#bahorel/bahorel's laughing mistress

[les-mis-guy-supreme]

ROUND 1-D

[cliozaur]

“No woman was admitted to this back room, except Louison, the dish-washer of the café, who passed through it from time to time, to go to her washing in the “lavatory.” When Enjolras defended Rousseau as an exemplary republican a couple of chapters ago, it sounded alarming. And now, this – no woman can be near these educated men while they do what they do in the back room (unless she is serving them). Rousseau’s republicanism excluded women and treated them as irrational and emotional creatures whose sole function was to be wives and mothers. And it appears that Les Amis did not move far beyond this position.

Bahorel speaks about his mistress in a highly misogynistic manner: “One’s mistress does wrong to laugh. That encourages one to deceive her. To see her gay removes your remorse; if you see her sad, your conscience pricks you.” I can imagine Marius’ grandfather saying jokes like this one.

I won’t write much about Grantaire’s drunken ranting – I think that plenty has been said about it. It’s a peculiar mix of drunken nonsense and profound classical (of course) allusions with homoerotic subtexts. Instead, I will say a few words about the part where Grantaire goes on about various cities and countries (Paris as Athens, London as Carthage). When it comes to Russia, Grantaire presents himself as an expert in Russian despotism and says this funny thing that despots’ “health is delicate,” and then lists Russian tsars (though not very accurately) whose lives ended in violent death (I wish the current one would soon join them). I was curious about how Russians handled this passage in their translation (and it’s not an abridged one). It came out that they censored and cut out this entire fragment! It ends with “Shall we go into ecstasies over Russia? Voltaire admired it. He also admired China” and then jumps to “All civilized peoples offer this detail to the admiration of the thinker”. Mind you: the translation was made during the Soviet times, and one might think it was a good idea to keep this fragment as evidence that the tsarist regime was despotic, and the tsars deserved their grim end, but no. Because even in the Soviet times, Russians were fucking imperialists!

[midasinc]

eponine and bahorel headcanons:)

beloveds, ofc

eponine:

-canon era eponine has really bad tinnitus from gun-fight incident in the inn when she's an early pre-teen, before they move around. when it flares up really badly she gets these awful migraines and vertigo, so she keeps a lot of these little hiding places around where she can go to curl up on the bad days. this also goes hand in hand with my autistic eponine hc, because she has to find hiding places for meltdowns and bad moments too

-so in both canon and modern era, both eponine and cosette are autistic. under the thenardier's care, cosette is consistently reprimanded for portraying any autistic traits and they kind of try to beat it out of her. eponine learns to mask really early but isn't even aware of it. as far as she's concerned, cosette = bad. so the things she does are too. eponine makes fun of and contributes to that sort of abuse while masking so fucking hard subconsciously because she doesn't ever want to be like cosette

-in modern era, eponine gets really irked later in life when she meets cosette again and cosette is really outward about being autistic. it really bothers her and she almost dislikes her more until she snaps one day at cosette for stimming with her hands. cosette just sort of frowns and asks why it bothers her and eponine isn't really sure why. she thinks for a moment and says that if she were to do it, everybody would stare and think she's weird but if cosette does it, 'nobody cares'. cosette pauses and asks if she wants to try it, since it's just the two of them and nobody else is around to look and judge her. eponine begrudgingly tries it and... yeah. it's nice. just doing a little stim with cosette makes her feel safe. cosette is a major factor in helping eponine come to terms with her autism and being able to get a diagnosis, which feels really fucking relieving like a heavy weight that she didn't even notice was there finally got lifted

-anyway what im getting at is autistic eponine and cosette solidarity

-modern era eponine also wants to be really femme. she steals those teen girl magazines and she's really embarrassed of them but she keeps them in a box under her bed so she can read them at night and imagine herself in pretty skirts and makeup and whatever. it's something that she's weirdly ashamed of but cant explain why

-can era eponine is similar. when she can she likes to draw the pretty dresses that she sees ladies out and about wear. they aren't great drawings, but eponine likes making them a lot. it makes her imagine being a woman that she doesn't think she'll ever be

bahorel:

