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indigobsessed · 7 months

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Domesticity.

pairing : kim namjoon x reader (newly-established relationship)

summary : after getting into a relationship together with your best friend of 5 years, he decided to sleep over as usual. but this time, you woke up feeling different.

genre : best friends-to-lovers, fluff, comfort, a teeeeeny tiny bit of angst, DOMESTIC NAMJOON

rating : SFW

warnings : SHIRTLESS NAMJOON SHIRTLESS NAMJOON AND HE’S DOMESTIC ㅠㅠㅠㅠ , a bit suggestive (implied making out)

wc : 609 words.

a/n : ok maybe i lied that wasn’t my last post afterall… have fun reading this thing bc my brain cannot process an equation rn 😨 not proofread :”)

You squint your eyes to the morning light in your room. Due to the very irritating sunlight, it causes you to slowly get up and sit down. Sighing, and you look to your side and see no one was there. You felt cold, lonely.

After getting the courage to get out of bed, you did your mini stretching as of what your best friend of five years, Namjoon, taught you.

And then it hits.

Namjoon, kiss, confession, sleepover.

Maybe you could be dreaming, maybe this is all just about you.

You went over to look at yourself in the mirror, seeing your messy bed hair and bare face. You are wearing a white tank top with biker shorts, but the jacket you were wearing isn’t yours, and it was five times bigger.

Namjoon.

You walk out of your bedroom to see Namjoon in the kitchen, shirtless and making 2 cups of your favourite tea. You stand there, blushing at the sight of his muscular build. And then you think again, is it true that you kissed him?

You were lost in your thoughts until Namjoon snaps you out of it.

“Oh, Y/N, I didn’t see you there.” He said, putting down the cups of tea on the counter as he walks over to you and wraps his big arms around your waist. You look up to him with loving eyes as he leans down to give you a good morning kiss.

It felt natural.

There were no hesitation.

That was when you realise, he is no longer your best friend, but your boyfriend.

The kiss lasted for a while until he pulls away, you lean onto his bare chest.

“Good morning, Y/N.” He caresses your back in small circles. “Ew Namjoon, I haven’t brushed my teeth yet!” You slapped his chest lightly as you felt the vibrations from it as he chuckles. “Me too, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to kiss you all over again.” He teases as you whine about how disgusting that was.

Both of you stand there, enjoying the quiet atmosphere in each other’s embraces.

He feels warm. You feel warm.

“Namjoon, is this real?” You question him as you hold him closer. “Real? What do you mean by real, baby?” Baby. You try to ignore the butterflies in your stomach from the nickname. “I mean.. Is this real? Us? Are we.. Can we? You won’t leave me right? Namjoon-“ He cuts your blabbering off with a kiss. “Y/N, listen to me baby. What I feel for you, what you feel for me, are all real. I know what you’ve been through, I’ve seen it all, my love. The moment I get to call you mine, even though you were already mine from the start,” He speaks. “I. Will. Take. Care. Of. You.” He continued, each word with soft pecks.

“Please don’t ever leave me, Joon.” You nuzzled yourself closer. “Never. We are still the same as before, Joonie and Y/N-ie remember?” He comforts you, and you nod.

As you both pulled away from your embraces, he takes your hand in his and gives it a little squeeze. “Baby, why don’t you go sit down and put on our favourite show while i reheat our drinks. Hmm?” He says, giving a little kiss on your cheek as you went over to sit down.

He comes back after a while, sitting next to you and cuddled closely.

This may be the first, but it lasts forever.

And you have never loved someone so much, and you have never felt so loved by someone.

To make it even better, it’s all from Namjoon.

Your boyfriend.

#namjoon #namjoon fluff #namjoon angst #kim namjoon x reader #kim namjoon #namjoon x reader #bts fluff #kim namjoon fluff #kim namjoon angst #bts angst #bts rm #rm fluff #rm angst #rm x reader #lisy’s writing

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renmackree · 1 year

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Apart from the fact that he just bought his first house and that he has somewhat strange tastes, Stiles Stilinski is a normal, calm, and uneventful desk jocky for the FBI.

So he doesn't understand why he is constantly being glared at by his next door neighbor, Derek Hale, every time they meet. What's more, Derek is a Government Identified Werewolf who helps with FBI cases on occasion.

Stiles can't help but see him all the time.

The Human doesn't want to draw the Wolf's attention to himself, yet he can't help but be curious about him. Is this Wolf who feeds the stray cats and dogs, has a sweet tooth, and a cute smile actually really dangerous?

Or is there's something more to his glare?

