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Q: What are you, sick freaks?
A: Got it in one.
Q: They're all gay? Do you know how implausible that is?
A: Actually, several of them are bisexual and at least one identifies as straight.
As for likelihood: if you pulled nine random young men off the street, it would be unlikely that they all fancied their own gender. However, our Wasps have not come together at random. They have many things in common, including varying degrees of republicanism, varying flavors of neurosis, and varying shades of sexuality. We could show you the eight or nine guys they meet, make friends with, and decide not to risk seducing for every one that they induct, but believe us, that would make a boring read.
Q: Are you aware that 1820s society was not nearly as tolerant of homosexuality as we enlightened modern folk?
A: Well, yes. That's why the Wasps keep their sex lives behind the closed doors of the back room, their own homes, and the occasional house of ill repute. Among themselves, yes, they're shameless. Among strangers, or for that matter in front of family and less close friends, they have more discretion. Even Jehan, when he tries.
On the other hand, they could hardly have found a better time to exist. Yes, this is the nineteenth century, but within that century it is a comparatively easygoing period and place. In the 1820s, for instance, they could not legally be arrested for boinking each other, and cross-dressing, luckily for Prouvaire, was not outlawed until 1853.
They could and very well might have been harassed, mocked, and otherwise terrorized -- if they were indiscreet -- but they are technically within boundaries.
Q: You're writing this just for cheap thrills, aren't you?
A: That and the profound psychological implications of a small, closed group being subject to its own idiosyncratic rituals and expectations within the larger sphere of Romantic youth, and of an essentially dysfunctional organization attempting to enact the instigation of a more functional society. Next?
Q: Why is this story so fluffy? They're all too damn happy!
A: Have you been reading closely? They play mind games, they cheat on each other, they manipulate each other, they enable each other, they get used to each other. This is not a happy story, merely a story with a lot of sex and the occasional honest affection in it.
Q: Why is this story so dark? I want them all to be happy!
A: Consider the premise carefully: two boys coerce several of their friends into having sex with them so as to ensure that their sedition remains secret. Does that sound like a recipe for hearts and flowers to you? Now consider the source material. We rest our case.
Q: But I love Enjolras/Grantaire! Why did you make Grantaire so nasty? Why can't they fall in love?
A: We like E/R slash too. Just not all the time. They can't fall in love because this Enjolras is madly in love with Combeferre. As for Grantaire, no, he's not a very nice person in this story, but then neither are the others. If you're upset about "Pursuit", consider that Grantaire is doing about what Courfeyrac would do, only less tactfully.
Also, a romance between a Julien and an Augustin would hurt our history-loving heads. Have pity on us.
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