-this is a hc i use a lot but i still wanna talk about it, so he has tourette's in both canon and modern era. his ticks are more subtle now that he's almost 30, but he still has smaller physical ticks that affect him

-modern bahorel is a big dvd collector. he has a whole bookshelf in his apartment that's filled with dvds and he refuses to listen to people who tell him that it's a dying industry. he's anti-streaming platforms and only watches his movies on discs. it's a principle he believes in

-he'd also be a really big fan of the clash. train in vain (stand by me) is one of his favorite songs ever and he likes to put the whole london calling album on whenever he's working on something

-canon era bahorel wears a locket. his mistress gave it to him and he's awfully proud of it, so it's always around his neck. i think bahorel is endearingly loyal for her

-he's also really pressured by his parents to be a lawyer. he comes from a rural agriculture background and his parents are expecting him to become successful and rich so he can help support them and his older sisters back home. it's a lot of pressure and bahorel is just not interested in scholarly shit at all so he keeps procrastinating in graduating while also being too pressured to drop out. he jokes about it and makes other people laugh, but he opens up to his mistress about it behind closed doors. it's nice for him to be able to actually voice the pressure he feels from his family and be met without judgement. by the time the barricade arrives, he has his mistress promise that her brother will marry one of his sisters so somebody else might be able to help support the family

[darthfar]

Far would like to wish you all a miserable Barricade Day 2022. ;) I had a bunch of half-baked ideas for this year, but then @pilferingapples​ went and reblogged this post by @swutol-sang-scopes that translated one of the songs from the Argot chapter (thank you!) -- and then of course this was what my brain latched on to and insisted it would make excellent text for a comic. [Pilferingapples, I hold you responsible. Yet again!] Regarding the last panel: if it seems suspiciously familiar, it’s because I’ve always wanted to redraw the last panel from my Orestes Fasting, Pylades Drunk comic from Way Back When... just with even more drama than it already had. I just really like this perspective ok, and it seemed like a fitting end to this comic. I am not sorry about the context of “meat” in Page 3. (Actually, I’m cheerfully unrepentant about any of this. I don’t know how you could possibly expect differently). Also, because I know that at least one person is going to comment on this (you know who you are): I know I said this comic wasn’t about Bahorel, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to die in it either. BECAUSE. -- Is anyone still even keeping score of Bahorel vs Combeferre? ;) [I will also take any and every opportunity to give as many of Feuilly’s Six cameo appearances in my comics as I can manage.]

[roxann-with-no-e]

My plan all along.

[mysunfreckle]

Bahorel’s Laughing Mistress

Modern AU, Courfeyrac, Bahorel, Feuilly and the laughing mistress, 1.7k

I’m not sure if this counts for Feuilly Week, I’ll leave that up to the mod, but I really wanted to introduce my take on the laughing mistress and Feuilly is really important for that!

“So what do you think?” Bahorel asks.

Courfeyrac swipes back and forth between the two pictures. Each shows a pair of incredibly loud trousers. “The second one,” he says decidedly. “Definitely.” He bites the inside of his cheek. “But the first one would go really well with your red shoes,” he ponders.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Bahorel grins. “So I bought them both.”

“What did you ask me for then?” Courfeyrac huffs, waving the phone at Bahorel in pretended annoyance. His thumb slips and the next picture slides into view. Courfeyrac stares at it. It’s a selfie of Bahorel and a girl with a ponytail that seems to be trying to bite his ear. Something like that happening is not in itself particularly unusual, but Bahorel keeping a picture like this on his phone is.

“What?” Bahorel asks.

Courfeyrac turns the screen towards him. “Who is that?” he asks, brown eyes fixed on Bahorel with intense suspicion.

A smirk twitches across Bahorel’s face. “Looks like me,” he says.

Courfeyrac narrows his eyes at him. “Bahorel,” he says, puffing up with indignation. “Are you seeing someone and hiding it from us?”

“What do you mean hiding?” Bahorel grins.

Courfeyrac lets out an affronted gasp and scowls at Bahorel’s shit-eating grin. “I don’t believe you.”

With a smirk Bahorel takes back his phone and texts Grantaire: “Do I have a girlfriend?”