#Sterek #haleinski #derek x stiles #stiles x derek #Sterek ideas #welcome to the hale mouth #I'm thinking about this one again #It was a BL í read like six million years ago #But damn was it cute #I'm gonna have to put this on the lisy #Things I will write one day

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toranekooo · 10 months

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hai :3 ambrose directed me to you so. please tell me about lip/hiyo i love drama and discourse so much (non forcing btw)

みなさん、おはこんばんちわ !! my name is ess but u can call me vyn, maiko or secchan~ and i will be your announcer for today <3 ! today we will be discussing why i dislike lip/hiyo ! this is gonna contain a lot of buffers so i dont get caught up in the tags or the search results so um. im sorry if its a pain to read. please be warned these are MOSTLY personal opinions and i don't intend on infringing on ppl who do ship it. i do not care. simply DONT tag my shit as it and we're good ^_^ except ppl dont listen and i find it fucking annoying so. here's a full blown explanation i guess

first ! lip.hiyo is a ship between hi.yori su.zumi and the members of lipx.lip ai.zo and yu.jiro . hiyo/ri is their manager and she's a girl from the countryside who moved to tokyo to study and work on becoming a track and field athelete . lipx/lip are themselves. their relationship in canon is. friends at best. something else at worst. being the little shits they are, lip/lip are nothing short of assholes to hiyo.ri for the majority of their earlier canon interactions. she states multiple times in her stories that they make her feel stupid. while i do think they respect and care for each other as coworkers, i still dislike how they treat her as a person, especially how they put down her feelings. before and after her.oiku where hiyo.ri undergoes a transformation courtesy of lx.l dressing her up so she can confess to another member of the idol series, asu.ka kai.do (discontinued due to the collaborative project ending) — they continue to tell her that had it not been for the pretty dress or the makeup, she wouldn't be worthy of being called a heroine. she wouldn't be a "girl" in their eyes. which is where a lot of the ships stem from.

but wait! you're probably asking yourself, or well, me: "secchan-sensei! lipx.lip bully each other a whole damn lot too! they bicker and they insult each other! wouldn't this put shipping them in the same category as lp/hy?" excellent question! while i understand why people can perceive it similarly, there is one big difference. the idols and hiyori exist in an unbalanced power dynamic. no i do not mean that in a literal sense, but in a social, emotional sense. you said it yourself, lip/lip bully each other! theyre mean and rude and crass and jerks to EACH OTHER. there is a back and forth movement. they bite and bite back, so to speak. while with hiy.ori as you're aware, she swallows her pain and bottles up that sadness and holds back those tears, she never responds or insults them back because she's not that kind of person. above all things, hiyori remains kind to ai and yu but the fact that they hurt her in ways they don't even acknowledge are not mutually exclusive.

if you're familiar with hone.yworks lore, as well as lx.l themselves, you probably know at least an adequate bit of their trauma. to put it simply, a.izo struggles with interacting with women, to the point where he finds them difficult to be with. this is often translated to him hating women, so as an idol with a predominantly female fanbase, this is a big problem. this trauma stems from his mother, who for the greater part of his childhood, was an abusive drunk. not only that, his older brother, whom he looked to for support and comfort when their home life was at their worst, is a playboy who toyed around with women and relationships with hopes of avoiding the loneliness at home. while ken grew out of his issues and ultimately became a better person, his actions growing up had a significant negative effect on ai.zo . he isnt jUst a miSoGyniSt dear fuck

yujiro, on the other hand, is the stepson of national treasure, tamagoro someya, a master of kabuki. his mother, tae, married into the family and he has a younger stepbrother, koichiro. tamagoro very explicitly tells him that he will not inherit the kabuki legacy, stating that he "lacks beauty" and is half-hearted. this is despite the fact that yujiro pushed himself beyond his own strength, to the point of starvation and isolation, all for the sake of pleasing his father — who never intended to acknowledge him in the first place. yujiro remained inadequate, lacking, some part of him, despite his best efforts, would never fit into the beauty of the roles his father had crafted for the stage.

“Father is father, and there’s nothing I can do about that. I think he didn’t have a choice in telling me to give up…” “…Were you never allowed to stand on the kabuki stage?” “There’s no way he would have let me. It was only my brother who could have…” (That’s really messed up…) If he had no intention of letting him perform on stage, why did he let him practice? It was cruel to put so many expectations on a child, only to rip his hope away from him. (LOVE&KISS novel, Chapter 7) [1]

how is this relevant to hiyori?

then, we talk about the infamous hero.taru anime. now, honeyw.orks anime have this curse where they're either bound to flop incredibly or butcher the characters enough it appeals to a general audience and completely destroys their characters. the hero.taru anime was made to promote lip.x.lip and profit off their popularity in the idol genre showcase hiyo.ri's heroine story. the story spans multiple mvs, from h.eroine iku.sei keikak.u -> her.oine wa hei.kin ika -> her.oine tarum.ono . there's a general difference with as.uka being cut out and replaced with nagisa after he's finally released from the honeyw.orks basement. aaand i'm getting sidetracked. as someone who watched every single anime hnw has put out, i can confidently say...

