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Player Info
Name: Sar
Age: 31
Contact: AIM: maidrostall, Plurk: Combeferret
Characters Already in Teleios: None
Reserve: PLEASE INCLUDE A LINK TO YOUR RESERVE
Character Basics:
Character Name: Enjolras (my particular Enjolras has the given name of Apollon but he rarely uses it)
Journal: solo_patria
Age: 28
Fandom: Les Miserables
Canon Point: Post novel and death
Debt:Class A: Total of Class A crimes here: 754
[Murder: 42 (8 of which he doesn't count and will protest)
Treason: 712 (Including meetings, papers and pamphlets authored, rallies held and planned for, and 2 armed insurrections, along with 2 incidents in Tushanshu.)]
Class B: 75 years
[150 assault, on and off of barricades.]
Class C: (1084 Months) 90 Years, 11 months
[ 225 Attempted Murder.
2 Breaking out of prison:
102 Causing Mass Mayhem and Panic
392 Conspiracy to Commit Treason
106 Disorderly Conduct
3 Escaping Custody
20 Giving Up On A Friend (Sorry, Grantaire)
40 Misappropriation of police issued equipment
62 Property Damage
102 Rioting
15 Terrorizing the Villagers/Innocent Citizens
20 Traumatizing your Loved Ones
2 Warmongering ]N/AList crimes you’ve created for your character here.
GRAND TOTAL: 919 Years, 11 Months
Canon Character Section:
History:
Enjolras’s role in Les Miserables begins in 1828, when he is introduced, along with the other members of Les Amis, a student group determined to bring about revolutionary changes in France, and to help the poor and destitute. They masquerade as an education society, but in reality push for political change. To understand the climate that he lives in, as it reflects his history, it is important to look at what happened in France after the revolution.
The French Revolution ended in 1793, with the end of absolute monarchy in France. However, what came about after this revolution created many problems for the populace. The Reign Of Terror followed the Revolution and was, essentially, ordered by Robespierre, who said that terror should now become "the order of the day”. This meant that there was a period from September of 1793 to July 1794, in which several varying factions in France fought for power and a great many people were condemned and executed, particularly the political leaders of the days before the terror and those who supported them, , or were believed to have supported them.
In July of 1794, several of the Terrors strongest leaders, including Saint-Just and Robespierre were executed and the reign of terror was over. Eventually the Corsican Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in France after leading a successful military campaign. While he had initially served to aid the French Republic, once he had returned to France from his military tours, he was approached to take part in a military coup against the current French Government’s constitutional leadership. He shortly did take over, coming to power in France and taking control of the government.
Enjolras’s early years would have been spent under Napoleon’s rule, as he was ousted from power in 1814, and after a few more attempts, including his failure at Waterloo, was exiled. Several of Napoleons changes in France left an important legacy, but nonetheless power passed back to the the brothers of the previous king, Louis XVI, who was followed by Louis XVIII, then Charles X, under whom the events of the July Revolution took place.
Enjolras and Les Amis had already been working towards establishing a free France yet again, with the example of men such as Robespierre and his earlier goals to lead them, the help of other republican societies across Paris and the ideas of writers such as Rousseau, whom Enjolras was greatly influenced by, demonstrated as he admonished Courfeyrac not to speak ill of him, and by the time of the events in July, were more than ready to join those other republican groups across the city to establish a revolt and raise up barricades.
The July revolution was caused, first of all, by the rise of Charles X to the throne because of his familial relations. This was resented by a large number of the people and was one strike against the government that had been lingering. The other strike came with the signing of La Charte, a french constitution that was signed by the king and other leaders of France, and did not promote true democracy.
The anger that this caused, anger over unemployment for the workers of Paris , anger that most of the newspapers in the city had ceased to be published under the new law, which prohibited this and you have the perfect recipe for a revolution. Hugo does not state what Les Amis were doing during this time, but Enjolras would likely have been present for the main events, particularly on July 26th, when many journalists and publishers of papers signed a protest and vowed that they would continue to print, and the police took the now illegal papers away.
This lead to some particularly violent fighting and barricades arising, the first time Enjolras would have been fighting on one of those, and on such a large scale. By the end of the three days of fighting, the insurgents, including Les Amis had captured the Hôtel de Ville, the City Hall of Paris.