“You told Grantaire before me?” Courfeyrac cries, actually offended now.

Bahorel’s phone pings.

R: Yeah you fucking do and you’re both banned from my car

Courfeyrac makes a series of noises that kind of remind Bahorel of an offended hen. This is even funnier than he thought it would be. Definitely worth being secretive over. “Still not convinced?” he quips and he sends another message.

Baz: ?

Feuilly: ?

Baz: Do I have a girlfriend?

Instead of an answer Feuilly sends back a picture. Courfeyrac snatched the phone from Bahorel’s hand to look at it. It’s a rather crooked selfie, showing both Feuilly and the mystery girl sprawled out on Bahorel’s couch. It’s definitely the same girl. Same high ponytail, suntanned skin, bright eyes and blonde hair. Except there is a blue streak in it now.

“That’s new,” Bahorel says helpfully. “She won a bet.”

“Don’t you mean lost?” Courfeyrac frowns.

“No,” Bahorel grins.

Courfeyrac looks from the picture to Bahorel and back again. The look on his face is hovering between excited friend and wounded princess. “I wouldn’t have told the others if you wouldn’t have wanted me to,” he grumbles softly after a conflicted silence. “I can keep a secret you know, when I try.”

The grin on Bahorel’s face was already fond, it softens a little more now. He holds out his hand for his phone.

Courfeyrac gives it to him.

“Her name’s Risa,” he says, pulling up another chat.

“Your girlfriend doesn’t have a name in your phone,” Courfeyrac says disapprovingly, looking at the screen past his hands.

“She named her own contact, don’t look at me,” Bahorel grins and he sends a couple of messages until there is a reply.

Baz: ?

Baz: Risa

Baz: !

Baz: Risa

😜❤: No 💋

Baz: Habibi ❤

😜❤: No 💋💋💋

Baz: Courf wants to say hi.

😜❤: Hi courf  😄

Baz: BETRAYAL

😜❤: Courf sounds a lot like baz

Courfeyrac beams at Bahorel, who leans back with a grin and surrenders his phone. Courfeyrac excitedly types back:

Baz: Hi! This is Courf!

😜❤: Hi 😉 Baz behaving himself?

Baz: No, he never told me about you!

😜❤: Scandalous. I know who you are tho 😊

Baz: Well that’s something

Bahorel watches Courf type away and smiles. He didn’t tell Courfeyrac about Risa because he knew it would be funny, but also because he wanted to be sure first. She had met Feuilly pretty much right away, of course, and not telling Grantaire hadn’t been an option, but he had liked keeping this to himself for a while. He hadn’t dated anyone seriously in a long time. Serious wasn’t really his thing. Bahorel could practically hear Feuilly argue with him in his head as soon as he thought that. He was serious. He was serious about lots of things. He just wanted them to also be fun. Risa was fun.

Beside him Courfeyrac snorts and Bahorel glances at the screen.

Baz: Why are you banned from R’s car?

😜❤: Cause I stole his keys

Baz: Why??

Baz: Did you take the car?

😜❤: No! We just needed to borrow it for a sec

😜❤: Or 10 minutes

😜❤: R can’t take a joke

😜❤: You know his car has a name

Baz: It’s his baby

😜❤: He’s the baby

😜❤: We both kept our clothes on

Baz: Omg 😂

😜❤: 😜

😜❤: Commercial breaks over

😜❤: Feu says hi!

Baz: Hi Feuilly! And bye Risa!

😜❤: Bye courf 😄

Courfeyrac hands the phone back to Bahorel and he’s pleased to see his friend’s face is it’s usually sunny shade again.

“She sounds fun!” Courfeyrac beams.

“I know,” Bahorel smirks. “That's why I asked her out.”

“Where’d you meet her?” he asks eagerly.

“Gym,” he replies.

“I knew it!” Courfeyrac grins. “So that’s how Grantaire knows her.”

“Hm,” Bahorel chuckles.

“I’m still hurt though,” Courfeyrac warns. “Hurt and appalled at your secrecy.”

“Damn,” Bahorel says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m guessing you’re going to be even more upset about the baby then, hm?”