her.otaru fucking sucks.

despite being an anime centered on hiy.ori's development as a heroine, it overuses fanservice and became a cookie cutter shoujo mixed with a little idol for the views. fuck, the main conflict was literally between lip.xlip's manager and their biggest fan who had a crush on aiz.o . DO YOU SEE MY ISSUE. ok that aside. the anime completely butchers hiyo's character by making her overly dependent on lx.l. not to mention the bathroom scene. ick. the anime also completely butchers lxl by erasing their issues and making them into "just backup male leads if nag.isa doesnt sell well" and he didnt bc he was there for one fucking episode . back to my point, the anime has a particular scene pertaining to their trauma, which i have elaborately expanded above, and dumbs it down to: [2]

bad, right? not the worst butchering of it yet. you see, SOMEHOW, the herota.ru anime made the already fucked hani.wa timeline WORSE by turning yum.e fanf.are into a song about hiyori. i'm going to start tearing and biting bc this frustrated me SO MUCH . yume.fan is a song of aizo and yujiro about their struggles as stated above, and yet it was percieved as a song made to make hiyo.ri fall in love with them.

god ok this is. incredibly long at this point but i have only pierced the surface. lets just get it down to brass tacks. i hate lip.hiyo.

a lot of people came out of hero.taru shipping lip.hiyo after seeing their relationship and interactions in the anime. people tend to ship them with hiyor.i because "sHe's nOt LiKe oThER giRls" . of all the things i hate abt lip.hiyo and the hero.taru anime in general, i hate how it ruins hiyo.ri's character. i hate how they refuse to acknowledge that she enjoys feeling beautiful, she likes being a feminine, she wants to be a heroine — her issues don't lie in her not being beautiful enough to fit in the heroine mold, but the fact that she can be heroine, regardless of how she perceives herself!

well, introspective reasons aside, i hate the ship on a personal basis bc i've recently found out most ppl who ship it are pushing to make people believe it's canon ? like who the fuck does that. ONE, hiyori does have a canon love interest, nag.isa shiran.ami. TWO, they have never even remotely shown any romantic interest to her ??? well fuck i mean if you count calling her derogatory names, telling her she'll never be a girl if she doesn't dress up, or saying she'll never get a romeo if she rejects nagisa counts as flirting then sure i believe you. THREE, you can literally ship it even if it isn't canon. there is nothing stopping you??? it's giving hypocrisy bc a long loooong time ago they were mad at ai.yuu shippers for continuously mentioning their parallels and the possibility of them becoming canon and they called them [BEEEEEP] . you get the point.

negativity aside, at this point i've probably put you through a horror. sorry about that. all in all, i prefer ai.yuu and nagi.hiyo over lp/hy. i dislike het.lip in general because why would you want to inflict this upon any girl. come on. they can do better. im kidding but you get it. ai and yu trust each other more than anyone, they are canonically each other's most important person, and they are equals in persevering to achieve their dreams. THAT is what yume.fan meant [3] . and i like n.ghy bc nagi.sa has had feelings for hiyori for years, even before she dolled herself up, even before she was a manager, he fell in love with hiyori, and no one else — because in his eyes, she's always been a heroine!! "zutto heroine da" - nagi.sa in heroine wa heikin ika [4]

in case for SOME reason this isn't enough, please feel free to peruse the following posts that expand on some particular parts of this: differences between the mvs and anime | the Trauma scene | yume fan.fare's meaning | personal thoughts 1 | personal thoughts 2

CITATIONS:

[1] LOVE&KISS Chapter 7 — translation

[2] He.roine Taru.mono! Kiraware H.eroine to Naisho Os.higoto Anime Episode 4

[3] Yu.me Fan.fare by LIP.×LIP

[4] Her.oine wa Hei.kin Ika by Su.zumi Hiyo.ri (CV: Ino.ri Mi.nase)

#8.28 | ask #yeah. this is an ask and totally not the most comprehensive i have been since my last research project #this is gonna find its way to someone who hates me and it will be so fucking funny actually #SHOUT OUT TO LISI WHO KEPT ME ALIVE WHILE WRITING THIS O7 #shout out to ambi too for bringing me such a pleasant ask

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softspiderling · 1 month

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working on illicit affairs and it's probably gonna be a two parter bc it's 2,4k words already and I havent even written the smut yet

#tumblr tends to eat the longer posts so im wary about posting works that are longer than 4k #we'll see i guess #rafe cameron x reader #lisi talks #writing... fun!