Rather than the revolution that everyone had thought was coming when Charles X abdicated the throne, a new king, Louis-Philippe was brought to the throne, which angered many people and especially students like Enjolras who felt that their rightful revolution for the people had been stolen.
Two years later, still angered by what had come, the republicans in Paris looked for a new chance to raise a rebellion and fight to overthrow all kings in France. With the Death of General LaMarque, one of Napoleon’s former generals, who had taken a more liberal stance in the years since his exile, the chance for rebellion became clear as the people mourned the last hero who they felt had supported and stood for them.
On his funeral day, June 5th, the republicans, many of them students and workers from secret societies, like Les Amis, rose to revolution, building barricades in the street. As the leader of one such barricade, Enjolras lead his friends to fight, this time as the leader of a barricade, participating in some terrible acts of his own (he was forced to kill a member of their barricade who had killed a civilian for example) , and watching as his friends fell before succumbing, with Grantaire, one of Les Amis who had avoided being killed before then by being drunk and sleeping, to the bullets of the National Guard. It was not until 1848 that a true French republic and democracy came about.
For Enjolras, life was not completely over yet, considering his detour to a certain island built on the back of a travelling turtle where he experienced a great deal of growth, challenges, and some reversals of that growth before coming to face his judgement at Teleios.
For a look at a wiki's take on Enjolras, see here: http://lesmiserables.wikia.com/wiki/Enjolras
Personality:
In terms of personality, Enjolras is a study in contrasts. While his political leanings, his writings, and impassioned words point to him as fiery and fierce in every encounter, this is not the way that Enjolras moves throughout his life. While his anger at the state of France, and a government and upper class who let the workers and the poor suffer is certainly present, and he lives for France’s people and the glory of all, his anger is a cooler anger, sharp and freezing for the most part, and his passions are contained beneath a serious exterior.
He is not prone to outward bursts of emotion and keeps himself tightly regulated. Even his expressions of anger and excitement are delivered rationally. There is no jumping up on tables to proclaim his love for the republic or flamboyant displays in Enjolras, and most of what he says is delivered in a carefully even tone, hidden behind a smooth mask that he does not even realize he is cloaking things behind. It can be difficult for those who do not know Enjolras to describe him as having any passion or feelings for anyone, because they often cannot tell it from his words, and are not privy to his interactions with his friends.
Among his friends, Les Amis de l'abc, the friends of the abased (yeah, that's a pun. Les Mis is full of those, we might as well embrace it now), a group of seven students, one worker and a drunk who make up a revolutionary society and subgroup of the Society of the Rights of Man, Enjolras is a little different. He trusts the men in this group, his best friends, as he trusts no one else, and seems to relax, and perhaps thaw a little when he is with them.
Serving as the group's leader does ensure that Enjolras is set apart from them a little, but he genuinely loves and appreciates, well, almost all of them, and values their input and individual skills that make up the group as a whole. Among them, he is a bit more prone to making the few jokes he makes, appreciating their humor, enjoying their various debates, and sometimes even simply listening to all of them instead of joining in. He still is calm and rather quiet, but he's not nearly as severe and cold as he often appears.
One place where Enjolras’s passions do come out strongly, despite his quiet simmering nature is in his political writings and pamphlets. As a leader of a revolutionary society in the period, he would have worked to produce essays that would be published in the newspapers of the day, and pamphlets paid for by Les Amis to attract new members along with speaking to them where needed.
One of my strong headcanons for Enjolras that I would definitely like to bring into the game is his connection to the written word. I imagine that he would have worked especially hard on shaping his rhetoric through writing, perhaps to deliver as speeches later, and have headcanoned it that he was closest to the journalists of the day, despite his law school status. This means that the revolution of 1830 would have been a very big deal to him, and he took its loss especially hard, making it part of what caused him to vow that the next revolution would be won.
While Enjolras is not overly prone to physical affection, he has been known to share his emotions with his friends whom he trusts the most, especially Combeferre. One such moment of displaying these emotions comes in the battle at the barricade, when Enjolras is about to kill a young national guardsman and Combeferre asks for him not to do so, pointing out that the man could be his brother. Enjolras replies, shedding a single tear, that the man IS his brother.