There’s a single heartbeat of shocked silence before Courfeyrac gives him a shove and Bahorel’s laugh rumbles loudly through Courfeyrac’s apartment.

.

By the time Bahorel is allowed to leave, Courfeyrac has managed to drag most of the information there is to give about him and Risa out of him. Bahorel swings by his favourite bakery on his way home, but it’s the only thing he stops for. Home has a lot to offer today.

He smirks when he finds Feuilly and Risa still on the couch when he comes home. They are dozing in front of the TV. Feuilly’s feet are resting on a crate and Risa is sprawled out across the couch with her legs resting across his lap. She’s tall and broad enough to take up nearly all of the couch that way. “Well, you’ve clearly had a productive afternoon,” Bahorel teases.

“The eternal student can shut his face,” Risa informs him. “I have just had ten hours on a tour bus and Feu-” She gives Feuilly a tap with one of her feet. “-doesn’t have enough down time as it is!”

“Forgiveness,” Bahorel begs with a grin and he holds out the bag of pastries.

“Sugar,” Feuilly smiles drowsily and he makes a grab for the bag.

Bahorel hands it to him and makes eyes at Risa.

She pretends to take some time to make up her mind before she sits up so Bahorel can sit down on the other end of the couch. When he has, she lets her muscles relax again and flops back down, her head landing in his lap.

Bahorel smiles and pushes the blue lock of hair in front of her eyes. She blows at it and pulls a face at him.

“Courf changed the name of the group chat,” Feuilly informs Bahorel.

“To what?” he asks, too lazy to take out his own phone.

“Bahorelisasneak,” Feuilly chuckles.

“That’s fair,” Bahorel grins.

“Does that mean I’m finally going to be introduced?” Risa asks merrily.

“I don’t think you’ll be able to avoid it,” Bahorel chuckles. He makes eye contact with Feuilly, who looks up from where he’s fishing sticky baked goods from the paper bag. “I told Courf he could tell.”

Feuilly smiles approvingly at him. “About time,” he hums.

Risa looks up at Bahorel happily. “Well, my next tour leaves in two weeks,” she reminds him. “Until then I have time to meet all your friends.”

“Hey now,” Bahorel protests. “You’ve only just come back! The others can wait.”

Risa hums and holds out her hand to Feuilly, who puts a sugar powdered cookie in it. Bahorel nonchalantly stretches his arms out along the back of the couch, but before he can even make a grab for the cookie Risa has caught his wrist with her free hand and is wrestling it down.

“Nice try, thief!” she crows, stuffing the cookie into her mouth. As soon as she’s got both her arms free she pushes herself up and tries to wrap and arm around Bahorel’s neck, but he knows better than to let her put him in a headlock and fights back. It still delights him that he can actually fight back without fear of hurting her. He’s too used to inflicting accidental injuries.

“Nothing much on tv,” Feuilly says, completely unfazed by the small wrestling match taking place partly on his lap.

“There’s never anything on tv,” Risa points out, mouth full of crumbs and sugar. “That’s a given.” She releases Bahorel from her grip and he makes a show of kissing the powdered sugar off her fingers.

“We don’t need tv,” he says wisely. “That’s what treasured box sets are for.”

“Leverage or That’s 70’s Show?” Feuilly asks with a grin.

“Leverage,” Risa says decidedly and she rolls off both their laps and gets to her feet, drawing herself up to her full height.

Bahorel grins up at her. If he had been Grantaire, he would have quoted something about amazons.

“You guys decide which episode,” Risa says cheerfully, walking across the room to fetch the box set. “As long as Elliot’s in it I’m happy.”

“Oh I see how it is,” Bahorel says, trying for his best wounded expression.

“Hey,” Risa grins. “I’m a simple woman. I like my company charming and strong enough to knock out three people in under five seconds.”

She tosses the box set to Feuilly and Bahorel grabs for it as well, scooting over to catch it.

Risa jumps over the back of the couch and sits down on Bahorel’s other side with a bounce. She puts an arm around him. “Oh look, I found one.” She grins at Feuilly. “Or two.”

“Or three,” Bahorel chuckles and he pulls her closer.