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twilightarcade · 1 year

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spins around

#wordstag #WHY AR EGRYE BEING SO ??? ANOUT TAGS #LITTLE PURBLE POPUP TELLLING ME TO HELP MORE POEPLE SEE MY POST.. TBATAS WHAT I DONT WANT #umm we're just saying things here #I love bunniesnwiht little x's as their nose mouth (???????? Ykyk) that thing>>#with like little dot eyes. Like • x • <- THOSE CRETYRES #writhing is pretty fun when I'm not writing for any purbose like yeha get on paper loser #like reagsing some of it back it si utterly terrible but like hwtaver I was havjng fun that's all that counts #thers lots of little like.. scenes? partially completed #I still need to wirk out this lists for fish thing>>> but I didnt wanr to tear up the entire code ant it got iffy after a bit #may keepd the orivunal fish lisy then conpile it???#still need to actually write for it.. but thats clarly a problem for the far future #main problem wirh writing it is actialt like. Writihg them good. I don't want to be aminal crossing nh>>#twirling them arounf in my brain.. theyll be released from console hell soon enoigg #which was honestly a bad idea to begin iwhr but yk. I'll play it off like a good one #jsut readlly didnt want to learn anyt h jg else so I DIDNT #I dont knwi how much fish sell for actually #nor does the currency have any real. translation systen #arbitrary values arbitrary names..#such is the way of the world or somenring.

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s1ithers · 2 years

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Hawke/Anders | Explicit | Ch. 1 of 2 | 3,485 words

Additional Tags: Dragon Age II - Act 3, Anders Positive (Dragon Age), Hawke respects mage underground opsec, Established Relationship, Femdom, Dom/sub, Biting, reaver teeth, Praise Kink, Body Worship, Bathing/Washing, Porn with Feelings, acts of service, Anders Appreciation Hours

As the days grow darker and the noose tightens on Kirkwall, Hawke takes care of her boy.

Wrote a wee lemon/Anders-cherishing fantasy.✌️

#fic #my writing #nsft #da #handers #lisi hawke #the otp #warming glow

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yuiyuuji · 1 year

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did i just write a oneshot with 1999 words about Baz and the oscar night? damn sure i did. holy hell this was so much.. so many feelings..

#Dona writes #and only Lisi will every read is bc i won't post it anywere #Love you Baby #Baz Lurhmann

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seasonsbloom · 2 years

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okay you’ve effectively cured me

#no harwin writing coming ever everybody say thank you Lisi #may answers #lisi 🥨

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queen-of-stoneharts · 3 months

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youtube

Nowadays i found myself listening to the 'Magnificent Century' soundtracks, giving me inspirations to write my fic faster. Dunno, somehow some of the tracks give me a little MorgenSallow vibe

¯\_( ◉ 3 ◉ )_/¯

#just lisy things #thoughts #soundtrack #inspiration to write #Youtube

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marcogiovenale · 2 years

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betty danon 1969-1979: mostra a roma e a napoli

Partitura asemantica (Asemantic score), 1974, indian ink on paper, cm 68 x 53 (framed), cm 65 x 50 (unframed) Presso AOCF58 – Galleria BRUNO LISI, via Flaminia 58 – Roma (metro A fermata Flaminio) e Galleria Tiziana di Caro, Piazzetta Nilo, 7 – Napoli BETTY DANON 1969-1979 Inaugurazione sabato 8 ottobre 2022, ore 18–21 (fino al 31 ottobre) Orario: dal lunedì al venerdì ore 16:30 – 19:00…

View On WordPress

#AOCF58 - Galleria Bruno Lisi #Archivio Danon #art #arte #asemic #asemic writing #Betty Danon #Galleria Tiziana di Caro #Giornata del Contemporaneo #scrittura asemantica #scrittura asemica

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sunlitglycerin · 2 years

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World’s Shittiest Intern Does Nothing Helpful

#dear diary #july #helping to preserve a vulnerable community was not as shiny to my brain today as #writing three thousand words of literary analysis about the clique by lisi harrison #i am not going places.

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indigobsessed · 9 months

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I’ll come back.

pairing : min yoongi x reader (established relationship)

summary : your boyfriend, yoongi, just ended his final tour the other day. who wouldve known not even 24 hours later that his enlistment notice came out and you, his loving girlfriend, found out before he tells you about it.

genre : angst, fluff, a bit suggestive and yoongi being a comforting bf.

rating : SFW

warnings : mentions of military enlistment, crying, slight swearing

wc : 635 words.

a/n : ahh!! first (and last maybe..) post???:&/£/£ i hope you’ll enjoy this :) i’ll do a navigation soon hehe. other than that, im so sad that d-day tour has ended and yoongi’s leaving soon ugh :(. for references, you can check out the d-day vlogs, clips, etc :) not proofread, i think.