This demonstrates the level of trust that Enjolras has in his friends, as he does not let others in on his thoughts and feelings through the novel to such a huge degree. He is also shown as interacting with Combeferre on several other emotional wavelengths and the pair share touches and glances that seem to communicate many things with no words between them. Clearly, Enjolras looks to him as a friend that he can trust above others, and, when he is overwhelmed by his emotions, and does not know what to do with them, it is a safe bet that he will approach Combeferre for answers, or perhaps Courfeyrac, in whom he sees a great understanding of humanity and how to deal with it. Even among his friends such displays of emotion as a single tear come few and far between and there are some friends who do not even get that.
One of Les Amis who this falls toward is Grantaire, a cynical drunk who hangs around with the group because of his admiration and veneration of Enjolras. He is one character who does not get the displays of emotion that Enjolras shares with the others. To let himself go in front of Grantaire, someone whom Enjolras sees as having no respect for the republic, or anything sacred and who, in Enjolras’s eyes is so lazy and pathetic and disgusting that he drinks to forget the troubles of the world, would be something that Enjolras could never think to do. He has little time for those who are going to be silly, stupid or immature when there is work to be done, and a people who need the help of Les Amis to get these things completed, and he responds with irritation when he feels that they have gone too far. Again, his level of irritation is typically restricted to cold comments and withdrawal from the person who has sparked his wrath, but it is definitely felt and can definitely cut deeply.
Though several people can invoke the wrath of Enjolras, he has few actual enemies, save for the political structure which he wishes to overcome. He understands that people themselves do not make up the problem, though he certainly voices frustration with these people and writes fiery rants against them, to be published in Le National, but when it comes to face to face involvement, he is usually coolly polite. Considering that he is operating from a very illegal standpoint with most of them, there is very little else to do.
Besides those who would oppress others, Enjolras has a strong distaste for traitors, spies, and those who would seek to destroy the sacred nature of the French Republic he wishes to bring about. He deals with people like this sternly, and affords no mercy to those who violate the sacred principles of revolution and it of itself. An example of this comes when Le Cabuc, planted within the ranks of the insurgents during the June 1832 rebellion in order to discredit the insurgents, shoots and kills an innocent civilian. Enjolras responds to this with strict judgment, calmly ordering the man to kneel,placing a pistol at his head, and giving him one last moment to think or pray, then calmly pulls the trigger.
While Enjolras is obviously grieved by being forced into this action, because killing is abhorrent to him, even when it is necessary, he is still able to calmly face the crowd of insurgents after ordering that the body be disposed of, and explains his reasoning behind the execution, namely that crimes of the barricade, in the height of revolution must be judged harshly and at once. He understands that here, above all else, "insurrection must have its discipline (1878-79)", and that assassination here is an even greater crime than usual, most of all because the revolution is a holy thing, and that the insurgents are acting as "priests of the republic(1879)", so it must not be possible for anyone to slander their work or conduct on the barricade. He also hates that doing this was necessary, telling those gathered that what Le Cabuc did was frightful, but that his actions in response were horrible. He certainly abhors the use of death, as necessary as it was just then, and adds that he will face judgment himself, pointing out that he's already condemned himself and that soon everyone will see his fate, reflecting that although he'll kill when necessary, dispensing justice hardly gives him any sort of joy, and rather, is a burden he's prepared to take onto himself when it is truly needed.
A similar example of Enjolras's strict judgments and attitudes toward things that profane the revolution comes when Javert is revealed as a police spy. Enjolras orders him bound and taken prisoner due to the man's potential as a hostage later on. When he speaks to Javert after this, he is again polite and coolly reserved, informing Javert that he will be shot at the time the barricade falls. When Javert suggests he kill him now, Enjolras is almost offended at the idea, pointing out to Javert that the insurgents are acting as priests and not as judges. Should the the barricade not fall, he would see Javert judged by the people themselves instead of passing more judgment himself. Furthermore, instead of being cruel to the prisoner, Enjolras asks if there is anything he needs, even helping Javert to drink water when he requests it. While he abhors what Javert has done, given the period hatred for spies and traitors, he'd certainly rather that the revolutionaries not be seen as bloodthirsty and wild, but as civilized servants of the more enlightened era he wishes to bring about.
Overall, when it comes to enemies, he holds to principle above all else. A swift judgment is needed when Le Cabuc, seemingly one of his own insurgents, harms an innocent, but for Javert, not one of his own, he must hold to the principle of allowing him the chance of judgment later, again so that the revolution can be seen as principled and reasonable above all other things.
