miss me with that 'combeferre is a cold detached condescending nerd' bullshit. this is the same man who 'would use the term hombre' to describe his fellow man. this is the same man who encouraged enjolras not to kill a soldier because 'he could be your brother'. this man loves human beings so much

The Triumvirate, circa 1830, colorized.

combeferre would NOT call himself dark academia or chaotic academia or any academia aesthetic. he wouldn't even know what online aesthetics are because his only social media would be reddit, which he'd use to moderate r/entomologymemes

combeferre definitely the type of guy to say "oh dear" whenever something goes horribly wrong

sorry i had to do this

modern combeferre/marius:

im trying to write a pwp for this but im having writer's block so let's do an actual progression of this for fun, yeah?

*this gets overwhelmingly long, so beware*

-combeferre doesn't like marius. from the moment he meets marius he dislikes him. at first it isn't strong- he's introduced as a friend of courfeyrac's and combeferre gives him the benefit of the doubt, but he sees marius open his phone and there's a little preview of the podcast he was listening to: one of those like alpha sigma male talkshow things. it isn't a good first impression. so combeferre decides that marius is annoying and probably mildly sexist and keeps his distance but doesn't feel his eye twitch whenever marius enters the room

-and then he meets marius a second time, in the context of marius attending a meeting. it goes downhill severely from then on

-so combeferre thinks marius is the worst, and marius is terrified of combeferre. they keep their distances from each other.

-then there's this fateful day when combeferre has downtime and he's sort of splayed out on his couch swiping through his dating app when he pauses with one of his matches. the guy is two years younger than him, is the epitome of a twunk with insane v-lines, likes to play solitaire and board games and card games (combeferre is thinking about how cute that is and keeps swiping through photos), and horrifyingly enough is The Marius Pontmercy- revealed once he reaches the last selfie and notices the name on the profile. combeferre almost drops his phone in horror. he actually does, right after implicitly swiping right

-combeferre doesn't text him, no, but he swipes. that's enough. he's mortified. first of all, he's trying to process why The Marius Pontmercy is on a gay dating app. it's baffling. second of all, he's trying to process how he could possibly have matched with someone who listens to sigma male podcasts. lastly, he's trying to process how marius has insane fucking cum gutters and why he even bothers wearing a shirt if he's built like that

-combeferre doesn't text him. he won't. but he also doesn't sleep at night and lays on his side in bed staring at that photo of marius's cum gutters

-there's a point at around 3am when combeferre gets a notification that marius swiped on him too. and neither of them have sent a message. jesus christ.

-combeferre goes about his life trying to pretend like he isn't fantasizing about the worst person ever (who is even worse because combeferre is weirdly attracted to him). he goes to work, he goes to night school, he plans a meeting, and he doesn't text marius.

-after about a week, he decides to investigate. maybe it ISNT The Marius Pontmercy. it isnt like marius is an uncommon name. plus, a lot of twunks look the same. so he goes detective mode on the profile. combeferre carefully swipes and investigates each photo. the evidence he picks up is painfully not on his side

-one photo has courfeyrac's bong in the background, the same yellowed-bong with a crack down the pipe. the shirtless photo of just below his collarbones down to the tops of his briefs shows a birthmark on the inside of his arm. marius has that too. jesus christ. combeferre can't even debate the last photo. it's a selfie.

-combeferre just goes to the meeting sexually frustrated and aggravated that marius has to be such a fucking loser with good cum gutters. it's a waste of muscle definition. how often does he work out to look like that? what sort of exercises would achieve that, with his sweat dripping down his back and-

-he shakes his head and gives himself a tiny little slap on both cheeks and sits lower in his chair. his list of options should not be this low that he's actually thinking about marius like this.

-courfeyrac is trying once again to get marius out there to make friends and maybe... not be a walking and talking advertisement for modern day capitalism and billionaire apologists. he's sat him down across the room with some of the milder members in hopes of integrating him and slowly converting him. marius is sweating a lil bc he's still thinking about what happened last time and what it was like to have combeferre's icy stare from across the room

-the stare is still there, but this time it's different. marius swallows hard and looks down at the table because he's absolutely terrified of combeferre in a way that unfortunately turns him on.

-he had been in the middle of working on a paper for grad school when his phone chimed that he had gotten a new match on the dating app he'd secretly downloaded in a moment of weakness. weakness being marius's full acceptance of his bisexuality and his dry spell. there were really only so many times a person could get off in a day without it getting a little pathetic. so marius had picked up his phone and decided to take a break from his paper

-with his blue-light glasses up on top his head, marius strolled to the kitchen he and courfeyrac shared and grabbed a beer from the fridge. he's popped off the top and is taking a sip when he's scrolling through his matches and finds the new one.

-he almost chokes when he reads the name

-marius does some snooping and drinks from his beer as he looks over combeferre's profile. he doesn't have many revealing photos, just simple candid photos and travel photos. he enjoys science fiction and activism (marius has no idea why he'd put that on a dating profile, combeferre's "activism" was more equip to terrorizing the government until france became either an anarchist state or a totalitarian-communist one. neither was a good look for getting a date, in his opinion. who wants to pick up their boyfriend from jail every week?). he was into guys that can hold a debate. when he wasn't giving marius a disdained look, he had a really nice smile

-combeferre swiped on him, but hadn't said a word. very cautiously, marius swipes on him too.

-when courfeyrac drags him to the next meeting, marius avoids combeferre's gaze and wonders why he had swiped. was it a mistake? combeferre most certainly knew marius swiped back, though. was he going to talk to him about it? god forbid. marius would just start sweating more

-combeferre, on the other hand, is furious that marius is here. about 15% of his rage is from the fact that marius is a loser. the other 85% is from his sexual frustration. he taps his fingers on the table very hard as courfeyrac reads the minutes from the prior meeting, trying to instead pay attention to the agenda and all that. it works well enough.