“MIN YOONGI!” You burst through the door of his studio after clicking on his passcode aggressively by muscle memory. Your boyfriend turned around his studio chair, staring at you with a puzzled look.

You stood at the door, your eyes filled with angry tears with your phone in hand, showing the military notice. That was until he realised about what he was going to tell you when he comes back to your shared home.

“Oh baby-“ He quickly got up to hold you, but you pushed him away quickly. “Don’t. Touch. Me.” You hissed. Yoongi sighed, knowing that you, his ever loving girlfriend of three years would take a while to fully take it in.

He slowly got up and closed the studio door behind you. Yoongi took your hand and lead you to sit down on his studio couch. You were still silent, not until Yoongi took you into his arms as you let out your tears. “I know, jagi, I know.” He soothed you, rubbing your back in small circles. Your tears staining his grey shirt.

“You promised to tell me Yoongi. I can’t believe I found out like this.” You sobbed out. “I thought we agreed to not keep secrets from eachother.” You continued, your voice shaky.

“Baby, listen to me. Look at me.” Yoongi called out to you in a stern yet soft voice. You pulled away, looking at him with tear-stained cheeks. He looks just as hurt as you. “We talked about this, I know that. But fuck, my love I didn’t even know how to tell you that it was coming soon. I just ended my whole tour yesterday.” He explained. “You didn’t give ARMYs a whole day, Yoongs.” You argued. “You didn’t even give me a day too. I knew it was coming but Yoongi, you didn’t have to remind me.” You continued.

“I know, all these 3 years of being with you and you’ve been there with me throughout everything and I can’t thank you enough. But I’ve let my postponement go on for too long, I have to go at some point too. The sooner I go, the sooner I come back remember?” Yoongi comforts you. Trying his best to calm you down.

You nod, understanding his explanation. “I know it’s my fault for not letting you know any sooner too. I know that it’s not easy to take in.” He rubs your arms. “I’m sorry, Y/N. I’m so sorry.” Yoongi apologised while peppering kisses on your cheeks.

Memories of the couple during Yoongi’s world tour flashes through your mind. The day out in Chicago, the small holiday in Phuket and diving. Shared kisses, meals and smiles. And intimate moments during the night. It all felt like a fever dream to you.

Tears streaming down your cheeks once more, trying your best to accept that time doesn’t freeze as you wish. “I feel like it’s just yesterday since you told me that you were going on tour, Min.” You said softly, cracking a soft smile at the memory. Both of you hugging and knowing that this will be one of your biggest memories with him. “I remember going on the flight to your first concert location. You were so excited to see your fans.” You giggled as Yoongi smiled apologetically to you.

“I’ll miss them so much too, jagi.” Yoongi spoke out. “And I’ll miss you the most too.”

Yoongi leaned in to kiss you on the lips softly.

“Promise me you’ll come back, or we’re gonna have issues.” You grumbled. It made Yoongi laugh softly.

“I’ll come back. To you, to my brothers, and to ARMYs. Safely.” He reassured you as he placed another comforting kiss on your lips.

He’ll come back safely. As he promised. He is a man of his words after all.

#yoongi fluff #bts fluff #yoongi comfort #yoongi angst #suga #yoongi x reader #suga x reader #suga fluff #suga angst #min yoongi x reader #min yoongi fluff #min yoongi angst #lisy’s writing

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middstape · 3 months

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Will x Lisi Dynamics/Tropes

they are so cutsie

ugh i love them

blonde boy x brunette girl

cheesy grin boy x smirk girl

he fell first and harder

nonchalant girl x obsessed boy

hockey player x hockey player

iced coffee boy x hot coffee girl

girl that hates driving x boy that drives her anywhere

girl with boyfriend x friend that's in love with her

green eyed girl x blue eyed boy

girl *yawns* x "i will literally do anything for you pls give me a chance" boy

tired of men girl x too cute to not love boy

non confrontational on the ice boy x only confrontational when you mess with my team girl

beautiful girl x pretty boy

gym addict girl x boy who wants her to step on him

medium tall girl x tall tall boy

chill extrovert boy x chill introvert girl

quiet girl x talkative boy

okokok girl x lalala boy

pretends to be fine when injured girl x wants to play doctor boy

really good hockey player boy x even better hockey player girl

*smiles at him* girl x simps so so hard boy

likes bracelets girl x boy who loves matching with hers

can i wear your jersey girl x only if i can wear yours boy

kisses his cheek girl x blushing HARD boy

multiple nicknames for her boy x a couple nicknames for him girl

Leave some more blurbs I can write!!!