These matters of principle, along with his strong devotion to the people help Enjolras to stay contained when he is angry or upset, and are applied outside of the barricade as well. With something that is no longer the republic to fight and die for, he is still likely to defend what he sees as "universal" principles, including respect for all people, the idea that everyone must be equal in seemingly every way, and that the bond, the "social contract" formed between groups of people in order to allow for mutual sovereignty must be upheld above all else.
It is almost strange to notice, given Enjolras’s love for the people and for helping them, that he tends to do badly when interacting with them on a one on one level. What this means is that, while Enjolras will be the first to champion a cause, fight on someone’s behalf, or bring food to the homeless, he is not very good at interacting with these people. There is a tendency, in his mind, to objectify those he does not know well, and a lack of personal understanding of how most people function or feel contributes to this problem. It is at these times that he feels most grateful for the assistance of Les Amis, who he is comfortable delegating such tasks towards. He does not seek to get out of doing them completely himself, and speaks and knows how to work a crowd well enough, but he is not as adept at conversing with many people and does not feel comfortable in doing this, although he keeps it up for the important task of raising the republic, and keeping the spirits of the people high.
In his time at Tushanshu, Enjolras experienced a variety of challenges and changes to his life, though the most significant factors that shaped his life during that time were starting a relationship with Combeferre, being captured by the shadowy demonic entity known as Malicant, and witnessing the departures of the friends from his own world when he knew that most of them would return home to Paris and to death.
The development of his relationship signified the first time Enjolras was able to put his complete trust in someone else. With Combeferre, who already understood him best, he slowly learned how to navigate the complex waters of a romantic relationship, something that he still struggles with at times. With Combeferre, he's learned to be freer, to appreciate the humor in life, and that he is more than the French Republic and that he is allowed to be a human being as well. Realizing that he was allowed to fail, that not everything must be a matter of life and death, and that he could love both the republic and another being without betraying either did help Enjolras a great deal, especially in those first few months.
When captured by Malicant, he was terrorized with severe mental and psychological attacks that left him at first angry, then confused and terrified, and questioning the decisions he had made in Paris. During this time, one of the ways that Enjolras found to deal with his pain was by engaging in activities that could result in grievous injuries, or actively taking part in body modification that hurt terribly at the time, including self piercing both of his ears, to remind himself of Saint-Just, a leader in the previous French Revolution whom he greatly admires, and whose life was something of a parallel to his own. While Enjolras never gone so far as actual self harm, his propensity for danger seeking and injury IS something of a problem, particularly when it comes to crimes he does feel he is guilty for.
While Enjolras has never felt guilty for the deaths of his friends, he has spent time feeling guilty about a particular incident that occurred at the barricade. While condemning himself after the shooting of Le Cabuc, Combeferre, in a show of best friend support, proclaims, for all of Les Amis, "We will share thy fate(1879)". Believing he'd condemned his friends as well as himself to an afterlife that was not without its pain was something that Enjolras did, and still does, struggle with. Convinced that due to him, his friends were condemned to exist in Tushanshu, he deeply struggled with the idea that bad things may happen to them, and that he had put them in such a position.
With the departures of most of his last remaining friends, particularly Courfeyrac, Enjolras came to quite a different, and fairly idiotic, conclusion: Losing his friends, once again, watching them vanish one by one, was actually the judgment he had proclaimed would be visited upon himself. Terrible as it was, it was also rather Just, and though it hurt, and it hurt a lot, he forced himself to go on as best he could, because, after all, things were finally fair, weren't they?
Of course, in a world where most of those who understood him were gone, Enjolras began to forget some of the finer points of the things he had learned. He still continued keeping up with new friends he had met, but Justice, as hard as he had ever thought it, or at least his messed up ideas of Justice, were obviously prevailing, and there was little to do but force himself through the world, having started to close himself off a bit, and undoing some of the progress he had made since his death.
Of course, in Teleios, having lost some of the skills he's found, Enjolras will be likely to flounder for a while and will certainly need some help, particularly in re-learning some of the social interaction skills he's lost since closing himself off again. Due to the fact that he is generally bad at most one on one interactions not involving his friends, his reserve will likely come off as haughtiness or disinterest that he does not really have. This is a problem I would very much like to work on having him overcome here. Without the majority of Les Amis around, Enjolras will have to learn to handle his own interactions without accidentally scaring everyone away and ending up serving his sentence alone.