Risa laughs and wraps her arms around his neck, in a non-strangely way this time.

Feuilly hides his grin and holds up a disc. "The Stork Job? Or do I need to go for a walk or something?"

Risa laughs again and this time so do Bahorel and Feuilly. Her laugh is infectious.

“Leverage first, walks later.”

[plushieinsurgents]

Semi-crack hcs for werewolf Bahorel!

He wraps a banknote or a sleeve around his fingers when receiving change, and promptly donates all silver centimes to either Lesgles or Grantaire.

He earned himself a reputation as a terrible shot by calling duels on everybody and losing them all on purpose. (But then again, it's unfair to aim for your opponent when you know they really can't harm you. C'mon, he has some sense of honor.)

He steals Prouvaire's more terrible clothing items and bursts dramatically out of them during full moons. Prouvaire himself is too distracted by the spectacle to remember to pummel him.

He got turned the traditional way.

Once, an experiment with a very drunk Combeferre went awry and on the next full moon, he morphed into a goldfish in front of a hardly surprised laughing mistress, who proceeded to calmly drop him into the chamber pot.

He proceeded to pout at them both for an entire month.

THE BAYONET WASN'T SILVER, AND AS A RESULT NOBODY DIED

[barricadebops]

Bahorel's laughing mistress and Musichetta are definitely best friends and when Musichetta tells her about Joly's attempts to seek her forgiveness with the whole leather-pants scheme, Bahorel's mistress knows exactly who gave him that dumbass idea.

[rosesutherlandwrites]

Hi! I just found a post you did in 2019 in which you said you had opinions on why Bahorel is omitted from the musical... If you want to after all this time, could you expand on that, please? I'd love to read them! :D

I'm a bit too wiped out from work to string coherent thoughts together, but I DO have an opinion on this and thanks for asking. The short version is that Bahorel is so very much an ideal sort of revolutionary that I find he has overlap with the qualities of a lot of the other characters, but also, as a boisterous man who makes jokes and has opinions, he might also draw too much attention to himself--a lot of his outgoing swagger ends up in the Grantaire wheelhouse, for the musical. and for all that we love the Amis and know their names and stories, for the average theatre goer, the only ones you really remember are the ones made to stand out--so Enjolras, R....and Marius--it wouldn't do for this big handsome scrapper to be out there pulling all the focus lol

[eirenical]

Bahorel? for the multishipper ask meme

OK, one last one before I run off to dinner, then I will get the rest after dinner.  ^_^

AND WHAT A GOOD ONE IT IS.  ^_^

OK, so my absolute OTP of OTPs for Bahorel is Poetry Smash.  Bahorel and Jehan just have SUCH disaster chaos chemistry and I love them to pieces for it.  ^_^  They are just both deeply into the entire Romantic vibe and living and experiencing life to the fullest.  And do we even have to talk about how they both embrace and enjoy Truly Extreme Choices in Clothing?  ;D  I think they’d be equally at home with each other out on the town, tearing up the theatres during the Battle of Hernani, as they would be drinking and smoking their way from one salon to another or curling up at home reading poetry and revolutionary pamphlets interspersed with each other.  I just love their ENTIRE vibe and I never get enough of it.  ^_^

And I have to give a nod to Bahorel x Grantaire here, because TO THIS DAY one of the fic I’m proudest of writing a fic I wrote for the two of them.  I don’t even know WHY I love the idea of them, but I do.  The way they both seem to just sort of... know all the good places in town and the way they’re both always in the middle of their circle of friends.  And I think that Bahorel could be genuinely good for Grantaire, giving him something else to fixate on than Enjolras.

Also, even though she’s never even given a name, I DO actually like Bahorel’s canonical “Laughing Mistress” because she sounds like a regular spitfire and I think he needs someone in his life to keep him on his toes.  ^_^

I’ve ALSO seen compelling evidence for how and why Bahorel x Enjolras could work, and YOU KNOW WHAT, I would definitely give that a go.  ;D  I think Enjolras’ physical prowess often gets overlooked for his revolutionary fervor and his strategic thinking, but he’s canonically a hell of a fighter, too!  And Bahorel just has that Big Brother Energy that has him looking out for all of his friends, even if it’s a rough affection.  And I really think Enjolras could benefit from that.  And on the flip side, I think that having Enjolras around to give Bahorel’s wilder tendencies some aim and purpose would also be good for HIM.

