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#the di Medici brothers
envihellbender · 1 year
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fatty driven by A FORKLIFT
This is ridiculous but your wish is my command.
Kinks: ssbhm, feeder/feedee, fats
OCs: Castor and Elio di Medici (brothers)
“Are you telling me that Castor grew too big for his fucking wheelchair?” Elio groaned in exasperation. He looked up into his mirror to see Liberto, who was usually his hired muscle anxiously standing in his doorway. Elio saw the strange contrast between his slim stature and Liberto’s tall, broad one. Elio had been readying himself for the day in his favourite grey check suit and a scarlet tie.
“Yes sir, we’ve managed to lift him out but… it’s broken. It’s crushed and we think it’s beyond repair,” Liberto replied, awkwardly shifting from one foot to the other and staring at the ground. He was the nervous type, he was tall and well built - when it came to hitting things he was confident and capable. He was best when he had someone to tell him who to hit. Any other tasks made him anxious.
“Yeah I figured as much, I’ll deal with it,” Elio sighed rubbing his temples in frustration. He looked up to see Liberto stood there still, in his leather jacket and worn out jeans. “Thanks Liberto you can go.” He stammered something Elio couldn’t hear and hurried away. He slipped out his silver engraved cigarette case, with Castor’s ludicrous antics he’d found quitting next to impossible.
***
When Elio announced his solution, and informed Castor that thankfully their best assassin Konstantin knew a man with fork lift truck. Castor was not best pleased. Konstantin normally was given far more important jobs but he happily jumped behind the fork lift truck, snapping his chewing gum as he did so. Elio assumed he only ever did that when he was using his favourite poisoning trick… but Konstantin insisted it wouldn’t work that way, people would suspect something if he was only chewing when he was about to kill.
“Elio, you cannot be serious,” Castor scowled, folding his fat arms atop of his gigantic breasts. “Ouch! You- Elio, tell him to stop-” He complained further as the forklift truck was pushed into his elephantine buttocks.
“Look, you’re the one who’s wheelchair broke down in the courtyard, what do you want me to do? We don’t have pulleys out here,” Elio snapped.
“You do not have to move me this way,” Castor pressed, his olive cheeks burning with rage and embarrassment. The sweat on his forehead causing his normally neatly brushed plait that fell onto his shoulder was becoming loose and unruly.
“Do you have a better idea?” Elio asked with one eyebrow raised.
“Do we not have men to carry me?”
“Trust me brother, any men strong enough have far more important things to do.” Elio snapped his fingers and gestured to Konstantin, who lifted Castor up with the forklift without much warning. It looked bizarre and comical seeing Castor be held up in the air, his adipose falling over the side as he dangled in the air. Elio repressed a snort of laughter behind his hand as he saw the forklift drive forward showing his brother charging at a speed greater than he’d ever managed.
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nostalgia-tblr · 2 years
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I realised that the 10k words that I currently have is likely a much smaller fraction of the hypothetical completed work than I thought it was going to be and I told myself I shouldn't take anything out because it all seems to be fitting together fairly neatly BUT I am def starting to have my doubts about the value of "the scene where the two male characters discuss whether the female character (who is not in this scene) should be breastfeeding the baby that she just had with one of those men (but she's been passing it off as the other one's)" because WTF that sounds AWFUL and I think I only put it in there because I was all YAY I'M JUST GONNA WRITE ABOUT MEDIEVAL QUEENS (KIND OF!!!) and there was that whole Thing in monarchies where you have to get a wetnurse in because breastfeeding reduces fertility and your shitty husband needs AT LEAST another couple of boys what with infant mortality being what it was in them days. And for some reason (probably sleep-deprivation TBQH) I at some point thought that it wouid be a good thing to put into an MCU fic???
#wip tag#now that i type this out it has become both worse AND funnier to me so who knows what i will decide to do with it in the end#i also remembered that this entire adventure into whatever the heck i am actually making now is because i realised that two famous queens#i forget which ones OBVIOUSLY#were famous for pulling off the same feat#which is 1) pop out at least one boy#2) outlive your shitty husband#and 3) your child-king son is now basically your talking puppet and you run a country now you go girl yas queen slay etc etc etc#i think one might have been catherine di medici? and... possibly margaret beaufort? (i know henry wasn't a kid at the time but yk)#POSSIBLY one was Empress Cixi? aka the one non-European more-or-less-queen that I know anything about#but anyway yes the trick here is to have a royal son and then refuse to ever die#elizabeth woodville has to be an Honourary Mention because she COULD have done it as well#had her brother-in-law not realised she was about to do that and kidnapped usurped and then probably-murdered the boy in question#Henry VIII's famous gang of queens all failed to meet at least one of the requirements :(#anyway hello some years ago i started reading books about famous dead queens and now what have i become???#BTW monarchies are a terrible idea#just scrolled up to see wtf i am typing this stuff under oh yeah it's the post about the lactation debate scene oh noooo#gonna... gonna hit post now while i still can#the Sylki AU that got longer and wronger
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brother-emperors · 4 months
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listen. listen, there's a kind of intimacy in having a dedicated rivalry, okay. who else is going to know you like this!!! also it's funny
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Ascanio Maria Sforza: la parabola politica di un cardinale-principe del Rinascimento, Marco Pellegrini
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Julius II: The Warrior Pope, Christine Shaw
and on della rovere’s soldier comment:
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Popes, Cardinals and War: The Military Church in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe, D.S. Chambers
and finally! regarding the delightful Mess of political-family relationships, including the marriage comment (altho the montefeltro family that giovanni married into did have sforza family ties, since giovanna's mother was battista sforza, but this is about the more immediate alliance based relationship and della rovere's hand in the rejection of a milanese match for his brother. and. this is not even remotely a serious comic, but now I am once again thinking about insular all these families are. the fucking medicis are here too, if you go half a step to the left on della rovere's family tree)
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Julius II: The Warrior Pope, Christine Shaw
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Giulio II, Il papa del Rinascimento, Giulio Busi (Bianca Maria Visconti is Ascanio's mom. btw)
panel inserts of the cards they're playing with are all from the Visconti-Sforza tarot deck! (I used public domain scans/photos for the comic itself)
ko-fi!⭐ bsky ⭐ pixiv ⭐ pillowfort ⭐ cohost ⭐ cara.app
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it’s actually a miracle that no one has ever written a French Wars of Religion jegulus au fic.
hear me out, hear me out;
It’s the 1500’s. The French monarchy is desperately trying to keep themselves and the Catholic Church superior to the Protestant faith, specifically the Huguenots. King Henry II of France (Orion) dies unexpectedly, leaving the throne to an eleven year old Henry III (Regulus), after the death of his brother. Too young to take the throne, Catherine de Medici (Walburga) takes over the throne and commits a LOT of violent crimes. The other brother, the Duke of Aleçnon (Sirius) abandons the whole monarchy and joins a group of Protestant Rebels called The Malcontents (tell me that isn’t the closest thing to Marauders you have EVER HEARD). Part of this group is Henry of Navarre (James) a protestant aristocrat attempting to take the throne and promote religious freedom. They call him the Good King Henry (something that SCREAMS James Potter).
