#les copines

1) Family Histories

Uhh.. hopefully this is what you were asking for? follow-up questions always welcome lmaooo

Gérard - i... dont have much on him at all. The VAGUE idea i had in my head is that his home life was not the greatest . I'm pulling from meta jokes ive made about all of Jordan Simon Pollard's ensemble characters, basically. Anyway, he's probably from the more rural & farm-heavy area in the North around Paris? It was probably... strained. I wouldn't say TERRIBLE, but I think his father was a bit of an overbearing patriarch. His mother was caring, but stern. So while it could've been worse, he wasn't having the BEST time. His older brother (who has been dubbed Guillaume Ambroise, but he will always be Willy Wonka in our hearts) probably got more freedom than he did, because he was the older son and probably was nearing adulthood when Gérard was still around preteens, for which he probably got quite salty about. With them both being queer, too.. ouch. No wonder Gérard repressed HARD. His brother did not so much, but he ended up travelling, so who cares. Probably let down his father by leaving and not taking over the business. Oops!

Additionally he was probably like, upper working-lower middle class? So not TOO comfortable, his dad was probably a labourer? But they're fine. They have food. If his dad got out of work they'd start to panic. So i get the feeling there was just an overall tense feeling overarching Gérard's life growing up, which led to his older brother basically scarpering and becoming the absolute free spirit/travelling perfume merchant or whatever the hell that he became, and Gérard the radical student. He probably made it a bit better in Paris, but not much. His apartment is probably fine.

Albéric - Probably the most fortunate of the group. Born and raised mostly in Bergerac, in the south of France. Albéric's father (named Albéric Joseph-Renault Lafitte) moved up to Paris for work when he was just entering college age and they've basically lived there ever since, but they own a family holiday estate somewhere along the Dordogne river. His mother was probably also from a rich family, hence the marriage. I do think however that they did hold affection for each other, so it wasn't unpleasant by any means. Albéric's father is, however, quite firm & strict and became a little more eccentric as he got older. They're new money, so not aristo by any means and didn't have their family guillotined in the Revolution.

So his life was .. kind of boring? Like his father as mentioned moved to Paris for work, but he was a prosecutor, so its not really that exciting (putting aside the fact that he was a very good prosecutor and known by Javert), and he's been setting Albéric up to follow suit. Albéric does have a younger brother (not by much) who joined the National Guard, and an older sister who moved away to live with her husband, so it's basically just him around the house. Law has basically been all he's expecting. In a previous post I made where I shared some writing I had done with them, it mentions the fact that he made friends with Marius and co. because they seemed fun (and he was right!).

Also, he does indeed have a Bergeracois accent. This sets him apart a little from the Parisien bourgeoisie that he's used to hanging out with when his dad (who was a bit better at adopting the Parisien accent) has guests over, but it obviously doesnt matter when it comes to Marius & Co. because they have other problems and are probably too busy making fun of Gérard to care.

François - I also don't have too much on him. His parents hail from the Philippines, where they wanted to give their son a better life, but didn't want to go to Spain, so went to... France. Great. Named their child François-Michel to fit in, but he retains the Spanish surname Dolosa from the colonial rule. (Fun fact, was originally going to be Dosier before i changed it.) Double colonialism! As a result I think he grew up in the poorer areas of Paris. Not totally scuffed, but he's still not that well off.

His father was probably a labourer but moved up into some more cushty job in Paris like a clerk or something. Mother working on a loom in a factory maybe? Nice honest people.....

Anyway, growing up he was probably loved. I think his grandmother also lived with them, in some dingy rooms they managed to get. Not exactly coddled? but his family were supportive of his endeavours.. family all have jobs but him cause he was #struggling cause he only ever wanted to look at birds, wanted to do something fun so family funded his trip to law school (WHICH by the way he did NOT complete after being talked out of by his friends, but continued frequenting the library anyway cause DUH). He's living in a similar situation to pre-barricade Marius, in some fuckass apartment with holes in the walls and he has maybe 3 outfits and that's only because he owns 3 different waistcoats. Spent his money on bird merch. seriously just blinged out in bird merchandise.