#will x lisi #will smith hockey #team usa #will smith #bc hockey #gabe perreault #boston college hockey #hockey #nhl hockey #nhl x reader #ryan leonard #boston college #jacob fowler #team usa hockey #rutger mcgroarty

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branwendaughterofllyr · 2 months

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A Cersei and Catherine de Medici Primer

So, if you’ve been following me at all recently, you’ll know I’ve been working on a fairy tale Cersei meta that I can guarantee will be disappointing after all the build up because I am a hack who just writes very slowly. Part of the Cersei meta involved a lengthy comparison with Catherine de Medici, that was about to consume the entire meta like some terrible eldritch horror, so I have been gently advised to make it a separate post. Which is what this is!

Comparing characters with historical figures is the basic bread and butter of the ASOIAF fandom, so I’m jumping on that wagon and riding it as far as it will take me, so without further ado, let's talk about Catherine.

Catherine lived from 1519-1589, but her most famous years are when she served as queen regent of France for her sons, which has often been called “the age of Catherine de Medici,” which is generally considered to be from 1559-1589, ending with her death.

Born in Italy, to the extremely wealthy, if technically common, merchant family of the Medici, Catherine was married off very young, at only fourteen, to Henry II of France (who was at the time the Duke of Orleans and the second son) by her uncle, Pope Clement VII. Her early years of marriage were extremely tumultuous, due to her being Italian in a time and place where that made her highly unpopular, her uncle dying before he could finish paying her dowry, and her inability to conceive for the first decade of her marriage. She was also famously not very attractive, and her in-laws often remarked that they could excuse her being Italian and poor if only she was beautiful. (The most common comments on her appearance were that she had the bulging eyes of the Medicis, and was very stout, but at least she had nice skin.) Of course, this is stands in stark contrast to Cersei’s famed beauty, but in many ways Catherine was just as defined by her appearance, only in the opposite direction.

One of the most famous on-screen depictions of Catherine is by Virna Lisi in the 1994 film La Reine Margot, based on the novel of the same name, in which Catherine is played with a near constance menace and severity (especially in contrast to the ethereal Isabelle Adjani as the titular Margot, Catherine’s daughter).

As the film goes on, Lisi’s features only become more exaggerated in their gauntness as the styling leans directly into every idea of the aging, wicked queen, as the true ruthlessness of Catherine’s actions are unraveled.

Just as Cersei is famed for her beauty, to the point of exaggeration that ultimately MUST fall short of the reality, Catherine skews the other direction, her ugliness the symbol of her internal wickedness, forever contrasted with her husband’s ageless beauty of a mistress.

I might even connect it to the raw exposure that Cersei feels during her walk of shame, her beauty, which she had always considered her greatest defense, stripped from her.

She did not feel beautiful, though. She felt old, used, filthy, ugly. There were stretch marks on her belly from the children she had borne, and her breasts were not as firm as they had been when she was younger. Without a gown to hold them up, they sagged against her chest. I should not have done this. I was their queen, but now they've seen, they've seen, they've seen. I should never have let them see. Gowned and crowned, she was a queen. Naked, bloody, limping, she was only a woman, not so very different from their wives, more like their mothers than their pretty little maiden daughters. What have I done?

-Cersei II, ADWD

"My wife has sweeter teats than those," a man shouted. A teamster cursed as the Poor Fellows ordered his wagon out of the way. "Shame, shame, shame on the sinner," chanted the septas. "Look at this one," a whore called from a brothel window, lifting her skirts to the men below, "it's not had half as many cocks up it as hers." Bells were ringing, ringing, ringing. "That can't be the queen," a boy said, "she's saggy as my mum." This is my penance, Cersei told herself. I have sinned most grievously, this is my atonement. It will be over soon, it will be behind me, then I can forget.

-Cersei II, ADWD

If a queen cannot be beautiful, what then is she worth? If she is beautiful, any myriad of sins can be forgiven, such as being poor or Italian, or heartless. (I will delve deeper into this theme in the meta proper.)

Catherine was also extremely in love with her husband, and was absolutely devoted to him. Her love was very unrequited, something that gave her a great deal of grief throughout the entirety of her marriage.

Through a series of mishaps and illnesses, Catherine’s husband came to the throne in 1547, and while Catherine was technically queen of France, all of her husband’s affections and many honours meant for his wife went to his long time mistress, the beautiful Diane de Poitiers. Although many years older than Henry, Diane held his heart until his death, and kept her looks as well, through a stringent routine of cold baths and exercise. The only thing that Catherine was able to give her husband that Diane couldn’t would end up being children. I might make a light connection from this aspect of Catherine’s life to Cersei’s, whose husband famously preferred a dead girl to her.