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ladystarksneedle · 2 months
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Do you have any art/painting recommendation which are very teen aegon coded
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From top left: (descriptions are from left to right side)
Detail of frescoes in the Hall of the Months, Palazzo Schifanoia,
Portrait of Guiliano De Medici by Benozzo di Lese di Sandro Gozzoli
Carlo Crivelli catalogue raisonné, 1975 Bovero
Portrait of a Young Man Cosmè Tura (Cosimo di Domenico di Bonaventura)
Boy with Wine Glass and Flute Jacob Gerritszoon[a] Cuyp or Cuijp 1652
Rembrandt van Rijn, Man with a Hawk, 1643
A late portrait of the two sons of the 3rd Duke of Lennox, Lord John Stuart and his Brother, Lord Bernard Stuart; Anthony van Dyck.
Portrait of two brothers by Henri Gascar (1635 –1701)
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asoiaf-fancasts · 1 year
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Eddard Stark - Fancasts
Age: 08 - 36
18 - 20 [Tourney to End of
Rebellion]
26 - 27 [Greyjoys’s Rebellion]
Appearance: He has a long face with long brown hair. His beard is closely trimmed with grey starting come in making him look older. He has dark grey eyes. He is shorter than his brother and is allegedly plainer looking.
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Character: Edmund Pevensie
Actor: Skander Keynes
Movie[s]: Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian & Voyage of the Dawn Threader
[He’s 13/14 - 16/17 during the first two movies so good for when he is being fostered by Jon Arryn. He is the perfect age for during the Tourney of Harrenhal in the last movie. He has brown hair, dark eyes but not grey. He wears medieval ish clothes/armour along with 1930’s/1940’s clothes.]
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Character: Piero di Lorenzo de Medici
Actor: Louis Patridge
Show: Medici [2016] [Season 3]
[He was 15/16 during this season so good for Ned being fostered by Jon Arryn. He has a long ish face,brown hair, dark eyes but they aren’t grey. He wears 15th century Italian clothes.]
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Character: Gilbert Blythe
Actor: Lucas Jade Zumann
Show: Anne with an E [2017]
[He is 17 - 19 during this show so good for just before the Tourney at Harrenhal and during Roberts Rebellion. He has a long ish face, brown eyes that are dark but not grey. He wears 18th century clothes so he is better for close ups.]
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Character: King William
Actor: Sam Claflin
Movie: Snow White and the Huntsman [2012]
[He was 25/26 during this movie is the right age for him during Greyjoy’s Rebellion. He has a long ish face, long brown hair, a closely trimmed beard and his eyes are a dark grey/brown. He wears fantasy medieval clothes.]
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Character: Gawain
Actor: Dev Patel
Movie: The Green Knight [2021]
[He was 30/31 during this movie so too young for him in the book timeline. He has a long face with long dark brown/black hair and his beard is relatively short. He has dark eyes but they’re not grey. He wears fantasy clothes.]
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Character: Uthred of Bebbanburg
Actor: Alexander Dreymon
Show: The Last Kingdom [2015] [Season 4]
[He is too young for Ned during the books at the start of the series at 32 but is around the right age for Ned in season 4 at 36/37. He has a long face, long brown hair and has a somewhat closely trimmed beard. His hair from season 1 is more accurate to Ned though. He unfortunately has light eyes of the wrong colour. He wears Norse ish clothes.]
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Character: Alfred
Actor: David Dawson
Show: The Last Kingdom [2015] [Season 2 & 3]
[He is too young for Ned in season 1 but is around the right age for him in season 2 and 3 at around 35-36. He has a long face, his has somewhat long brown hair and a closely trimmed bread that has grey in it that makes him look older than his age.His eyes are dark but not grey. He wears Saxon clothes.]
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Character: Ross Poldark
Actor: Aiden Turner
Show: Poldark [2015] [Season 4 & 5]
[He is too young for Ned during the first book at 32 -34 in earlier seasons but is around the right age at 34/35 - 36 in the last two seasons. He has a long face, long dark brown hair and dark eyes but they’re not grey.He wears 18th century clothes.]
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Character: Robert Bruce
Actor: Chris Pine
Movie: Outlaw King [2018]
[He is a couple years too old for book Ned at 37/38 but I think he’s still okay because Ned is said to look older with the grey in his beard. He has long hair but it’s more grey than brown and his eyes are light blue. He does face a long face with a brown and grey beard. He has a wife that looks like Catelyn but is too young for book Catelyn but has a daughter perfect for Arya.He wears 14th century clothes.]
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ethulliel · 6 months
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Willas Tyrell to me is based on Lorenzo de Medici. Both were said to be fond of hawking and animal breeding, both were called “homely” — Lorenzo because he wasn't handsome and Willas because apparently he is very pious. Actually, he [Willas] and Garlan are both Lorenzo and Giuliano. Giuliano was said to be Lorenzo's co-ruler, and I think Garlan works the same way with Willas, being his brother's strong hand. That being said, Loras is only Giuliano.
Margaery is Bianca, both are married to an enemy — Margaery to Tommen, who is a Lannister, and Bianca to a Pazzi. Cersei plans to kill Margaery and the Pazzi Conspiracy are the same. I do think this will happen in the books as it happened in the show. Loras and Margaery will die in the Septo the same way Giuliano died in the Cathedral. This will end the connection between Lannister and Tyrell, making Willas free to join Queen Daenerys and take revenge on the Lannister (if Euron don't kill him first).
Besides, House Tyrell amongst the Great Houses (except House Baratheon) is the only that were never kings, the same way the Medici were bourgeois and not nobles. So it all makes sense to me.
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jaz-xedarix · 9 months
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The Mark of the Holy Woman. Episode 2
FINALLY!
In honor of the Trinity Blood Never Forget Day I wanted to upload as much as I can of the translation of R.O.M. IV, after three years of hiatus, I finally can finish at least this first part. I hate to keep promising stuff and ending up failing, but I want to finish this.
The theme of this year is "REBIRTH", so let's honor it by continuing my holy task.
This part may have mistakes, I wanted to post this as soon as possible so I didn't send it to correction before I post it, but I will send it and edit the post if necessary, remember you can point those mistakes too and I will gladly correct them.
We finally get to Episode 2: The Sorceress of the Temple. I hope you like it.
Enjoy ;)
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EPISODE 2
The Sorceress of the Temple.
You, however, smear me with lies... JOB 13.4
I
"I have been informed of what happened, Archbishop D'Annunzio… It is a great misfortune," the man began to speak from the monitor.
Whether it was because of his vigorous body or the cutting light shone in his eyes, like a saber, it seemed that more than the Cardinal's habit, a military uniform would have fitted him better.
