Out of the two of them, despite popular belief, Joly is the clumsy one – Bossuet just happens to be on the receiving end of accidents more often than not. So, say there’s an unattended glass of wine on the table. Now, either Joly will accidentally knock it over, only for the contents to land in Bossuet’s lap, or the wine belonged to Bossuet and by the time he gets back to it Grantaire drank it.
This has never stopped Combeferre from asking them to assist in his experiments – Joly is more than enthusiastic and Bossuet’s just happy that his friend is happy, so the occasional need to evacuate the house is just a risk they all accept. Combeferre’s neighbours, well, not so much.
Actually it was Grantaire who introduced them to each other, before either of the three even knew what ‘Les Amis’ even were.
Bossuet’s nowhere nearly as proud as Marius or Feuilly when it comes to asking for help but even he draws the line somewhere – and Joly always finds a way to sneak around it. Oh, woe is me, will you look at what that useless tailor did? This coat is way too big for me! Still, it would be a shame to just throw it away, would you like it?
Both are very fond of practical jokes, but are also mindful of those who are not. Jehan, Enjolras, Feuilly and Combeferre are off limits, but no one else is safe. Musichetta included.
Bossuet is liable to leave a clutter but Joly prefers his flat clean and in order, which in turn has vastly improved Bossuet’s household habits. (Joly is reasonably well off and he does employ a cleaning lady, but she can’t take care of every single household chore.)
While Bossuet preferes to stay with Joly it’s not always possible – he has graced the sofas and spare matresses of each and every one of the core members of Les Amis before. Enjolras is a frequent target because he has a whole spare bedroom.
They never outright stated what’s going on between them… The common members of Les Amis and their other, looser acquaintances only pick up that they are close friends and that’s that. The core members of Les Amis have just quietly filed away the fact that they belong together and either hold the opinion of ‘well, jolly good for them’ or chose not to further examine the question.
Joly would very much like a cat, but his landlord won’t let him. He makes up for this by feeding all the neighbourhood cats.
Joly makes a terrible fuss if Bossuet so much as sniffles.
😀 my children. I’m going to make this five each because I’m so tired sorry ahh.
Courfeyrac:
A lot of people are surprised when they hear this – although no one who really knows him – but Courf is really really good with languages. He doesn’t study them like Prouvaire or Marius do and he’s not perfectly fluent, but he speaks at least half a dozen European languages.
He says it’s because his family travelled a lot when he was younger and he picked them up like a sponge. It’s really super impressive.
But like, his friends aren’t surprised because they know how incredibly smart he is! Enjolras especially is always telling him how brilliant Courfeyrac is. And Courfeyrac is always flattered and happy about it, because he never thought ‘intelligent’ was one of the things people thought about him (it is – but he doesn’t think it’s how he comes across as.)
He can’t eat fish or other sea food. It makes him sick every single time.
Speaking of making him sick: has a rocky relationship with his parents, but nothing compared to the pure venom between him and his older brother. Courfeyrac isn’t bad-tempered, but he isn’t a calm and collected person either. His brother, though, can make him absolutely explode in rage in five seconds top. He’s just so smug and snob and arrogant and terrible. (Combeferre’s his only friend who has met Courfeyrac’s brother. If anyone expected him to say Courfeyrac’s exaggerating, they would be dissapointed. Combeferre despises him too after meeting him only once.)
Feuilly:
He is really really good with hair! Like, at the orphanage one of the ladies who took care of the kids used to have him do her hair for her; in exchange she brought him pastries whenever she happened to go out to a bakery.
His own hair is always a mess because he just doesn’t bother and only cuts it when it’s getting so long it gets into his eyes when he works.
Even then. It’s happened that he’s had to borrow one of his fellow fan painters’ hairpin to pin it back because he hadn’t realised it was so long and it can’t cut it right now but it’s so annoying…
He gets massive headaches/migraines. Like, they get really really bad. Exhaustion, not always eating very well, too much reading in low light, eyestrain from work, stress – reasons depends on how he’s doing at that time, but he doesn’t remember a time when he didn’t have them. He’s forced himself to work through most of of the pain but honestly sometimes it’s just impossible.
Speaks/read only French, but has excellent handwriting (of course)
AAAAAH. I LOVE THESE. 😀 I now have an image of bb!Feuilly with his tongue sticking out between his teeth and concentrating Very Hard while doing the lady’s hair and I WILL CARRY THAT IMAGE WITH ME ALWAYS BECAUSE TOO PRECIOUS FOR WORDS. XD *squeaks*
AND COURFEYRAC. Aaaaaaaaaah~~~!! Courfeyrac, whose friends think he’s smart and he just doesn’t see it IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE TROPES WITH HIM. And I hate his brother already, TOO. *grrrrr*
-Enjolras who’s afraid that his friends don’t see him as a friend or a fun person to be around but as a leader who doesn’t care about anything other than revolution
-Combeferre who worries that he talks too much about the obscure things he’s interested in and that people tire of him because of it
-Courfeyrac who worries that he’s too talkative and extroverted and clingy but really just wants his friends to know he loves them and wants them to be happy
-Feuilly who worries that he misses too many get get-togethers and hangouts because he’s working all the time and that his friends forget about him
-Bahorel who is afraid that his friends only see the surface of him that’s tough and bro and let’s get wasted
-Joly who worries that he annoys everyone by worrying about germs so much but he can’t help it so he just tries to cover it up by acting super upbeat all the time
-Bossuet who worries that every time he walks into a room his friends think oh no what will he fuck up this time
-Grantaire who worries that he’s too fucked up and depressed for anyone to handle and so he hides when he’s having a really bad day
-Jehan who worries that everyone thinks they’re weak or annoying because he loves love and flowers and poetry
lmao i’m so happy and surprised to see how this thing blew up. this style of poetry is actually an entire genre in hindavi literature. it is a type of folk poetry called kahmukarni, and it involves two playful female speakers seemingly speaking about their lovers and ending in a wordplay. they’re very earthy-sounding in their folk performances, and they are traditionally sung by women. here’s another one by khusrow that i like:
p.s. these are all from sunil sharma’s translations (which is prob as good as it gets in translation)
eirenical17 