"I remember Robert as he was the day he took the throne, every inch a king," he said quietly. "A thousand other women might have loved him with all their hearts. What did he do to make you hate him so?"

Her eyes burned, green fire in the dusk, like the lioness that was her sigil. "The night of our wedding feast, the first time we shared a bed, he called me by your sister's name. He was on top of me, in me, stinking of wine, and he whispered Lyanna."

-Eddard XII, AGOT

Eventually, after years of trying various remedies and methods, Catherine was able to conceive, and had ten children in as many years, with seven surviving to adulthood. All of them would be sickly and frail (with the exception of her daughter Margot, also known as Marguerite of Valois), and she would outlive all but one of her sons (the last being stabbed to death eight months after she died), something that she spent her whole life trying to prevent. When her husband Henry died, Catherine went into permanent mourning, eschewing the traditional white mourning clothes of French queens for black widow’s weeds, earning her the moniker of the “black queen” in more ways than one.

(While Cersei does not particularly mourn Robert, she does take great joy in dressing for his funeral, a high-collared black silk gown, with a hundred dark red rubies sewn into her bodice, covering her from neck to bosom, and it is certainly an iconic look.)

One of the key parallels with Cersei is Catherine’s deep obsession with magic and the occult, that she would maintain for her entire life, patronizing astrologers and alchemists, including the famous seer Nostradamus. Her daughter Margot even claimed that Catherine had prophetic dreams about the deaths of family members, and would wake up screaming from them, sobbing out the name of the person who was soon to die. There were also extremely pervasive rumors that Catherine was an expert in poisons, which was a common stereotype for Italians at the time, and even today, you can visit a room in Chateau de Blois, with 327 little wooden drawers, rumored to have been used to hold all of Catherines’s various poisons (historians think it was likely to have housed her various art pieces and religious items rather than poisons). Catherine was rumored to have poisoned many of her enemies, using items like poisoned gloves. Even after her death, Catherine’s enemies claimed that she practiced witchcraft, and even created the first Black Mass (which is quite ironic, considering that all actual evidence points to Catherine being a devout Catholic who had grown up in a convent.) Interestingly, the events of AGOT are put in motion by a poisoning that Cersei did not commit, though it is assumed by pretty much everyone who is aware of how Jon Arryn died that Cersei did have a hand in it, since it is unclear whether or not Catherine actually did poison anyone or if it was mere rumor.

There’s even an extremely curious story about an enchanted mirror and Catherine, that is sometimes pointed to as the origin of the magic mirror in Snow White.

“Catherine de Medici in front of the magic mirror of her astrologer Cosimo Ruggieri” from Das Buch Fur Alle (1890), illustrated by unknown.

Supposedly, not long after the death of her husband, Catherine wished to know the future of the Valois dynasty and her sons, and summoned her astrologer Cosimo Ruggieri (in some later versions it is Nostradamus), to do so. Ruggieri produced a mirror, in some darkened chamber, and told her that the faces of the future kings of France would appear in the mirror, and the number of times each face circled the mirror would be the number of years that king would rule. Her eldest son, King Francis, faintly appeared in the mirror once before fading away. Then appeared her son, the future Charles IX, who circled the mirror fourteen times, followed by her next son, Henry III, who appeared fifteen times. After her son Henry’s face faded away, the Duke of Guise briefly flashed by, followed by the face of Henri de Navarre, heir to the Bourbon line, who would inherit the throne if the Valois line died out. Henri’s face circled the mirror twenty-two times, and Catherine knew her line would fail and Henri would be king.

Whether or not this particular story is true, Catherine did believe in the prophecies of astrologers and seers, who had correctly predicted that her husband would die in his fortieth year, and Catherine even dreamed of her husband dying violently the night before his fatal jousting accident. Further evidence added to her occult legend, is that Diane de Poitiers supposedly found pentagrams and other items used in magical rituals when she took custody of Catherine’s former palace, the Chateau de Chaumont. Needless to say, Diane never returned to that particular castle.

Like Cersei, part of Catherine’s myth is defined by a prophecy dooming her children that she tries and fails to avert.

Jo Eldridge Carney in “Fairy Tale Queens: Queenship and Power” makes an explicit connection between Catherine and the wicked fairy tale queen, drawing on a letter to Catherine from Jeanne de Navarre, mother of the same Henri who was prophesied by the mirror to supplant her sons.

