a prison guard yet, randomly getting razor-blade scars on his scalp for no discernible reason, as somewhere, perhaps hundreds of miles away, Valjean is getting his hair shorn off by a prison barber with a blunted blade (because Valjean doesn’t have any money to pay for a sharp one)
-Javert slowly developing scars around his ankles and neck, just as he’s looking into working for the bagne, and slowly realizing what it means as he watches the convicts drag their chains around. His ankle and neck just … constantly fucking itching and irritating him, oh my god. He keeps pretending he’s just adjusting his collar or stockings but that’s not it at all
-Javert lashing Valjean only to immediately double over in crippling pain himself, OR watching a fellow officer or superior lashing Valjean only to feel it himself, and then trying desperately to hide what’s going on, even as he comes to the horrified realization of what it means while the man is literally being bloodied in front of him, and there’s still A NUMBER OF LASHES TO GO
-Because he already figured out it was Valjean back in Toulon he tests to see if the mayor is Valjean by injuring him somehow … OR, the mayor gets injured in front of him accidentally (during the runaway cart episode?) and HE REALIZES IT THEN AND THERE (it’s worse if he idolizes him until then a la the musical, but hey, this is brick related post I guess)
-Javert at work one day, after all the Mayor shit happens and things are finally quieting down, getting hit by this BURNING STAB in his chest, followed by another, and another, and then it goes to his shoulder, and he pulls his shirt off and has to watch in horror (and agony) as he’s branded by an invisible hand
-Javert freaking out because now he is literally branded as a galley slave for life would be and the scars are indistinguishable from one another, holy shit??
-Javert thinking Valjean is dead for like years and years, but then, one day … A NEW SCAR
-Javert randomly getting a chisel burn on his arm just as he’s preparing to foil a blackmail scheme one winter’s night and it is MIGHTY INCONVENIENT