Francesco Di Medici, in charge of the internal affairs of the Vatican, watched them from Rome with his hands folded under his chin. One by one, he observed them all: Caterina, who was silent; Antonio, who was more concerned with fixing his hair than anything else; and Brother Petros, standing tall with the expression of a student who had forgotten to do his homework. Then he fixed his gaze on the Archbishop again.
“To think it have to be precisely during the performance of a commemorative play of the battle of Istvan that was allowed a vampire to attack... and that they had kidnapped the very Saint... Where was that Guard you are so proud of, Archbishop?”
"Your Eminence, I have no words to apologize for our negligence, but if you will allow me..." The archbishop lowered his gaze at the Cardinal's reproachful expression. However, he did not choked with the words, but replied coldly, as if he already had the excuse ready:
“Because of the presence His Holiness and Her Eminence the Cardinal Sforza the security was concentrated around them. Please forgive my mistake: I trusted that the Director of the Inquisition, who was in the place at the moment, would be able to take care of it.”
“Eh!? But I…!”
Hearing how he tried to blame him for what had happened, the warrior monk raised his bandaged head. Petros was going to answer the accusation, but seeing the reproachful look of his superior, he remained dejected and silent.
“It's... it's true that I was there... and I can't deny my responsibility for what happened...”
“I don't know if it's right to blame everything on the director of the Inquisition... Excuses go against the morals of a knight.”
The one who came out in defense of Petros, who bravely endured the accusations, was a sweet female voice. Caterina, who until then had not done much more than cough in front of the heater, continued speaking in a calm but determined voice.
“Brother Petros' duty was His Holiness' protection. The security of the theater was in charge of the Guard... Which means that the responsibility falls on them.”
«So, it’s on you... »
The accusation wasn’t said, but Caterina looked firmly to the Archbishop. If her gaze was colder than necessary, perhaps it was due to her weak state of health. Crossing her legs under the habit, the Cardinal brought the cup of tea to her lips.
“Anyway, we'll think about all that when there's time for it. Now we have more urgent problems... We must immediately locate Esther Blanchett and the vampire who has abducted her. The progress of this investigation will also determine if we can continue with the ceremony for the fallen as it was planned...”
“The ceremonies cannot be stopped. The events of tonight are an indelible stain on our image and we cannot seem weaker. We are already the laughingstock of the secular states” Francesco replied through the monitor.
From the office window could be seen the multitude of journalists and onlookers that crowded in front of the doors of the Istvan Cathedral, built as an archiepiscopal seat to replace the Cathedral of San Mátyás, which had been destroyed a year ago.
Even the Vatican had found it impossible to keep silent the more than a thousand onlookers who had witnessed the incident. The huge propaganda for the ceremony for the fallen was also working against them. The case had already come to light in all secular states and everyone was watching for the slightest movement from the Vatican. Showing weakness at the time would have led to a decisive loss of prestige.
“So everything must go as planned. We can't allow the goddamn media to laugh at us… can we, Cardinal Borgia?”
“Of course not” said frivolously from the sofa the Minister of Vatican Public Relations.
Antonio Borgia brushed a strand of dyed hair smugly from his face and smiled with a theatrical grin.
“I've already given orders for them to report that Sister Esther was abducted by a vampire, but that thanks to the work of the City Guard and the Inquisition she has already been rescued. Now she is supposed to be at the Central Hospital recovering. By the way, couldn't we have His Holiness go and pay her a visit later? This way it will have more realism and everything, you know?
“That will buy us some time...”
The Minister of Vatican Public Relations seemed to want to keep chatting, but Francesco waved him off and stared around the room, his eyes gleaming like a saber.
“In the meantime, we must find and eliminate the vampire and rescue the sister... The investigations of the Inquisition have obtained some very peculiar data. You can proceed, Brother Matthaios”
“Thank you, Your Eminence... Allow me to introduce myself. I am Brother Matthaios from the Inquisition” said one of the figures in the room, which had remained silent until then.
He was dressed with the robe of the inquisitors, but beneath his messy dark hair, his boyish face was placidity in person. Brother Matthaios, who had arrived from Rome barely an hour ago, shuffled forward as he picked out a folder of documents for all to see.
“Here we have the results of the analysis of the fractures in the walls and the floor. It appears that the weapon the vampire used is based on a special synthesized crystal with an extremely powerful piezoelectric effect.”
“Piezoelectric effect?”
D'Annunzio raised his eyebrows at that unknown word and asked the young inquisitor with exhausted eyes:
“What is that supposed to be?”
“It means that it can cause a kind of earthquake through electrical vibrations.”
The one who answered the archbishop's question was Caterina, who did not take her eyes off the documents. The Cardinal, famous in the Vatican for her encyclopedic knowledge, explained with grace, putting her finger on her temple:
“Quartz, zircon and barium titanate… are crystals that, under a certain tension, have a piezoelectric effect that can produce discharges, in the same way, if they are introduced into an electric field, they can cause the opposite effect.”
“Which means, shortly, that if electricity is passed to them they can produce vibration and if a tension is caused they can produce electricity” added Matthaios, for those who did not have the same technical knowledge as the Cardinal. Unfolding the documents like a science teacher, he showed his audience the corresponding diagrams. “For example, a common use for it is microphones. Through electrical impulses they produce vibrations, that is, they produce sounds. Last night's weapon uses these properties to the maximum power, the vibration takes the metals to the limit of their resistance and ends up melting them, which causes the destruction of the target.”
"Well, the truth is that those details, I…" said D'Annunzio weakly, stroking his eyebrows in misunderstanding and casting a nervous glance around the room. “The important thing is to know if that technology surpasses what we have. And it is clear that the vampire is an assassin sent by the Empire, as she said herself, right?”
“That might be a hasty conclusion, Your Excellence...”
The one who then expressed her doubts was Caterina, leaving the documents on the table, coughed slightly before continuing.
“It is true that the Empire is our mortal enemy, but it has been more than a hundred years since they caused an incident. There is no reson that they have to start right now.”
“They don't provoke... Not until now, it's true, but won't they start to feel threatened now that we've occupied Istvan?”
Antonio had spoken in a serious voice, extremely rare for him, at the same time that he pointed with his chin towards the map that was hanging on the wall.
Before Armageddon, the city could be proud to be one of the pillars of central Europe, but today it was no more than a border city of two hundred thousand inhabitants. The surroundings of the urban nucleus were full of uninhabitable ruins and the tunnels of the old subway were nothing more than dark caverns.
The vampire would not be short of places to hide, and spotting her in this terrain would be extremely difficult.
“But, well, whatever are the intentions of our enemy, the important thing is to capture the vampire... Is there any news about her possible whereabouts?”
“The city guard is working hard on it with their full force.”
As if recovered from nervousness, D'Annunzio finally raised his head and, tracing a ring around the city with his finger, explained:
“The routes out of the city are all blocked and there are checkpoints on all the railway lines. In addition, we are sending squads with anti-vampire equipment to the underground tunnels.”