As many of his "crimes" were necessary ones he undertook in service of the French Republic, and ensuring its rebirth, Enjolras considers them as righteous actions undertaken in a time of war. He understands that under any normal circumstances that things like lying, violence and murder are wrong, though it is really only that last one that he truly abhors and would agree he must be punished for.
In spite of this, Enjolras holds no particular guilt about his actions now, although he understands he is deserving of judgment and would not complain about accepting that he's caused a debt he must repay in many of the cases of his crimes. He will, however, be the first to angrily point out that what he did was justified and necessary should someone attempt to argue with, or make him feel guilty. In fact, he'll point it for a long time, maintaining an outward appearance of calm during these interactions, though he'll become much colder as a conversation like this drags on.
One of the crimes he will deny that he should pay for is the act of "treason". To Enjolras, he is already a citizen of the republic, never mind it has been dormant since before he was born. In this case, the king and his officials, and the bourgeoisie who stood up for the status quo, are the ones who are traitors. This is a debt he will outright attempt to refuse acknowledging, to the point that he'll refuse to work off those charges even if it means he's staying here for all eternity.
Calling himself a traitor and suggesting that he accepts the cause of treason is another treason in and of itself, and he will not defame the France he wished to see, the France he knows is coming in the future, by calling his actions anything but just. This may create problems with authority. This very likely WILL, in fact. But Enjolras is well prepared to risk them all the same.
Facing that most of his best friends are still gone and still dead, particularly when he's been brought into a world without them is another factor that will likely cause some problems. He cannot feel guilty for their deaths, by any means. After all, they exercised their own autonomy in going to the barricades and staying even when the worst was known,and a way out was offered, and they chose to die for principles that were their own. However, Enjolras will miss them a great deal and will likely grieve their loss and absence from his life forever. He'll certainly be a bit confused to what he should do now, and is even likely to self isolate a bit while working through the worst of that pain. I anticipate this will grow easier in time, and someday, he won't be so lost, but for the moment, grief will make him vulnerable for a time.
Overall, Enjolras is quite the study in contrasts being "as cold as ice and as bold as fire(2040)" as described by his friend Bossuet. At once an impassioned revolutionary insurgent now far beyond the country that he lived for, and a solemn, and for the moment, rather sad, young man, who quite expected to be dead, and certainly not dumped into another strange world to navigate, his future seems wide open here. If only he can find a way to take it.
Powers/Abilities:
Enjolras attended law school in Paris, is a strong writer of rhetoric and a decent shot with both pistol and musket, and has been the leader of a barricade in one armed insurrection, and played a role in another (he also participated in the revolution of 1830 that put Louis Philippe on the throne), but he has nothing in terms of supernatural abilities, magic, or any other qualities that would help him in this setting. Unless we want to count the power of his convictions that drives him onward, even through exhaustion, anyway.
During his time at TuShanshu he was also gifted with the ability to cast light in dark places, a gift from a god as thanks for helping to care for one of his children, and worked as an orderly in the hospital. Other than this, and perhaps a personality that does not allow for him to quit anything easily, and forces him to fight long past the point he should have given up, he has no other abilities to work with.
Appearance:
Let’s look to Hugo himself for a brief look at Enjolras’s appearance to help flesh this out a bit. Hugo points out that Enjolras is “angelically handsome (1104)”, with a “pensive thoughtfulness (1104) ” in his gaze and appears to be very young. A 22 year old Enjolras, in 1828, looks more like a seventeen year old, and has a face like that of “a young girl (1105)”, though he is “prone to pallor (1105)” as well, particularly when he is overworked. He is of medium height, and underweight, as he typically forgets to notice things like needing to eat or drink and is prone to illness due to this.
Enjolras dresses rather somberly, mostly in tones of black and grey, with the very occasional switch to dark blue on especially festive occasions. It can be extremely difficult to get him into any other sort of clothing, and really, people have learned to stop trying.
His one vanity is a pair of gold hoop earrings, similar to those worn by Saint-Just, a leader in the French Revolution and a personal hero for Enjolras,which he acquired in the course of his last game. When he is in need of courage, or facing a hard situation, he will put them on as a means of centering himself to do the work that must be done, and to serve as a reminder both of who he is, and who he means to be.
Hugo goes on to describe Enjolras as blond with pale hair, who has blue eyes and states that he appears to be serious and seldom smiles. I will be using Chris Jacobsen, a recent West End Enjolras,as his PB:
CR AUGame You’re Transferring CR from: Tushanshu.