“Fairy tales are replete with kind and gentle queens who are obedient and deferential to their husbands, devoted to their children, and beloved by their subjects. More memorable are the wicked queens who connive to seize power, manipulate their husbands and sons, threaten their daughters-in-law, compete with other women, and concoct all manner of horrific acts. When Catherine de Médicis invited Jeanne d’Albret to Paris in 1572 to discuss the proposed marriage of their respective children, Marguerite de Valois and Henri de Navarre, the Queen mother reassured her Protestant guest that she would be safe among the Catholics of the French court. Jeanne replied, “Madame, you say that you desire to see us, and not in order to harm us. Forgive me if I feel like smiling when I read your letters. You allay fears I have never felt. I do not suppose, as the saying is, that you eat little children.” Jeanne may well have been think- ing of the queen in Basile’s “Sun, Moon, and Talia,” who orders the cook to slaughter her husband’s illegitimate children and prepare them for his dinner. Similarly, the wicked queen mother of Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty,” jealous of her son’s marriage, asks her steward to cook her grandchildren for her own dinner, even requesting a special French sauce to accompany the dish.”

Considering that later rumors would attribute the origin of the Black Mass to Catherine, which often included the ritual murder and consumption of an infant in a mockery of the holy communion, the link between cannibalism and evil queens being referenced in political conflicts dates back to the 16th century. (Part of my meta will explore Cersei’s own connection to cannibalism.)

Her eventual relationship with her future son-in-law Henri de Navarre would prove to be... complicated to say the least. It was rumored by many Huguenots (French Protestants) that Catherine had poisoned his mother, Jeanne de Navarre, using a pair of poisoned gloves, when Jeanne had come to Paris for their children’s wedding.

Any discussion of Catherine de Medici has to include the most infamous event of her entire life, which is where much of her black legend can be traced back to. On the 18th of August, 1572, after much political maneuvering, the Protestant Henri de Navarre married the Catholic Marguerite de Valois, in a wedding that many (but not all) hoped would put an end to the religious conflicts of France. Five days later, the Catholics would slaughter all the assembled Protestant wedding guests in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Ordered by Charles IX after the failed assassination of the Protestant leader Admiral de Coligny, and lead by the fiercely Catholic and extremely powerful Guises, the massacre would spread across France, leaving 3,000 to 5,000 dead. Henri de Navarre would manage to survive by pledging to convert to Catholicism. The role of Catherine in orchestrating the massacre is unclear, but much of the blame is traditionally laid at her feat. There is evidence to suggest that Catherine had wanted a few of the most powerful Huguenot leaders killed but had never actually suggested a mass killing, and was shocked by the extent of what ended up happening, due to the religious powder keg that was Paris. But whether or not Catherine had actually approved of the massacre, it would remain a permanent stain on her reputation, and many of the most pervasive rumors about her poisoning and dark arts date to after the massacre, perpetuated by angry Huguenots.

“Catherine de Médicis with the Head of Coligny” by Joseph Hornung (1792–1870)

I might tentatively suggest that this event will parallel Cersei’s future destruction of the High Sparrow and the Tyrells. In the show, she straight up blew up the Great Sept of Baelor with all her enemies within, but in the books it may be a more traditional massacre, a bloodbath in the night as all gather for the trials of the queens, after the style of Catherine de Medici.

The rest of Catherine’s life would be a largely tragic one. She would see two more of her sons die, including her favorite, and would be estranged from her daughter Margot for the rest of her life, after imprisoning her when Margot’s husband, Henri de Navarre, escaped, even cutting Margot out of her will and refusing to speak to her. She did her best to keep France unified, but did not have the same influence and energy of her early regency. Her final son would only survive her by eight months. She died at the age of sixty-nine, of an unknown illness, having lost the love of her life who never returned her affections, and many of her oldest friends. Only days before her death, she had visited her old friend, the Cardinal de Bourbon, who told her, “Your words, Madam, have led us all to this butchery.”

And despite all her terrible deeds, both real and imagined, the most poignant epithet for Catherine is from her one-time son-in-law and prisoner, Henry de Navarre, who had become Henry IV, the new Bourbon king of France.

I ask you, what could a woman do, left by the death of her husband with five little children on her arms, and two families of France who were thinking of grasping the crown—our own and the Guises? Was she not compelled to play strange parts to deceive first one and then the other, in order to guard, as she did, her sons, who successively reigned through the wise conduct of that shrewd woman? I am surprised that she never did worse.

The actual extent of Catherine de Medici’s ruthlessness is debated, but her myth as true “Evil Queen” who worked with poisons and magic, orchestrating a religious massacre, certainly still survives and has influenced the trope deeply. Cersei as a character owes a deep debt to the legend of the Black Queen, Catherine Medici as much to the fairy tale stepmother.

Stay tuned for the first part of my Cersei meta, where I delve into her relationship to the tropes of the Evil Queen.

#mine #branwen talks #meta #my meta

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