status: available
title: eunoia*
love interest: seamus finnigan
oc name: Madelon* de la Chevallerie
blood status: muggle
house: non
timeline: 1774 - 1794
au: rococo, chemistry

𝕔𝕒𝕤𝕥

madelon de la chevallerie: charlotte marie de gasville by antoine vestier
(probs to lovepctions- for finding out the name of the painting!! <3)

seamus finnigan: as some rococo portray, too

(best casting ever, istg)

𝕤𝕪𝕟𝕠𝕡𝕤𝕚𝕤*

Antoine de Lavoisier is used to money - masses, no, mountains of it to be exact -, he's used to the luxurious life it enables him to live and he doesn't even have to think when there is a possibility to extend his wealth - he just grabs every opportunity, it's not even a decision, just an instinct.

A convenient and lucrative one.

So it's no surprise that the future father of chemistry doesn't hestitate even one second when taking Madelong de Boullainvilliers into the household - why host a poor orphan when you can get a rich one after all?

For the girl it actually isn't that much of a deal, she's just moving from one big, nice house to another one - her father hasn't meant much to her, she's nearly never seen him and her mother's died two weeks after her birth, as long as Madelon's nanny is with her, the three-year-old honestly doesn't ming because look at this shiny glass thingy over there! She's never seen such strange stuff before and in the de Lavoisiert household there are surely enough. (There aren't - there never are in Antoine's opinion - and the chemistry equipment is by no means to be understood as toys, sorry, Madelon.)

Madelon grows up to be a witty, beautiful lady, well-versed in science just like the spouse de Lavoisier but also in art and languages and literature of course, just like the good match she's meant to be. Her eyes sparkle with knowledge and her fingers dance with grace when writing poetry but her lips never rise in appreciation of the luxury she's experiencing or gratitude for the more than just intelligent people surrouding and encouraging her.

She isn't used to her lavish life but sees it as a minimum.

With 16, Madelon wears an apricot-coloured silk-lampas dress with lucious embroidery, probably the most beautiful gown she owns and she knows that Perceval thinks so too, at least he looks at her with a certain sense of admiration when she takes his surname as hers.

Madelon de la Chevallerie.

She likes how it sounds. Mighty, beautiful and fucking rich.

Even though Madelon isn't living in the de Lavoisier' house now anymore, she still visits them very often, watching Antoine and and his experiments with his wife Marie, watching Marie watching Antoine, watching Marie writing the protocols of the experiments.

Madelon spends a lot of her time watching.

It's the role of a woman after all, being passive, personificating the water to the men's fire.

-How unconvenient that Perceval is more like air, necessary to live but not visible, not touchable, never in reach. He's with her but far away and when his body finally follows his ind, Madelon already feels his eyes on her even though they're thousands of kilometers apart.

And maybe this is the reason why it's so, so exciting when Madelon finally meets the embodyment of fire - not only to her water but also to it - because she feels Perceval's mouth forming a surprised o when hers touches Seamus Finnigan's, growing to an O when her fingers trace his spine, finally becoming a slightly outraged 0 because his mouth can't open any further (-hers can), his lips parted like he's imitating a fish while Madelon growns loudly - she certainly doesn't behave like this when with him, her husband.

Maybe Madelon merely wants to be seen by Perceval like on their wedding day again with his undivided attention and admiration, just like she watches him (like she watches most) but perhaps Madelon doesn't care about Perceval too much anymore just like it's been with her father, maybe she leaves him like her father's house and moves into a new one, as juntroubled as back then even though the new one is burning.

But we all know that Madelon can't because women are meant to be passive and watch. And even if her water would vaporize, in the end, haze floats through the air.

𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕤

¬"eunoia" means "beautiful thinking", "a well mind" and i think it's very fitting bc madelon is rlly intelligent and so is seamus (he has to be, bc he's a chemist in here and not an unimportant one, btw)
¬so, madelon's father can die from anything u want, i don't rlly care tbh
¬the line of the de boullainvillier actually dies out in the late 18th century (in rl) and bc she is the last of the line and marries perceval and is unfertule, u know-
¬girls r married very early in this time and madelon doesn't think of it as bad, she doesn't know it differently, additionally her husband isn't cruel or anything, he's a very gentle young man but he doesn't rlly give her much attention
¬either perceval has some job bc of which he has to travel a lot or he just loves traveling
¬it's totally been okay to have a lover when your partner isn't here rn bc he or she is traveling, it's even aspired to have one bc it looks good in public and u take your lover with u to parties and stuff, so it's not rlly a secret that there's smt between madelon and seamus
¬now to the history part so I can start with the actual plot:
¬antoine de lavoisier is known as the father of chemistry, he's for example introduced the nomenclature (adding oxide when it's an oxidated metal instead of just naming it like the person who found the oxidated metal, etc), he's frigging rich, one of the main reasons he is so (he buys a castle at some point and has the best laboratory of the whole world there then) is bc he's part of a group which are ruthless tax farmers and keep most of the money they collect, they're aimed and allowed to break into your house at any time, taking with them whatever they want
¬strangely, the ppl don't like the fermes générale
¬1772 antoine has the idea, that maybe there exists no phlogiston - this substance is believed to be in everything that can be burnt and that it gets freed when smt burnt and that's why burnt stuff is lighter than it was before - however, lead for example becomes heavier when burnt bc o2 attaches itself to it and ppl say, maybe phlogiston has so a negative weight but antoine is like no, and bc ppl would say he's crazy, he doesn't tell anybody abt the idea and locks the document he's written it down away so nobody will find out abt his idea and experiments
¬1774 antoine publishes a book abt his experiments d stuff and gets known outside of france too - joseph priestley, a british dude, reads his book too and he also discovers that there's some kind of air, which allows candles to burn brighter, he believes in the phlogiston theory and names it with phlogiston and stuff (it's oxygen btw) but he doesn't get famous or anything, I don't even think he published it
¬in october 1774 priestley comes to paris and meets antoine, who invites him for dinner where priestley tells antoine abt the super fire air he's found and antoine is probably inspired by this, bc he makes some experiment after this and finds oxygen, however, he doesn't refer to priestley at all when it comes to oxygen
¬seamus is a chemist and his experiments mostly have to do with fire, he's quite known for them in great britain and he and priestley are chemistry buddies, they go on vacation together (1774, paris) and so seamus is attending the dinner too
¬so is madelon
¬seamus is 20, madelon 17 in 1774, btw
¬the men discuss some chemical theme and then madelon suddenly interferes, stating her opinion and some facts and seamus is like 😦
¬seamus stays longer in paris than priestley, he befriends antoine and they become chemistry buddies too, writing each other letters and stuff when seamus isn't in france anymore
¬madelon and seamus also write each other
¬seamus returns to france again and again, he and antoine make fire related experiments, and in 1775 he is with him, when antoine shows off an experiment in front of an exclusive audience with which he shows that water consists of 0 and H
¬antoine gets seamus a place in the fermes générale and seamus honestly doesn't mind it, since he's joined the tax farmers he lives in paris, it's more convenient for him and madelon too bc they don't live too far apart
¬madelon's and seamus' relationship is quite hot and steamy, ngl - sex scenes would be quite fitting but aren't a must
¬on the 26th of august, 1794, seamus gets  beheaded bc he's a tax farmer, he dies as fifth, after antoine (revolution and stuff and bc they've gotten their wealth on the costs of the folks, u know)
¬madelon survives the whole craze, she stays together with perceval and accomponies him on a journey to protect herself from the revolutionairs (it obviously works)