How has your character changed from their canon self? At Tushanshu, Enjolras really learned to loosen up and relax for a while, even to the point of getting himself a romantic relationship. He extended his relationship tree a fair bit, learned a bit more about interaction with others, and started to gain a better understanding of himself, even as the shadow of a grief he privately blamed himself for hung over his head.
Most of his changes were quite positive, until they began to erode with the departure of his friends and his withdrawal from a good deal of the world. He did gain a job working as an orderly in a hospital and has some skills learned from that experience, as basic as they are.
Coming into the game, Enjolras will be reeling from the departures of his friends, fanatically sure that Justice has already found him and prevailed, and will have a good deal of problems with the idea that he is being judged again, and asked to pay for crimes that he does not believe are crimes as well. Honestly. he's likely to be a bit more of his quiet and firm rebellious self, and probably a bit hard to control at first.
Are they gaining any abilities from their time in game? Did the game setting take something from them?
Enjolras left Tushanshu with the ability to cast light in dark places, and some experience of working as a hospital orderly, but other than that, his standard abilities still apply.
While in game, he did lose a bit of his surety in the way that things work, and certainly felt his confidence drop when he was kidnapped and tortured by the entity known as Malicant. Through Malicant's brand of mental and emotional manipulation, Enjolras was brought to doubt himself and his choices in his life in Paris, which proved to be something of a long-term problem that reduced his self confidence for a long time.
Watching his friends depart from the game also affected Enjolras rather badly. He began to feel that he was to blame for his current state. Being helpless to watch as his friends vanished was, he thought, an extension of the fate he had condemned himself to on the barricade. Because his friends had sworn to share, he imagined he was the engineer of their arrival there as well, causing something of a guilt complex.
The emotional pain he felt from both of these issues was something he judged as deserved, and even, at times, still causes him to seek adventures where he may get hurt. Feeling that he deserved the physical pain as well as the emotional, Enjolras would, and still does, ignore injuries that needed treatment.
He feels horribly ashamed that he begged Malicant for mercy and still feels that he avoided a rightful punishment when taken captive, which is part of the reason he tends to seek out pain and refuses to treat it right away when he is injured. He also somewhat feels that if he had accepted that pain, which Malicant had lead him, through manipulation, to believe was justice for his sins on earth, perhaps his friends would not have been taken from him. He will be arriving in Teleios with this belief intact, and I do hope, that once he is on board with the idea of working for redemption, that this idea of needing to suffer for his imagined wrongs will fade.
Samples:Actionspam Sample:
No.
[It's a simple word, a simple statement and Enjolras is prepared, entirely prepared, to stand behind what it means. But they cannot, they must not be doing this to him, not now. Truly angry as he is now, his hair streams out behind him like a lion's mane as he glances at the people in the park he's found to speak in, mounted on some gazebo stairs.]
Do you, do all of you here accept this arrangement so easily as it seems? Has no one among us here attempted any sort of fighting back? So they are gods, but we are men. Did we not take fire from their hands to make our own, and did we not become its masters long ago? Do we not, as many as we are, encompass all the virtue and the strength that our race must posses? When we combine those as they are meant to be combined, could we not achieve great things?
[His voice is rising now, a little, taking on a distinctive cadence, a cadence that is rather more music than simply speech.]
The history of mankind is tone of overcoming, one of triumph against one adversary after another. Not the least of those adversaries is the unfair punishment of crimes, this miscarriage of justice that allows a man to labor near a thousand years, providing service to those idle gods who drag us here, against our wills and order us to work with little hope of recompense, with little hope of dignity, with little hope of anything beyond the next day's work for not even a meager wage?
In my world, we subject criminals to this. Hard labor with little rest and no pay, labor that is hardly worthy of any beast, to say nothing of man. We send them off to galleys, and across the countryside in chains, we feed them little, work them past exhaustion and then ask them for more under the whip and rod and shackle.
The system here has not reached that point yet, but should we not step up to do something about it, should we not do so now, it will be little time before it reaches, or rather, before it falls. The one thing true of every power is that when it is absolute, then it will be abused. When we place ourselves in the hands of any who seek to subject us, we offer our consent to be taken from home, to be forced into work on trumped up charges designed simply to keep us here, because their way of life depends on those who labor, you and I.
