I stay true to my vision. Don't say it's just a dream. @alchemyfire - Tumblr Blog

My introduction post

Instead of the original inadequate caption in the header, I decided to write this introductory post for new followers, random visitors, and friends who have been with me for a while and are still curious.

My name is Kateřina, I live in the Czech Republic, in the magical city of Prague. She/Her are my pronouns. I am 48 years old. I graduated from university with a degree in public administration and international relations, which satisfied my thirst for knowledge in all areas of my interest: state administration, world history, law, economics, political science, languages, and philosophy. My job, on the other hand, does not satisfy me very much, but it provides me with what I need. I also tried to get involved in local politics for a short time, but unfortunately it did not meet my expectations and brought only disappointment.

After years, I returned to tumblr and looked for new friends who are as interested in the French Revolution as I am and with whom we can enrich each other through stimulating discussions. When I first became interested in this period (it might have been sometime in the late 1990s), I met a lot of great people through Yahoo groups. (If any of them are still around, please let me know.) Unfortunately, after a few years, interest waned, groups were closed, and friends disappeared. After another twenty years, my passion for the ideals of the French Revolution has been rekindled, and I am glad to have found such a strong base of great people here who share their knowledge and their art with others.

As my username suggests, I also dedicate time to the alchemy of the soul, which focuses on inner work and spiritual transformation.

My more casual interests include traveling (when I could), yoga, walking, writing, reading (I have a huge collection of books at home that I love very much, but I probably won’t be able to read them all). I have my cat named Sherly, whom I love with all my heart. But in reality, I am more of a dog person.

I enjoy a cup of good black tea with a splash of milk the most. I like the smell of grass after the rain. I like the sunrise.

If I think of anything else, I'll add it here.

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I was also recently persuaded to try RP-ing Robespierre. Who knows if I'll do him justice. In case you are intersted, this is my RP-blog: @defenseur-des-opprimes

#introduction post #pinned post #personal

alwaystiredshark

More of my art @alwaystiredshark

Support me on: Kofi

you-are-another-me

saintjustitude

Everyone who knows about Edward Wojtaszek's Thermidor aka The CSP Went Shopping at the Goth Store and Is Trapped in a Hellraiser Dimension play explain it to @alchemyfire now: it's their birthday today, and they don't know about this masterpiece yet.

saintjustitude

Ok so first you watch the trailer and look at the costumes and set and the fact there are unexplained hooks hanging from chains on the ceiling - no really

And they all look like Maxime turned them all into vampires and they're plotting a revolt on his vampire tyranny

And you're like:

What the fuck is this? This looks like it's going to be worse than everything, like the BBC docudrama meets Assassin's Creed Unity and it's in hell.

BUT IT'S NOT.

IT WAS ACTUALLY VERY FUCKING GOOD.

And then you look more into the photos available online

And

God?

They read the Stasiaverse and they understood the assignment.

saintjustitude

Then you actually watch the play.

And you say fuck The Danton Case this is the true masterpiece here.

This play has the special thing of being perhaps the only work of literature on these guys who mention Vilate and make him such an important character. He's the key to truly understand the true drama at the heart of the CSP: they were all horny for each other. And Vilate was basically the government's kept boy.

This is Vilate in the play:

Oh boy.

So for those who don't know, Joachim "Sempronius Gracchus" Vilate was a member of the Revolutionary Tribunal who literally lived in the Pavillon de Flore.

He was arrested before Thermidor and honestly I don't know where his allegiances lie beside "I'm 26, I'm terrified, I was not meant to play this game, I just want to live". Oh, yes. He's 26 like Saint-Just. We don't know what he looked like besides a vague description but Russian Livejournal found a picture and he looks exactly like Saint-Just. If that's actually him and not a mislabeled portrait of Saint-Just. Oh, and Barère is creepily attached to him. Because of course he is.

So unlike others Vilate was not freed when Thermidor happened. He kept pathetically asking them but the Flops ignored him. He turned to Tallien and Fréron and wrote a trilogy of pamphlets for them which devolve more and more into obvious lies and insanity the more he realizes he's been fooled and he's never getting out - in the third opus he literally admits he's making shit up. Anyway you know how Maurice Duplay stayed in jail too and was put on trial with Fouquier-Tinville and everyone involved with the Revolutionary Tribunal in Year III? Yeah Duplay was acquitted; Vilate was not. He sold his soul and more, and it was all for nothing. It's kinda sad.

