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Joly was the "malade imaginaire" junior. What he had won in medicine was to be more of an invalid than a doctor. At three and twenty he thought himself a valetudinarian, and passed his life in inspecting his tongue in the mirror. He affirmed that man becomes magnetic like a needle, and in his chamber he placed his bed with its head to the south, and the foot to the north, so that, at night, the circulation of his blood might not be interfered with by the great electric current of the globe. During thunder storms, he felt his pulse. Otherwise, he was the gayest of them all. All these young, maniacal, puny, merry incoherences lived in harmony together, and the result was an eccentric and agreeable being whom his comrades, who were prodigal of winged consonants, called Jolllly.-(Les Miserables, Hapgood translation)

Joly is a medical student from Paris in the 1830s; specifically, 1832, where/when he is also recently deceased. Whoops on that, but he always rather suspected it would happen, and at least it wasn't the cholera! He leaves behind an affectionate but often baffled family, a much-loved mistress, and a reputation for being perhaps a little too open-minded both personally and academically/professionally. He's known to latch onto new theories like magnetic powers, hypnotism, and indeed practically any theory that might get away from the bleed/purge/dose-with-toxins school of medicine currently in vogue in his era, because he's just strange that way. He's also quick to make himself a guinea pig for any of the theories that catch his attention; he really is a little strange that way. He will, canonically, notice a cat in literally any situation in which there is a cat, including a battlefield.


Physically, he's a fairly attractive young-ish(27 years old at time of death) man of the 1830s along the slim-to-wasting Romantic aesthetic of the time,and usually well dressed. Joly is outgoing, not particularly suave, cheerful, prone to fussing, chatty, and-perhaps most of all- an enormous geek.



The player can be reached at this journal, or thjazi. (also on DW) and especially on Tumblr as pilferingapples.

I'm playing him from canon except where I need to add to backstory (for example, he's got a Martinique mother, and a white French father who's pretty insistent about the new Methodist branch of Protestantism, in place of exactly no detailed family backstory in the book, and in keeping with conversations with tire_mois_mes_bottes .)

A note on canon puncture: Joly in Milliways knows that he features in a novel (and possibly adaptations thereof) by Victor Hugo; he hasn't read said novel and has no real interest in it, as it sounds to be distinctly lacking in Science. He accepts that it may or may not be the Hugo of his world who wrote about them; to the extent that he is interested in the book, it's more for the implications for multiverse theory than anything else.

A note on godding: Joly and Bossuet are roommates and generally partners, and the muns are in frenquent communication. As such, Bossuet's mun tire_mois_mes_bottes can be assumed to have permission to speak for Joly when it's necessary or useful for a thread. No worries, all is cooperation!


(Joly is from Les Miserables(the Hugo novel), and is the property of name of Victor Hugo. They appear here solely for the purpose of role-playing in milliways_bar, from which no profit whatsoever is being made. Icons are my own art.)