-around the middle of the meeting, combeferre hears marius laugh at something joly says. it isn't anything crazy- grantaire has been a bigger distraction in the past- but something in him snaps. combeferre clears his throat and stares at him from his own seat

-"if you're not going to pay attention, just go. you're distracting everyone else. we're fine without you."

-marius's face goes red almost immediately. courfeyrac puts his head in his hands from the corner and even enjolras is like "hey dude cool it". he's never been snappy at members before. combeferre doesn't know why it made him so angry to hear him laugh. he does. he knows.

-with shaking hands, he types out a message: "go to the bathroom"

-combeferre can't tell if marius gets up to actually leave or not. joly seems to be trying to convince him to stay but he's already briskly leaving the room with the tips of his ears burning red. enjolras gives combeferre a little look before suggesting he go apologize, referring to marius as a "work in progress" and not an enemy

-combeferre heads straight for the bathroom. if marius isn't there, fine. he's splash some cold water on his face and cool off and get over himself. if marius isn't there, he'll get over everything.

-if marius isn't there, then his life will go on as normal and combeferre will be fine.

-if marius is not in the bathroom, it will be fine.

-combeferre pushes through the bathroom door like a linebacker

-marius is in the bathroom

also modern AU combeferre is ABSOLUTELY the person who will spend hours on twitter replying to people’s bad takes with witty one liners that generate thousands of likes/retweets

i used my limited editing skills to illustrate what was in my head when i was making this post:

etre libre, dit combeferre

I wish you all the *happiest* barricade day!! combeferre's death should be talked about more!!!

my commissions are open and you can find my art on redbubble

How the HELL did Marius Pontmercy become a LAWYER I know for a fact that bitch can't argue without crying

Said Combeferre, in the middle of a rant

I have been suddenly struck by the image of a very frustrated Enjolras and an even more frustrated Combeferre, who has to deal with Enjolras. So Combeferre is like "have you ever tried letting out your emotions in an artistic way" and Enjolras is like "does graffiti count" and Combeferre is like "no, not if its just a slogan, Enjolras" and signs him up for a pottery class.

That day Combeferre goes to pick him up and here comes out Enjolras, giddy beyond belief, 100% satisfied with his work, abd presents an incredibly realistic, life-like reproduction of his own hand flipping the bird.

Ferre: "ehm, what is that?"

Enj: "It's my hand! Telling people to fuck off!"

Ferre: "but why?"

Enj: "Well, I didn't know what to make, and the teacher's aid came over and asked me what I wanted to exteriorate, so I told him I wanted people to fuck off and he said to do that! So I'm flipping the bird!"

Ferre: "oh, nice. I love it, it's very good"

Enj: "yeah, and the guy was so cute"

...

Enj: "can we leave this in front of Javert's house?"

Ferre: "I mean, it's your artwork. Do whatever you want".

When Enjolras goes back next week here is R, the aid, looking furious, because he put a sticker with his number on the bottom of the hand, and Javert called him berating him for disturbing the piece with his vulgar hand, so he's demanding a date in compensation.

A month later they leave BOTH their hands outside Javert's house.

ferre is secretly REALLY good at playing piano. the reason its a secret is because he only plays it when he's asked and when he's drunk. once bossuet said something like "man i was so hammered i thought i saw ferre playing the piano" and everyone laughed and it became an inside joke for when they all get outrageously drunk. but half the time its actually true

abt once a year one of them finds iut its true and they are sworn to secrecy by courf bc "its like a little club, mon frere!"

All the time in fics Enjolras is useless at texting or never checks his phone. But personally I believe that man texts every thought in his brain to Combeferre. Sending long rambling voice notes about anything and everything. Giving very detailed breakdowns of really mundane conversations with Grantaire. Almost like journaling but via text/voice messages. Then like every few days Combeferre goes through all the messages and carefully replies to all of them in one long voice note, with the occasional message of his own talking about something that happened to him that day.

Barricade Day Advent Calendar

Jolllly, Combeferre, Bahorel, Jehan

To YOU he’s just a 192 year old dead revolutionary medical student who represented the logic of the revolution who lived much more normal than his counterpart, who was more human than man, the homo to vir, who liked the word citizen but preferred the word man and would gladly say hombre, who read everything, did theatres, followed lectures, explained the functions of artery’s, followed science, deciphered hieroglyphics, broke stones to look inside them, drew silk moths from memory, corrected the dictionary, both asserted and denied nothing, daydreamed, who was involved in issues of education, wanted society to raise intellectual and moral standards, believed that the narrowness of teachings and the scholastic prejudice would turn collages into artificial oyster farms, who was well-read, a purist, precise, polytechnical, hardworking, imaginative, who dreamed of trains and better surgical operations and fixing cameras and electric telegraphs and steering hot air balloons, who was the guide to the leader, who was not incapable of fighting but would rather be gentle, who wanted neither halt nor haste, who would rather let progress take its course rather than worship and incite revolutionary adventures, coolheaded but pure, methodical but irreproachable, phlegmatic but imperturbable, and who believed ‘good must be innocent’

To ME he’s everything

the triumvirate!

okay a really common HC that we talk about is the Triumvirate knowing each other since they were kids and it’s cute to imagine them as kids helping each other with homework and big emotions, but consider how funny it is to imagine them just doing regular little boy shit like building ramps for their bikes that are definitely gonna leave scars