Anyway only Vilate's first pamphlet seem like it might still have some connection to reality at least when it comes to his own story. The others are... very unhinged, to say the least. He tells trivia like how the CSP always has double dates. Barère is a creep (no news there). Oh, and Barère and Vadier have "orgies" (very mild swinger sex with actresses and sex workers maybe; it's purposefully vague to make you think the worst) (sometimes Collot joined) and Vilate was just there to watch. He describes Collot/Billaud as a fire and ice couple. Collot reportedly called SJ "the young and vigorous athlete of the Revolution". Hérault was the most beautiful man and unlike Barère he would never have used him.

His pamphlet reads like a typical 18thc narrative on the poor innocent naive countryside person corrupted by the vices of Paris. Here we have The Tale of the Perverted Bureaucrat. It's a masterpiece itself of gay drama.

He also wrote a very pathetic letter to beg Billaud to free him before turning against the Flops. It's all very sad.

Anyway Stasia clearly read this and she got it.

Because her play is basically: the CSP Flops are aimless without their Great Leader who Has Abandoned Them and they bitch about him a lot then conspire to replace him as their dom with Evil Dom Fouché which is a Bad Idea. SJ shows up to be scary and tell them they suck. Collot tries to turn SJ to their side by lying that Maxime wants him dead in what seems like a prolonged homoerotic seduction to sow trouble in an already troubled marriage. Maxime finally shows up to interrupt. Angst happens and great speeches on the Evil of Capital are made. And then the play is unfinished.

So anyway this adaptation features Fouché looking like this:

Who acts Very Creepily with Barère while Collot watches with amusement. Vilate starts crying at one point because Barère and Billaud and Collot all bully him and Fouché Very Creepily wipes his tears with his own handkerchief. Vilate also gets manhandled by SJ after he finds out they were listening in on him and Maxime. Vilate gets on his knees and crawls (see above).

Vilate being bullied by his sugar daddies:

Collot and Billaud have drama because Billaud desperately wants to fuck Maxime:

But Barère teases him and tells him he never will coz lol he has SJ and you're ugly lol. This is what Barère looks like btw:

And this is Barere looking at SJ:

And this is SJ being a smug bitch to Collot:

Tallien visits too to have a breakdown and remind them He's Straight Really and takes his knife out:

And then Maxime shows up and they're all TERRIFIED. Well not SJ. He's into whatever Maxime is doing.

Maxime has a skull cane btw:

And he keeps rubbing it suggestively the whole time and threatens SJ with it at least twice (as seen above).

Maxime also nearly faints and swoons into SJ's arms, who catches him. They look very intently at each other and you're sure they're gonna kiss but instead they just embrace very tightly. But because this is the Stasiaverse and Stasia's Maxime is Above Such Things, he coldly pushes SJ away. It's very heartbreaking.

They have a lot of drama. SJ has a breakdown then Maxime has a breakdown. Their marriage isn't going well. But we don't know what happens next because the play abruptly ends and there's a red screen with blood falling on it.

Anyway the guy who plays SJ clearly did research and portrays him very well, better than how Stasia describes him in which he's basically like:

Which tbf is how everybody acts towards Robespierre in the Stasiaverse.

The play also kind of changed the last two years of my life as in it got me interested in reading more about The Flops.

saintjustitude

Also Maxime you can't just start with like a real hard cane that's way too advanced and hardcore.

Ok yeah that SJ is wearing leather and studded punk boots:

But you can't just assume things, Maxime, geez.

..........you know I'm just realizing now that this is a very clear aesthetic choice in Homophobic Homoeroticism. Or Homoerotic Homophobia. Whichever. They might as well have given him a spiky dog collar.

Because you'll notice everyone has outfits that, though modernized, fit the period:

Except SJ with his leather waistcoat.

Oh boy the implications.

Ok I think I understand the symbolism/aesthetic of the chains now 💀

Anyway here's the swoon:

And Maxime having a breakdown:

And Collot manspreading:

Also Carnot is there for five minutes at the start with Fouché creepily manipulating him:

And then he fucks off forever because this play is just too gay he's not staying there to get another gay panic holy fuck that atmosphere.

saintjustitude

I had to be high to get it but I do get it now.

The chains on the ceiling.

Vilate crawling on his knees.

Maxime slowly taking off his gloves.

The way he rubs his cane the whole time or holds it threateningly.

The way he threatens SJ twice with it.

The way he predatorily walks from left to right then left again while SJ slightly bends down on the table. (I wish I could show you that scene.)

SJ being the only one wearing leather.

Their outfit being coordinated.

I don't think it was an accident.

I think that's really the subtext.

saintjustitude

THAT ADAPTATION IS NOT NORMAL AND IT'S A MASTERPIECE

And that SJ 😩👌

alchemyfire

I will always be grateful to you for telling me about this play. <3

It's so amazing. I've seen it so many times that it seems completely normal to me when the CSP members speak Polish. :-)))

#edward wojtaszek's thermidor #my love #frev

you-are-another-me

radical-revolution

I want to share a few pictures from the Czech TV play Wolves by Romain Roland. They were taken from TV, so I apologize for the poor quality.