“I see. They are very wise measures, but isn't it a bit risky?” asked Matthaios, after raising his hand in a humble gesture, scratching his head he continued with a worried face, “With your permission, the Guard has no actual combat experience and their anti-vampire equipment is very limited. Even if they find her, the probability that the vampire will end up killing them is very high… May I dare to ask you to accept that the Inquisition participate in the mission?”
“Brother Matthaios, I thank you very much for the offer, but right now it is only you and Brother Petros, rather, since Brother Petros is wounded, we only have you. As much as you are inquisitor, it doesn't change the thing too much either.”
“Just me? Oh, of course! There's something I haven’t told you yet...” Matthaios clapped his hands, as if he had just remember something important, he explained with crystal clear voice: “Precisely now there are waiting at the airport of István three aircraft that carry a few hundred special policemen. I myself have come with a detachment that was on maneuvers in Triest. Ah!, and by the afternoon we expect near to two hundred more men as reinforcements.
“What? Is that right?”
Considering that not even twelve hours had passed since the incident, the speed of the deployment was extraordinary. Not only D'Annunzio, but also Caterina and Antonio raised their eyebrows in surprise. However, the inquisitor remained smiling and his eyes calm.
“As they were on maneuvers, we still have to reorganize the chain of command and provide them with the necessary equipment, but I think it won't take long to solve these issues. Give me an hour and I'll have them ready for combat.”
“Well, what a speed of reaction… I didn't expect less from you, Brother Matthaios. I see that the rumors that you are the best commander the Vatican has are not false. Very different from another that I know.” (T.N.: I’m angry now, sorry XD)
D'Annunzio unexpectedly began to praise the inquisitor. Even if they were already on maneuvers, transporting five hundred men, an entire battalion, across that distance in a few hours and having them ready to go into action really demonstrated prodigious capabilities.
“Magnificent. If we can count on the collaboration of such an experienced corps as the special police and the leadership of an inquisitor with such talent there is nothing to fear. I leave it in your hands, Brother Matthaios.”
As the archbishop filled the inquisitor with praise, like a teacher encouraging his favorite student, a barely perceptible voice sounded behind him.
“And… me…?” (T.N.: my heart is broken 💔)
The warrior monk, who was slumped in a corner, raised his hand with some fear.
“Please allow me to join the operation and regain the honor I’ve lost last night. We will find the vampire and I myself will bring you her head...”
“No, you won't go, Petros.”
The one who flatly rejected Petros' request was not the archbishop. On the monitor, Francesco was shaking his head sternly.
“The operation can be conducted by Matthaios alone. You look for the safety of His Holiness.”
“Eh!? But, Your Eminence…! I…!”
“Don’t get me wrong... it is not that I don’t trust you...”
The truth is that the expression of Francesco cannot be matched with someone who rebukes a subordinate. However, the veteran knight spoke with a firm voice, which did not admit reply. He nailed the sharp stare on Petros, then he explained clearly:
“As long as we have not captured the vampire, the chances that she will attempt to attack His Holiness' life are very high. In anticipation of this contingency, there must be someone by his side capable of protecting him. That's what I mean.”
“Eh…? But...”
Il Ruinante lowered his head at the stern, if not cold, words of his superior. First he blushed, and then he turned pale. With a pained look on his face, he muttered through clenched teeth:
“Understood... as you command, sir...”
“I've said it before: All of this should be kept hidden from the media. If they find out, they can do irreparable damage...” Francesco concluded, after looking at Petros and Matthaios.
The Cardinal had a determined but nervous expression, unusual for him. It wasn't strange. An error in the management of that problem would make it turn into something much worse than a simple incident that occurred in the provinces. At worst, it could end up affecting the power of the Vatican itself.
Looking out at the high ranks gathered in the room, the man whose iron arm held the Vatican in place repeated in a grave tone:
“An imperial noble has kidnapped our Saint... This is not a simple vampire attack, it could become the spark of a new crusade, we must be prepared for anything.”
“What has happened, Your Eminence?”
When Caterina returned to her assigned room, the silver-haired priest got up from the sofa impatiently. He would have not slept all night, because he was nervously looking at his superior, looking pale and haggard.
“What are the instructions? How are we going to proceed with the search?”
"The Ministry of Holy Affairs* does not have the right to participate in the operations..". (*T.N.: Need to check the correct name to be consistent)
Caterina coughed lightly as she handed her cardinal miter to the other priest in the room: Father Tres Iqus. The cold was very intense. After sitting down in front of the heater, she slowly caught her breath.
“The search will be carried out by the Inquisition and the special police. We will take care of the protection and assistance of the Pope.”
“Wha... but the one who has been kidnapped is one of ours!”
With a violent cry, very rare of him, Abel had turned even paler than Caterina. His voice, excited and trembling, revealed that he had spent the night awake, remorseful for having allowed a companion to be abducted before his eyes.
“Who has decided something so stupid as the companions of the abducted cannot participate in the search!? Right now Esther may...”
“Calm down, Abel...”
Caterina tried to calm the priest with a serene voice, he looked like he was going to get out in a rush at any moment.
Normally, the priest was so calm that he exasperated others, but this time the guilt was probably too strong. Trying to ignore the dark feelings that were beginning to bubble inside her, the Cardinal looked at the hysterical priest and explained calmly:
“I think it goes without saying that Sister Esther's safety comes first for me. She is a key agent who brought back invaluable information from the Empire. Losing her now would be a tremendous blow.”
“But we can't ignore His Holiness' protection either...”
The monotonous voice that joined the conversation was Tres’. The mechanical soldier continued speaking without any trace of feeling about the possibilities they had:
“As long as the vampire is within the city, the chances that her next target will be the Pope or Her Eminence are very high. If an attack did occur, we would be responsible. It must be avoided at all costs.”
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“Okay, so you can stay with the Cardinal, Father Tres” Abel answered immediately, preparing to leave the room.
This abrupt manner of speaking was not at all normal for the priest.
“In the meantime, I'll go find Esther around the town! Since I was here a year ago, I know the streets a little. Not that I'm going to wander aimlessly...”
“Negative. It is not advisable to disperse our combat capabilities, Father Nightroad. Our goal is to protect His Holiness and Her Eminence. We must also count on Cardinal Borgia. It is physically impossible that one can cover alone all the three objectives at a time. The minimum necessary is two units, which are you and me.”
“Eh…?”
Faced with the cold but exact reasoning, the silver-haired priest was speechless. He tried to think of a reply, but finally remained silent. Anyway, he turned decisively towards Caterina, with a face of not giving up, and looked with imploring eyes at his superior:
“Please... Your Eminence... I... Esther...”
