Comment on A Cabal of Paris

  1. Donna_Immaculata on Chapter 2 Mon 31 Dec 2018 01:28AM UTC

    Little Jean-René (or possibly René-Jean?), Charles, Jacques-Louis, Louis-Henri, and little Marie, Sophie, Louise, and Marie-Louise insisted that he writes them letters about how Abbé Frou-Frou is doing at least twice a week. They send him specimens in jars (frogs; Jacques-Louis is an aspiring naturalist) and pressed flowers in return.

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    1. Deiseach (Guest) on Chapter 2 Mon 31 Dec 2018 01:35AM UTC

      Both. Jean-René is his sister Mariette's third eldest (or fourth youngest, depending on from which end you're counting) and René-Jean is his brother Georges' third twin (twins run in Georges' wife's family and now in George's). René-Jean's twin sister is of course Marie-Louise-Sophie, after her aunts :-)

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      1. Donna_Immaculata on Chapter 2 Mon 31 Dec 2018 01:55AM UTC

        The latest post brought an invitation to his brother Michel-Jean's wife Marguerite's cousin's wedding. The cousin is also called Marguerite, but her fiancé is Jean-Michel, and they would both wish so much for the abbé d'Herblay to marry them, and mother was saying he was about to be ordained very soon, could he possibly make it by November, because they really need to get married before advent, because it'll be too late in January, if you know what I mean, René, and they will name it after you.

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        1. ysande on Chapter 2 Mon 31 Dec 2018 02:47PM UTC

          This may just have been the single greatest story ever told about Aramis, I am in love!!

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          1. Donna_Immaculata on Chapter 2 Mon 31 Dec 2018 03:58PM UTC

            I know! I cried happy tears when Deiseach came up with the scenario. Poor harassed Aramis, having such a happy, loving family is so embarrassing. Nobody plots against anybody, nobody carries poison rings or hidden daggers. He prays his secret will never be known at Court.

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            1. ysande on Chapter 2 Mon 31 Dec 2018 10:24PM UTC

              It's so perfect! And would legit damage his schemes and reputation if it were ever known at Court; whoever could take a happy man seriously?!

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          3. Deiseach (Guest) on Chapter 2 Mon 31 Dec 2018 04:38PM UTC

            I suppose Athos' Tragic Backstory contains enough tragedy to share out amongst the Three of Them, so Aramis also furiously dropping hints that he has a Tragic (and Noble) Past when the reality is that he comes from solid yeoman stock who are all alive, well, hopelessly country bumpkins, content and happy with their little lives and who drown him in love and affection and comforts is much too funny to pass up :-)

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            1. Donna_Immaculata on Chapter 2 Mon 31 Dec 2018 05:27PM UTC

              And, from where Aramis is standing, this would be a proper tragedy. Not one secret letter, not one poisoned dagger in sight!

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            2. ysande on Chapter 2 Mon 31 Dec 2018 10:30PM UTC

              It's golden and hilarious and it makes me happy! Poor, long-suffering Aramis!

              In my quietest moments though, I wish Athos' Tragic Backstory were actually Tragic in that he was the victim of Tragic Circumstances and he bore them as Manfully as he could, but Alas! Instead of "holy fuck, Athos, you are SUCH a problematic fav😬"

              Do you have a head canon backstory for Porthos? I actually really love the BBC one of him being of mixed and illegitimate parentage (stopping right there before we get into the bullshit angst about how he's a nobleman)

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              1. Deiseach (Guest) on Chapter 2 Tue 01 Jan 2019 03:34AM UTC

                Porthos seems to be pretty simple to explain, which I imagine would make it all the more hilarious if he was the only one of them to really have a genuine Not His Fault Tragic Backstory ("so anyway that is how, at the age of five, my parents were murdered and I was falsely declared illegitimate and cheated out of my rightful fortune and title and ended up taken in by a passing band of Gypsies who smuggled me out of town before my scheming cousin could dispose of me and then the Gypsies left me with a poor but honest childless couple on the coast and I was brought up as a fisherman's child, but never mind all that, what do you think of my new suit?")

                Porthos does seem to be of solid yeoman stock, not a lot of money, with rather grand tastes and pretensions which he funds by finding sugar mommas, but he can't aim very high in that regard (despite telling Mousqueton that it's all duchesses and fine ladies); he's good-looking enough to attract women, rather vain, dressy, tall and strong, and not very smart (at least not when it comes to book-learning). He's not a complicated character, he's fairly honest and average, he's not stupid but he doesn't bother getting involved in all the intriguing that Aramis loves and he just wants to get rich, acquire a title of some sort, and retire to a country estate where he can indulge his love of good living.

                He's loyal as well, not just to his two idiots but also to his mistress, the rich (eventual) widow: that may be a marriage more or less of convenience but he did marry her and seems to have lived without much domestic drama, so while she presumably still held the purse strings she must have been happy ending up as a baroness and Porthos treated her well enough that she wanted to marry him when she did become a rich widow - she could just as easily have thrown him over for a better catch.

                He likes wine, women, song, food, good clothes and lodgings, admiration, and a good fight. He sticks with Athos, Aramis and d'Artagnan as best he can through all the intrigues and changes of alliances, which eventually leads to his death. Probably the most normal out of the Three of Them and the best of the lot if you wanted a guy not likely to kill you after marriage, refuse to ever marry you while stringing you along as a mistress, or exile you off to Normandy once it became inconvenient :-)

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        3. Deiseach (Guest) on Chapter 2 Mon 31 Dec 2018 04:35PM UTC

          And in a two-for-one, you can return after Ephiphany to do the christening! It'll be so romantic, darling, they'd be devastated if you can't make it and did you know Marguerite's Cousin Marguerite's mother is a cousin of your father's? So you must, you really must, try and hurry up sweetheart, we're all longing to see you again and I've just brewed up a new batch of Grand-Aunt Seraphine's nostrum. So there's a whole gallon of that waiting for you, you know you need to take a wineglassfull daily to ensure your delicate constitution can hold up - you still have that dispensation from fasting, don't you?

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          1. Deiseach (Guest) on Chapter 2 Mon 31 Dec 2018 04:54PM UTC

            Silly me, I'm so flustered with all the preparations, what do I mean return after Ephiphany? Why of course, once you're down here at the end of November for the wedding, you'll stay on for Christmas! You can help out old Père François with the Advent services, he's a darling man but he's getting on now and is a bit shaky and can't see that well so it's hard for him to read the Gospel - he once read out an entire recipe for stuffed capon by mistake instead of the Wedding Feast of Cana for Mass! And naturally Cousin Marguerite and MIchel-Jean will be delighted to have you around in case, you know, just in case the baby might come early *ahem* so you'll be there for the christening in good time!

            Oh, imagine having you home with us for the entire twelve days of Christmas festivities! It will be so wonderful, darling!

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