It's about the conflict between justice, conscience and purity of the soul on one side and the interest of the republic in war on the other side. What is more sacred? And why are they even in conflict? How easy can we choose wrong?

I am so sure all our dear revolutionaries had to face this dilema now and then. 😔 It is killing me just to think about it.

#frev #french revolution #frev movie #Wolves

masterxdanx

leathernlace00

... I got a little carried away

#aww sweet #cuteness overload #frev #frev art #maximilien robespierre #saint just #camille desmoulins #jean paul marat

cheeri1yfrancis

my (incomplete) paris frev guide

so i’ve returned from my 3 day paris trip, and i’ve had various people ask me where i saw certain frev related things, or how to find certain locations, so i’ve decided to make a post of everything frev related that i saw, roughly in chronological order :)

so the first place i visited was the pantheon- it was the furthest south out of everywhere else i visited, so if you visit it’s worth putting aside a decent amount of time for getting there and back. here, i saw the national convention monument, and in the crypt i visited rousseau, voltaire, victor hugo, alexander dumas, carnot, and condercet. you’ll also have to pay €13-16 euros to enter, though it’s free for children and i believe eu residents under 25…

next, i visited the conciergerie- this was also €16 but free for under 18s. this was amazing- there was the statue of robespierre, but also a lot of good information about and artefacts from the revolutionary tribunal, as well as information about the women executed in the revolution. it’s very haunting to know that most of the frev figures spent their final hours in the building that you’re standing in 🥲

i also saw the luxembourg gardens (camille and danton were imprisoned here for a bit)

near there, is the danton monument! it’s just outside the l’odeon metro station, and he has a restaurant and cinema named after him. there’s a little side street almost directly in front of the statue, and if you go down it, you’ll see a plaque which marks danton’s house!

the next day, i visited the palais royal, where camille gave his famous speech. this was outside the café foy, which was apparently numbers 56-60 on the galerie de montpensier, which is one sides of the palais royal :)

i then went to the louvre which i would Not Recommend. the david paintings were great to see, but There Were So Many People. Not Fun :|

however, here’s the pavillon de flore, the cps building, or at least the partially rebuilt version thereof… it’s on the side of the louvre closest to the seine, and it’s right on the end

here’s the place de la concorde, where the guillotine was…

i then visited the petit palais, which i really recommended frev-aside- as the name suggests, it’s a pretty small gallery, but it’s got a lot of really lovely paintings, and it isn’t full of tourists! (i say this as a tourist, but anyway….. it’s not full of tour groups, at least) but in terms of frev stuff, it has the d’angers saint-just bust, which is obviously beautiful

then i visited the duplay/robespierre house, which is 398 rue saint-honoré, and is now a very fancy shoe shop…..

the next day, i visited the père lachaise, and i found eleonore and elisabeth- someone else has kindly marked were to find elisabeth on this map. her grave is sort of down a side street, but it’s right at the start of it, so you can see it from the main road. once you find elisabeth, follow the path down into the bushes (down some stairs) and you come out near eleonore :)) i also found jacques louis david, but his grave is marked on the official map so it’s very easy to find.

i then visited the national archives museum, and robespierre’s table… they also have a really cool exhibition on lafayette on at the moment, which finished on the 14th of july, and they’ve currently got napoleon’s will on show until the 29th of june. they’ve also got some of robespierre’s notes on show!!

finally, i visited the carnavalet, which is 100% a must-see for any frev fans

if you have any questions about anything i saw, please lmk!!!

#this is going to be so useful #thank you!#paris #frev #french revolution

akaya-gx

Some people love like they pick flowers. They see something beautiful, something rare, and their first instinct is to possess it. To hold it. To keep it for themselves. But a plucked flower may decorate your hands for a moment— while silently dying inside them. That is not love. That is admiration mixed with hunger. Real love behaves differently. It kneels beside the garden even on days when no flowers bloom. It waters with patience, protects with gentleness, and understands that beautiful things survive through care, not control. A soul that truly loves you will not drain your light just to feel warmth. It will help you grow toward the sun, even if it means you bloom beyond their reach someday. Because love is not proven by intensity in one moment— but by consistency across many seasons. Anyone can adore a flower when it is beautiful. But only the wise stay through the storms, water the roots in silence, and understand that devotion is a daily act. And perhaps that is why the universe keeps sending us flowers— to remind us that the purest form of love has never been possession. It has always been nurturing. 🖤