“No. Impossible, Abel… I mean, Father Nightroad” Caterina said, shaking her head calmly at the priest's pleas. “I fully understand how you feel. I am also very worried about Sister Esther. But the vampire is still among us. If she attacks again, who will be here to defend us against her? Who will defend me and Alessandro? Only you can do it. Also, Abel...”
The priest bit his lip at the calm reprimand. In his watery eyes danced the image of those whom he had to protect. The cardinal cast her last sentence towards that gaze like a winter lake.
“Is it worthless for you to defend us?”
“...”
As if he had strings and they had been cut, the young man dropped his eyelids. He closed his eyes tightly and his face, with the expression of someone who had just drank poison, was drained of all color. But his lips opened one more time just to spit:
“Coward... That's a coward answer, Caterina... I can't believe that...”
After whispering those words, the priest went to the door.
“Where are you going, Father Nightroad? We are in the middle of a meeting. Come back immediately!”
The voice scolded Abel harshly, but he ignored it and reached for the doorknob. Without changing his expression, Tres quickly caught his partner in front of the door...
“You don't have to follow him, Father Tres” the Cardinal said, stopping the short priest with a gesture. “Even if we don't chase him, Father Nightroad won't abandon us… I know how he is”
What was that expression that crossed over the beautiful woman's face? Disgust with herself, anger...? A veil of pain darkened her face. But it was only an instant. Recovering her serenity immediately, the Cardinal ordered her subordinate:
“Father Tres, take care of the cathedral. I have to solve some matters and then accompany His Holiness to the Central Hospital. Take care of the preparations.”
“Positive.”
Even after receiving the orders, the mechanical soldier remained standing for a moment, as if to say something, but in the end he withdrew silently through the same door his companion had used.
After verifying that the rhythmic echo of the boots had died down the hall, the Cardinal leaned against the back of her chair. Bringing the handkerchief to her lips, she coughed slightly...
“A despicable woman…” she groaned softly between her lips in a hoarse voice.
She had coughed so badly that her voice heard broken. Seeing the slight reddish stain that had appeared on the white lace of the handkerchief, on her face there was no shadow of the Lady of Steel that caused terror to all.
“I am… I am a despicable woman.”
Still coughing, she tossed the bloody handkerchief into the fireplace.
∙∙∙·▫▫ᵒᴼᵒ▫ₒₒ▫ᵒᴼᵒ▫ₒₒ▫ᵒᴼᵒ▫ₒ▫ᵒᴼᵒ▫▫ᵒ▫ₒₒ▫ᵒ·∙∙·▫▫ᵒᴼᵒ▫ₒₒ▫ᵒᴼᵒ▫ₒₒ▫ᵒᴼᵒ▫ₒₒ▫ᵒᴼᵒ▫ₒₒ▫ᵒᴼᵒ▫▫·∙∙∙
Thank you for your patience, see you next time!
If you find some mistake, please let me know in comments, don't forget to ❤ and reblog.
Stay safe guys. Hugs!
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esperfruit · 21 days
Text
Welcome to Yu-Gi-Oh! GReduX
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Preface:
Yu-Gi-Oh! GReduX is an idea I first conceived when I was 17 and I decided to revive it.
It’s a sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh! GX that later turns into a sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V and also is deeply connected to Duel Terminal. As I have a lot going on, I don’t have the time and energy to turn this into a fully-written fanfiction so I am telling the story through blog posts and art. It is still in a very raw state so this pinned post will be updated over time when I have something to add. This post will also only cover the “post GX" section of GReduX, that being Act 1 and 2. Act 3, the post Arc-V and Duel Terminal section that involves time-space travel shenanigans, will receive its own post sooner or later and will be linked to this one.
This project usually uses sub names but I can also use dub names whenever I feel like it.
I will use the tag “ygo gredux” for all posts connected.
Feel free to ask away when you want to know more about GReduX.
Premise:
GReduX starts not long after Judai and the others graduated and a new semester at Duel Academy has begun. One day Principal Samejima calls Professor Chronos into his office, who was accompanied by his younger sister, the nine.year-old Bianca de Medici, as he recently became her legal guardian after their parents died in a house fire one month ago.
Samejima informs Chronos of an exchange program with the new promising duel school, Terminus Academy. The program sends two students and one teacher to the other academy for one year and Samejima suggested sending Chronos, Tyranno Kenzan and Rei Saotome as Duel Academy’s representatives. Kenzan and Rei have already agreed to the program and Chronos was more than eager to teach at this Terminus Academy to show what Duel Academy has to offer as its greatest professor.
Not long as the group of four arrived at Terminus Academy, they met new and old faces and Chronos learned all teachers at this school are people he knew in the past with the principal, Rantaro Yamikage, being an old friend of his. As a sign of their friendship, Rantaro offered Bianca to become a student at Terminus despite her only recently finishing elementary school. Both Chronos and Bianca agreed to that offer with Chronos being excited to teach his beloved sister about the game they are both so passionate about. 
Soon they would have to realize that Terminus Academy is a more than an extraordinary duel school filled with exceptionally powerful duelists in terms of skill and personalities.
The heroine of this story is Bianca de Medici or Bianca Crowler in the dub. A nine-year old girl, who lived in Italy and just recently witnessed her parents burn to death right before her eyes by a serial arsonist. She is now in the care of her older brother Chronos, who she loves and admires dearly but could not see often due to his job at Duel Academy. 
Bianca had never been a social butterfly and preferred talking to her deck than with other humans thanks to being born with autism and the ability to communicate with Duel Monster spirits. She was a model student in terms of grades but never had any human friends and was even bullied by other kids and got frequently in trouble because of her violent outbursts whenever she was being picked on despite being very shy when unprovoked.
At the age of six, she had a dream of being visited by Duel Monster spirits of the Ice Kingdom. The spirits, who she immediately formed a deep connection with, asked if she wanted to be their friend and she agreed without hesitation. They also requested to form a contract with her that asks her to become a powerful duelist with them at her side in exchange for their protection. After the contract was sealed, she woke up with a deck of Duel Monster cards next to her, the Ice Kingdom, and a silver bracelet with an ice blue stone in its center at her right wrist. Ever since, Bianca, a dueling prodigy, has been seeking power alongside her new spirit friends with White Blizzard Dragon as her ace, while finding out what powers lie in the bracelet she received from her otherworldly friends.
At Terminus Academy Bianca starts off as very emotionally stunted and still traumatized from the house fire, developing  pyrophobia as a result. In that state the young child has to prove herself as a powerful duelist and student under a group of teenagers with similar abilities as her. Fortunately the class she attends has a strong sense of unity and she can count on her brother Chronos and her friends from the Ice Kingdom to have her back.
Terminus Academy:
A duel school founded by Rantaro Yamikage one year ago. It’s much smaller than Duel Academy as it has only three classes with 16 students each. It was built as a counter project to Duel Academy as the students wear similar uniforms to DA in black and orange and are not split in different houses but share one huge apartment complex not far away from school as their dormitory.