The prisoner held here is brought up on unnatural charges and unfair. Because we have no rights, they think that they succeed in this, but they are only gods, and we are men. We are men with the right to fair treatment, to an honorable and correct trial, not a simple explanation of our crimes from a face on a screen. By virtue of our being men, we are able to give consent, for in each of us is our natural right to sovereignty, our natural right to choose, our natural right to live within a world where we are dealt with fairly when it comes to crime, where we are granted the respect due to sovereign beings, the courtesy, the agency due any one of us no matter what we've done.
[Through this speech, his eyes have started dancing, his cheeks are flushed with color and as quiet as he seems much of the time, as quietly as he's been speaking, Enjolras is nonetheless excited, nonetheless enthused, and nonetheless ready to begin.]
Now, which of you will take your rights? who among you will stand with me?
[Looking expectant at whatever audience he has, Enjolras is , clearly, ready to start something here and now.]
Prose Sample:
The charges against Enjolras were many, and were not so varied in and of themselves. He had known, as bullets plastered him and Grantaire against the Corinth's wall, that he had left the earth with a good many of his sins held to his chest and not confessed to any, but the Republic itself. He had been tried by the rules of that republic too, upheld them much as he could, and, he had been found wanting for so much.
Enjolras had known so much upon the barricade itself. He'd known the moment he'd been forced to pull that pistol trigger placed to an insurgent's head. The man had killed a civilian, and that action left him with no choice but to administer his justice then and there. The crime itself had been quite horrible, and the justice he had dealt out was terrible. Well reasoned as it was, as needed as it was, it was a sin, this taking of a life, and it had carried a heavy burden Enjolras accepted then and there. He had hated it, that he was forced to take that life, but it was necessary all the same, and one small sacrifice, that of his soul, was nothing to what lay beyond for all who were to follow after him.
A world at peace, where no man killed another, where all were happy, all were cared for, all were granted education, where everything was filled with light, where light could have the final say. All that for those who would come after, with the cost of only one soul? It was a bargain Enjolras had made, unwaveringly and easily condemning himself so that the world that lay beyond could come to be on Earth, and he'd been happy for it, then.
What Enjolras had not considered, not in full, at any rate, was what that condemnation meant, what his sentence would be. And fate had brought his soul to face that condemnation in a strange new world where he'd witnessed his friends falling again, or at least taken from him, one by one, before last night when he'd laid down to an exhausted sleep after working a series of double shifts at the hospital, and proofreading the week's edition of the paper, desperate to take his mind off of most everything.
When he had woken here, in a strange new city, and been told that he must go through it again, he had found his sentence was much different than he'd thought. And naturally, he did not like it. If he liked it, though, it was the sort of thing that would not be a punishment at all.
Still, all the same, the gods who oversaw his fate for now had made not only one, but several mistakes in their rulings and the chart of the debts he must pay off before his soul was free to move beyond another world had among it charges that were blatantly untrue.
“Seven hundred and eighteen of these are wrong.” He told the screen that had dealt out his fate, unsure if anyone was here to listen to his words or not. But if it did no good just now, at least he would have tried. “You say that I committed treason, that I've killed my friends when I did no such thing.”
The words were icy cold now, and he hoped they stung the gods much as he had stung anyone else in his life. They were the gods, of course, perhaps it would not help, but all the same, his gaze grew sharper, angrier and Enjolras reached to his ears to tug one of the hoops still hanging there. Thinking of one such as Saint-Just who had been condemned to death in service of the republic, who had walked up to the guillotine itself calmly and with a sort of grace, gave Enjolras the courage now to continue speaking, whether or not he had been heard, tones growing colder by the moment.
“I shall not be charged with treason to a nation and a king that I do not acknowledge, nor a government which steals the people's revolution, promises better and allows for them to starve. I shall not accept the charges that I killed the men who stood with me above all else, men with enough principle and courage to understand something is wrong and make attempts to change it. “
Quiet though the words were, if anyone was watching through the screen or anywhere else, it was clear that Enjolras was growing angrier by the second. If anything, the way his tone grew lower, nearly a whisper, was an especially good indicator of that.
“You say I killed my friends, as if they blindly followed me. Do you believe it, truly? Do you disrespect these men you have not even met so much as to strip away their dignity, their choices? I assure you, if that remains the case, you shall have me to deal with for much longer than you think.”
It was an idle threat, perhaps, as it was made to gods, but Enjolras did not care now. Some things went far beyond religion, and his dear friends, and his dear cause were rather first among them.