René - Not too into the details. Similar to françois in some respect. His mother and aunt, along with their parents (René's grandparents) are from a fairly aristo family from what is modern day Somalia... you might remember Rehana - he and Rehana were both born in Somalia, around the same time (she is a few months older) but moved to Paris at around age 7. They live in a modest house for their wealth. When René starts to gain independence in the world and make his own way, he decides to change his name (initially Rohaan Mohamed Said) to René Gignac, as his arabic name was unfortunately getting him flack whenever he was applying for jobs or whatever, so thought a french name would do him better. Around this time, René's mother remarries another rich man, and the family becomes a bit more stable financially, as before they were relying mostly on whatever René's grandfather had going on but as he was getting older yadda yadda you get it. They're fine now.

Because of the wealth, they were a fairly lax family. Not totally blind to societal issues (yknow, since they're African in 1800s France) but they haven't been scraping the barrel like, say, François and Marius were. This leads to René's more hedonistic outlook to life, but still enters law school for.... something to do. Its a respectable position, and he's going to meet a lot of other rich men (who he might also hope to get with, you never know). Obviously his studies are funded by his family. He and Rehana move out of the family home to live in their own, slightly less modest houses.

Additionally they were also a Muslim family, but René is nonpracticing, and Rehana is a bit more lax on it. Religion isn't something i've been focusing on right now though with my les mis canon so I'll probably return to this later ...

Thats about it, though. He's stupid rich.

2) Rehana & Hélène

Thanks again to @vexonlegs for the help with these two .

They met through René, actually! The ever-dramatic, he knew Rehana had been a little lonely lately, and got talking to a woman he met in the library. Hélène studies law herself, for fun...? (professionally, she is an actress who also dabbles in some writing & directing.) This obviously intrigued monsieur René "Nosy Parker" Gignac greatly so he was asking all about her, got MAJOR lesbian vibes all round. Hey, Rehana likes theatre! Rehana does a bit of writing! And introduced them. They got on swimmingly. Moved in together and everything (this was very easy to do without much suspicion back in the day).

They're very nice, to René's disappointment, as he loves some gossip . as mentioned, hélène is an actress, so rehana will attend her performances. She will give her a hand in writing, should she need any consulting. They both quite enjoy watercolour.

Hélène also has a tendency to get quite exasperated with people, at which she will need to storm out of a room and probably collapse onto Rehana's lap to make herself feel better.

And of course they frequent underground lesbian parties of any sort, usually in drag. Forgot to mention they'll usually wear suits around the house, with their hair (which they have cut short for the time period) styled up. All-round swagging it up, they're having a GREAT time.

Not sure if I ever mentioned that they are friends of Cosette's? Since Marius got his own friend group, I thought it was only fair Cosette had one too. We discussed that it was probably an embroidery group of some sort. Just an extra hobby for Rehana & Hélène, since they've got plenty of time on their hands at this point, and plus, it's nice to mingle with people who arent...... actors.

3) Javert's Scar

I don't think i ever actually have said where it's from?

Admittedly, I've been drawing him with it for a while now, but I haven't decided on a story behind it LMFAO. If you look at some older art it was just a tiny cut across his lip, probably from some scrape he had with a prisoner at Toulon, but then I draw Adam Robert Lewis' Javert ONCE and suddenly something clicks and now Javert's scar has grown several inches.

I think the story is still probably the same, though. When Valjean knew him in Toulon, he did not have the scar. In Montreuil-Sur-Mer, he has the scar. I think in my head somewhere the scar and Javert's leaving Toulon had some connection, but I couldn't decide on what worked best, whether he became police of his own volition or being recommended for his safety after being attacked? I don't know. I think that's just for you to decide.

And, in case you were curious - he does actually have more than one scar! I just only ever draw him visibly with the one on his face. He has one on his head, from being struck in MsurM. Luckily this was more superficial and scratched up the skin rather than doing any damage (the bald head is an easy target). He has scars over his body from other various police work, and very old scars, mainly on his back, from being raised in prison.