The purpose of this school is researching young duelists with the power to talk to duel spirits or show the potential to. Every student was scouted by Rantaro himself when he traveled around the world. The students do not have to pay any fees and every cost is covered by the school, they only have to show good results as students in order to stay at the Academy.
Terminus Academy is located in the fictional city of Resort Valley, named after it being a very popular health resort filled with all sorts of places for fun and relaxing activities. Rantaro chose this city as the location so the students would have a healthy and welcoming environment and as an opportunity to perceive other activities outside of school.
The Academy offers everything a school needs to and more with an always clean and safe building, latest equipment, healthy food and a card store with new and old packs so students will always have a chance for good deck building. Terminus also holds various events for their students and helpful courses for them to make their school life educational and fun. Whenever something breaks, it would be repaired or replaced in no time. How a school this small could have such a huge budget even with its undercover funding from Kaiba Corporation is one of its greatest mysteries.
In only one year, Terminus gathered an exceptional positive reputation from students, parents and outsiders alike. A near flawless learning environment, student satisfaction and dueling performance at an all-time high made it become more popular than every of Duel Academy’s branch schools and came to rival DA itself, gaining the attention of many journalists and as well of Industrial Illusions. 
Class 2-C:
The class of sixteen Professor Chronos was assigned to teach over the year:
Bianca de Medici/Bianca Crowler
Tyranno Kenzan/Tyranno Hassleberry
Rei Saotome/Blair Flannigan
Midori Tachibana
Alexander Muller
Hazel Cortex
Lien Cai
Constantin Sokolow
Dejan Kovac
Diana Sergio
Martin Kanou/Marcel Bonaparte
Esra Farhani
Grant O’Brien/Grant Brodie
Jason McConnor
Marlee Reed
List of reference sheets HERE
Every one of them being a very talented duelist in their own right with many of them being able to talk to spirits or awakening to it later. Midori not only being the class representative but also the Academy's head girl. As a group of eccentrics filled with dreams and determination, these teenagers (and that one elementary schooler) are a very chaotic bunch, getting in all sorts of trouble and hijinks. And while having their differences and arguments, they have a very strong sense of unity and stick together through thick and thin as friends, managing to overcome every challenge.
It turns out many of them had forged contracts with their deck just like Bianca did and have gained similar protection. When the world was dragged into Darkness at the end of GX, many students of Terminus, including Class 2-C were unaffected by Darkness as they were put into a safe, dream-like state by their cards where Darkness could not reach them.
While being a member of Class 2-B, the student Nigel Setanta became a part of this group over time thanks to his friendship with Jason.
Staff:
Aside from janitors, cleaning and lunch staff and housekeeper, who runs the card store for both school itself and the dormitory, the Academy has the principal, three teachers and a nurse:
Rantaro Yamikage
Professor Chronos de Medici/Dr. Vellian Crowler
Dr. Kakeru Yamamoto
Napoleon/Jean-Louis Bonaparte
Dr. Dahlia Thorndyke
Currently there is also Asuka Tenjoin/Alexis Rhodes at Terminus for an internship for her goal to become a teacher.
Chronos, Rantaro, Kakeru and Dahlia were close friends during their time at university in Domino City and Rantaro purposefully arranged them being reunited again through hiring Dahlia and Kakeru for his Academy and organizing the exchange program. Napoleon, teacher of Class 2-B, applied for a job as teacher at Terminus shortly after leaving Duel Academy and similar to Bianca, Rantaro offered Martin to become a student as well, Chronos and Napoleon meeting again was a pure, yet ironic coincidence.
Kakeru, teacher of Class 2-A, was Chronos’ best friend during university times and he especially is looking forward to doing everything with his friend again, who had changed a lot since graduation unlike him. This group of educators turns out to be a miniature version of Class 2-C in terms of being chaotic yet sticking together.
Spirit Contracts: 
Duel Monster spirits from another dimension called Duel Terminal, which closely resembles a computer program, have gained the power to transcend into other worlds and can influence them to certain degrees. The most effective method is making contact with humans that show immense potential as duelists and can communicate with them. They then form a Spirit Contract, which allows the spirits to manifest into Duel Monster cards and an item the duelist will always carry with them, be it a bracelet, a pendant or anything else.
With the item at their side, the duelist is under protection of the spirits from Duel Terminal with said protection showing their effects in  many different ways, for example Bianca not being injured by the flames or poisoned by the smoke of the house fire. The Monsters can also become truly tangible in duels with another duelist with a Spirit Contract and cause real damage, which usually only occurs when the duelist is either in danger or loses control over their powers.
If a duelist with a Spirit Contract has become especially powerful, they can be able to perform a “Terminal Draw”, which works similar to a Destiny Draw, in being able to draw a specific card of their deck archetype from their deck in a pinch and when the duelist has reached the absolute height of their strength, the Terminal Draw can even be compared to a Shining Draw. 
The reason the spirits from Duel Terminal are contacting humans is that Duel Terminal became completely jumbled in its own timelines with events being undone or misplaced in time and at worst threats that had have been previously been defeated are suspected to return in even greater and more terrifying capacity that will not only affect Duel Terminal, but every dimension and the only way to bring everything back into order is to cooperate with humans from another world, who can not only help them reclaim their former strength but to surpass it as well.
Rantaro Yamikage, a scientist for Kaiba Corp. at the time, had noticed shifts in time-space caused by Duel Monster spirits influencing the human world in unexpected ways and thus decided that this matter had to be studied at any cost and founded Terminus Academy with the approval and secret funding by Seto Kaiba himself.
Everything went well as expected and Terminus was formed in no time with construction and organization done by Kaiba Corp. and student scouting by Rantaro until one day Rantaro had been contacted by spirits that call themselves the Fabled…
Act 1:
Act 1 covers the first half of the school year with everything and everyone being introduced. It is more on the comedic and slice of life part with the students getting into wacky hijinks that somehow also manage to get the teachers involved. Bianca also learns to open up and become friends with her classmates despite the age gap. Jason becomes friends with Nigel and assimilates him into the chaos of Class 2-C. 
Bianca gains a reputation among the students and proves herself time and time again to be a very powerful duelist with defeating countless of them. Her Ice Kingdom deck, which she is the only owner of in the world, caught the interest of Pegasus J. Crawford, paying Terminus Academy a visit as a result.
He was very fascinated with the students there and decided them to be the test users of the new summoning method Industrial Illusions and Kaiba Corp. had been working on when it was finished, Synchro Summoning.
Bianca had become quite cocky with her winning streak so Midori, the Academy’s strongest duelist also called “The Empress”, decided to humble her by defeating her in a duel in front of the entire school and succeeded at doing so.
At first Bianca took the loss very poorly but with some uplifting from her peers and her spirit partners, she regained her composure and managed to grow even stronger from that experience by learning Fusion Summoning.
After a school trip to Italy for 2-C, Synchro Monsters were finally complete and it was decided that Lien would be the very first person to ever Synchro Summon in an official duel against Bianca. 