And that’s... everyone I can think of right off the bat.  ;D

[pilferingapples]

Been thinking about this for a while:  Bahorel’s  Laughing Mistress is almost certainly even more financially independent than him, including being financially independent of  him.  Reasoning, based on , you know, the only specific mention of her that we get ,in Back Room of the Musain:

That is because of the treaty which we have made. On forming our little Holy Alliance we assigned ourselves each our frontier, which we never cross. What is situated on the side of winter belongs to Vaud, on the side of the wind to Gex.  Hence the peace.

It’s hard to say how formal or serious this agreement may be, but at a basic level this looks a lot like an agreed-on arrangement to keep their business/households/whatever in separate control.

For any grisette or lower-earning Bohemian sort , this is a terrible idea. Bahorel is, as student/artist circle boyfriends go, loaded, and he’s specifically inclined to indulgent spending, and he is apparently operating with absolutely no family-induced restraint. A woman wanting a boyfriend for extra financial freedom or security would be hitting a good mark there!

But a woman who is as well off or better would be very sensible not to have any financial entanglement with her lover; and would maybe be especially well advised not to have any financial entanglements with a lover who is at obviously high risk for arrest and imprisonment (as well as practically wearing a shirt that says IMPRUDENT LIFE CHOICES R US). 

There’s obviously still a lot of options on what that might mean on her side--wealthy widow? Successful performer/writer etc? Small business owner?-- but regardless he’s likely irrelevant to her financial planning.   

[mitoposting]

les amis genshin impact au

enjolras - sword - pyro

combeferre - catalyst - cryo

courfeyrac - bow - geo

prouvaire - catalyst - dendro

bahorel - claymore - electro

joly - catalyst - hydro

bossuet - polearm - geo

grantaire - sword - anemo

marius - sword - pyro

cosette - bow - hydro

eponine - claymore - electro

azelma - catalyst - electro

gavroche - bow - anemo

montparnasse - sword - cryo

musichetta - catalyst - (i don't know every time i think about her i change her vision, probably because i have my idea of her personality and i like her with almost every vision)

laughing mistress - polearm - hydro

floreal - sword - dendro

[subsequentibis]

hey y’all! i’m in a digital history course right now where we’re doing tutorials for various visualization softwares, most recently Gephi, and we used Les Mis characters to do it! here’s the finished version of the dataset we played with (graphs not done by me or my class, just the place we swiped the data from :P)

[ombreferre]

Consider: Bahorel’s laughing mistress is Fantine, who faked her death in M-sur-M and went back to Paris.

[bahorel-suggestions]

your mistress should get a blog

Maybe she should, but I do enjoy watching the endless speculation everyone has about her since I’m the only one who knows her

[mysunfreckle]

*hugs*

(I shall take this as both a prompt and a hug and thank you very very much anon)

“Baz, can you not?”

Bahorel is draped across Feuilly’s shoulders from behind, supporting only enough of his weight on his own feet to keep Feuilly from actually stumbling. “Nah,” he hums.

“Seriously, I’m cooking,” Feuilly protests.

“I know,” Bahorel says admiringly, shit eating grin plastered on his face. “Doing a great job too.”

“You could help me instead of, whatever this is,” he suggests, twisting his shoulders under Bahorel’s weight. He is technically strong enough to throw him off, but…

“I am helping,” Bahorel insists, wrapping his arms around Feuilly’s neck instead of letting them dangle. “I’m hugging you while you make food.”

“Urg,” Feuilly mutters, trying to cut the shallots. He glances at the clock. “Well, Risa will be here any minute and then you can hang on her instead.”

Feuilly is half right. Risa does arrive about five minutes later, but Bahorel doesn’t hang on her. Instead she drapes herself across Bahorel’s shoulders without even asking him to move. The combined weight of Bahorel and his girlfriend is consideraby harder to support. Dinner is going to take a while.