Her Flamvell and Neo-Flamvell, who she had a Spirit Contract with, evolved and adapted to Synchro.
In the duel Lien successfully summons the Synchro Monster “Ancient Flamvell Deity” but the duel had to be terminated as all her fire-themed monsters had brought Bianca to a breaking point and she suffered a panic attack from her pyrophobia.
Despite the termination, the test was a success and Synchro Monsters were now ready to be introduced to the world.
Jason and Nigel’s friendship blossomed further and Jason realized thanks to Nigel that he doesn’t have to screw himself over in order to rebel against his parents but can also strive for his own path with the power he has if he finally puts it to use. That resolve evolved the Mist Valley deck he contracted with into Gusto and thus formed a friendly rivalry with Nigel, swearing to surpass Ritual Summon expert one day.
At the end of this half, Bianca is confronted with the arsonist, who killed her and Chronos' parents. To get his hands on the valuable Ice Kingdom cards, he trapped him and Bianca in a life-or-death duel in a burning building with the Laval deck he contracted with. 
Despite being confronted with her fear of fire, the rage of being faced with her parent’s killer took over and she went all out against him, taking him down with her deadliest Fusion Monster, “Glazio, Devil of the Ice Kingdom”, freezing him to death despite his pleas for mercy as the attacks in this duel were real.
Act 2:
Eight months into the exchange program, Principal Samejima agreed to Rantaro’s proposal to hold a tournament between Duel Academy and Terminus Academy at Terminus’ campus, the GX Tournament V2. Students and teachers from both schools face up against each other as well as students from the same school.
Much to Samejima’s dismay, the tournament was being dominated by Terminus with all the best students he ever had had already graduated or are part of the exchange program.
Mysterious incidents seem to occur during the tournament as many of the participants' behavior suddenly began to shift into aggressive and even violent, including Chronos, who almost hit a student from Duel Academy, who tried to steal a deck, if not stopped by Dahlia.
The situation started to get out of control further as more and more duelists turned violent and downright malicious. Said duelists also developed breathing problems, high blood pressure, tearing muscles and chronic migraines. Neither Rantaro nor Samejima were able to provide answers and so Class 2-C including Nigel, Kakeru and Napoleon began to do their own research while Dahlia and Emi Ayukawa/Fonda Fontaine took care of collapsed or contaminated duelists. 
Everyone wonders why Rantaro strictly refuses to stop the tournament at a time like this and with how out-of-character he acts, his warm and welcoming demeanor switching into cold and strict with his kind smile now having something eerie in it.
Bianca gets challenged to a duel by Midori, who had turned violent as well. Bianca had her rematch against The Empress with finally surpassing her with her new Synchro Monster “White Blizzard Impact Dragon”. Midori then collapsed after the duel and was contaminated as well.
When Chronos raised his hand against Bianca when she tried to stop him from hurting another student, Kakaru finally had enough and challenged Chronos to a duel to bring him back to his senses.
Even though Kakeru fought with everything he got, he was crushed under the might of Chronos’ “Ancient Gear Chaos Giant” with whom he severely injured Kakeru with after his victory. 
White Blizzard Dragon told Bianca they were able to witness a dark energy possessing Chronos that forces his Ancient Gears, who he had formed a Spirit Contract with not long ago, to use their powers to harm others.
After Kakeru was hospitalized, Bianca and the others confronted Dahlia, who had been acting suspicious for a while and she finally decided to tell the truth as she can’t bear seeing everyone she cares about getting injured:
There is a supernatural virus going around that infects others through duels. It makes the infected severely violent but also inflicts health issues that are very likely to kill its victim over time and take over their dead body if not treated. The virus is called Evilswarm and was brought in by none other than Principal Rantaro Yamikage.
His goal is to spread Evilswarm as far as possible through GX V2 with his true motives being unknown. He blackmailed Dahlia to turn Evilswarm into a bacterial state and infuse it into his primary test subject, Chronos. Sick of Rantaro’s madness, Dahlia already created an antidote for Evilswarm and it already proved itself as effective as she secretly tested it on Midori, who had been cured but is still bedridden. She tells everyone that the infected need to have the Evilswarm weakened in them before the antidote gets injected or it won’t work. Dahlia also informs Bianca that Chronos might not have much longer to live if he isn’t cured soon with how long he had been infected.
Without any hesitation, Bianca rushed to Chronos and challenged him to a duel to save him. It pushed both of them to their limits and Bianca witnessing her brother's health fail the longer the duel went broke her but she forced herself to keep fighting for his sake. What gave her the final push was hearing the plea of his favorite Ancient Gear Golem, Sirius, to save his life at all cost. Bianca defeats Chronos with the combination of the very first Terminal Draw, a Permanent Spell Card that deals effect damage, two of her Fusion Monsters and White Blizzard Dragon, allowing him to finally receive the antidote and be brought to the infirmary.
It was finally time to grab the problem at its root. While Terminus’ and Duel Academy’s best united to defeat and cure all the infected, Dahlia and Lien confronted Rantaro, who sneaked into Dahlia’s underground lab to destroy the antidote, the recipe to make it and to later kill genius pharmaceutic Dahlia so Evilswarm could never be cured ever again. 
Bianca meanwhile was with her brother at the infirmary, watching over him. When she was suddenly approached by the Ice Kingdom spirits, who told her that Lien’s Flamvell contacted them for immediate assistance because Lien was in huge danger, she rushed to the underground lab as fast as possible, led by her Monsters and followed by Napoleon and Samejima. When she arrived there she saw both Lien and Dahlia laying on the ground, severely injured.
Napoleon and Samejima brought the two of them to the infirmary and gave them the antidote just in case. The infuriated Bianca then confronts Rantaro, who gladly accepts the challenge of Terminus’ new strongest student, saying once someone as powerful as her is infected, he’d be unstoppable.
Before the decisive duel could start, Chronos arrived, dragging himself to the place with his duel vest, still severely weakened. Despite his critical state, he had to help Bianca take down Rantaro no matter what. When being asked by Chronos why he was doing all of this and what happened to his precious and kind friend, Rantaro only gave vague answers but he proved that this good-hearted Rantaro had been gone forever even before the whole exchange program even began.
In this 2 vs 1 duel the de Medici siblings struggled more than ever because of Rantaro’s Fabled cards, which he had artificially modified into the dreadful ArchSeraphim, who all possess downright unfair effects with his Ace Monster being “ArchSeraphim Overlord Abyss Shadow”, a Fusion Monster with 6000 ATK and 6000 DEF that reduces the opponents LP to 1, can only be defeated by Battle with a Fusion Monster and is completely immune to opponent’s card effects.
In this near hopeless situation, Bianca performs a Terminal Draw and Fusion Summons the siblings’ ultimate Monster, Ancient Gear Blizzard Dragon, a combination of both their Aces and reduces Rantaro’s LP to 0 with the help of their Monster’s piercing damage dealing effect and Chronos’ previously set Limiter Removal.
When Rantoro was defeated, he just laughed about the absurdity of his situation and congratulated the siblings and everyone at Terminus for their glorious work, admitting he couldn’t be a prouder principal and that Terminus truly will initiate a new age of dueling. Before Chronos could receive any answers on asking once again how Rantaro turned out that way, a dark energy surrounded the principal, seemingly eating him alive until nothing of him was left.
Bianca could only look at this for a short time until Chronos collapsed thanks to his still critical condition.
The aftermath of the Evilswarm Incident was the cancellation of GX V2 despite Samejima reluctantly admitting that the victor would have definitely been Terminus. Everyone involved was properly treated to make sure Evilswarm was completely eradicated. Terminus Academy had to take care of reparations for the damage caused by Rantato. Dahlia took over the mantle of principal and had to announce that Terminus had to close down for at least one year to take care of financial and legal matters, giving everyone injured during the incident time to recover. The students were allowed to return home during that time or stay at the dormitory.
Rei and Kenzan, returned to Duel Academy, the teacher and two students chosen by Rantaro for the exchange program were taken under custody as it turned out they were spies for Rantaro. Asuka finished her internship and left as well to finish her studies.
The bedridden Chronos and Kakeru made up again and were taken care of by Dahlia, who they forgive for her involvement in Evilswarm as she was forced into it and she did her best to make up for her misdeeds. To their surprise, Chronos was writing a letter of resignation to Duel Academy. When asked about it by Dahlia, Kakeru and Bianca he told them he does that so he can give Dahlia an application to become an official teacher at Terminus after its great re-opening next year.
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teecupangel · 1 year
Note
…so I feel awkward asking cause I usually just respond to posts, but would you per chance have any thoughts on a Ezio/Des cousins scene. Like we know Mario and Giovanni went to Masyaf to look for a way into Altair’s vault, I’m pretty sure they did anyway, so who’s to say that Mario didn’t meet a courtesan or something and through the eye slash Isu bs Desmond is now the first born to the eldest son of the Auditore who also bears a striking resemblance to the statue of Altair. (Ps ik Mario and Giovanni looked to the armor keys together and failed but I’m pretty sure they also looked for a way into the hidden library)
Giovanni in Mario’s study staring down his only nipote, who is also giving a judgment look because Desmond doesn’t approve of Gio being an on call assassin for the Medici“… brother…just who was that woman you slept with?”
I know saying things like ‘oh, don’t feel awkward’ is just… weird so I’ll just say that I’m happy to hear (read?) from you and I enjoy all your responses. :)
Okay, let’s talk about the Auditore brothers’ search for Altaïr’s library.
As far as I can remember from AC wiki’s pages on Giovanni and Mario, they didn’t search for the library. Giovanni writes about it in one of his letters that’s marked as 1458 (a year before Ezio’s birth). There was no real mention that the brothers searched for it. I believe that the confusion might be caused by the event where Mario contacted Giovanni about the Shroud? That’s the only time I can remember where Giovanni and Mario contacted one another after their relationship went cold (thanks to Mario telling Giovanni he’d rather fight like a man than be a banker)
But we can make this work using that!
Instead of both Giovanni and Mario going to Masyaf, let’s have Mario go to Masyaf in secret. Perhaps he heard of Giovanni’s letter, maybe the one who received it talked to him about it and Mario wanted to find this great library. Whether it was his awkward way of trying to reconnect with his brother or if this was simply him wishing to show who is the better Auditore will be left a mystery with no concrete answer.
Of course, during this time, the way to the library underneath Masyaf was still unknown so Mario spent his days searching for clues about this mysterious library supposedly hidden in Masyaf.
During his stay in Masyaf, he stays with the local Assassins. Just a single family in charge of keeping an eye on things in Masyaf. There’s no real bureau or anything of the sort.
Masyaf was quite peaceful, all things considered.
And that’s where he meets the Assassin’s daughter. He would describe her as a woman with hair as dark as night yet with eyes the color of the morning sky.
(This is meant to hint that the Assassin family in Masyaf is a descendant of Darim who canonically has Maria’s blue eyes)
Alas. Mario is summoned back to Monteriggioni soon enough because he is the ruler of a place that tends to get attacked a lot so off he goes without even a goodbye for he knew he would not be able to leave had he said his farewell to the lady of Masyaf.
Not knowing that said lady was pregnant with his child at that point.
Now, here’s where we play around a bit and say that Desmond actually didn’t know he was an Auditore until a bit later. His grandparents had been offended by Mario’s sudden disappearance and only grew more bitter when their daughter died in childbirth (sorry, unnamed lady). This would make Desmond be raised in a cold-ish environment which he’s fine with, it reminded him a lot of William Miles’ wife actually.
Then he sees the letters that Mario had been sending. Letters that his grandparents had kept from his mother because they talk about how he still remembers her and how she only need to say the word and he will come bring her back to Monteriggioni.
Desmond’s first reaction is… “Holy shit, I’m an Auditore.”
Then next was… “What the fuck?! My grandparents are assholes?!”
And so Desmond runs away from home at the tender age of fourteen, helped by his Bleeds, and becomes a stowaway to a ship bound somewhere near Monteriggioni or Firenze, he’s not picky. He’ll steal a horse if he has to.
When he gets to Monteriggioni, he goes up to Mario and announces that his name is Desmond (which isn’t the name his grandparents gave him but fuck it) and he’s his son.
Mario is, of course, skeptical but Desmond’s eyes were very similar to those blue eyes that haunted Mario’s every dream. (They still turn gold when Desmond uses the Eagle Vision)
And, since Desmond knew that Mario would not believe him, he brought the letters Mario sent but his mother never received and the letters his mother had written but never sent.
This propels Mario to, in a bout of grief and ‘holy shit I’m a father’ panic, write a letter to his brother asking for help because he is absolutely not ready for this, he never even thought he would ever be a father, what the fuck is he supposed to do???
Giovanni receives the letter and is like ‘holy shit, I’m an uncle??? What do I do, Maria??? Stop laughing, Maria, this is serious!!!’ and, before anybody knows it, the Auditores are suddenly going on a vacation to Monteriggioni.
Maria is pretty sure Giovanni has no other plans other than talk to Mario so they can freak out about this while trying to get drunk.
On the flip side, this might be the catalyst that would finally mend the broken bond between the Auditore Brothers.
Unorganized Ideas/Plot:
They will learn that Desmond is Darim’s descendant and it will make them believe that’s the reason why Desmond looks so similar to the statue of Altaïr
Ezio starts off as being jealous of Desmond because they’re similar in age but Petruccio loves hearing his stories about Masyaf and Claudia likes him because he’s nice to her and doesn’t tease her like her older brothers.
Desmond is pretty sweet on Ezio though and Ezio starts to warm up to him because he can see how genuine Desmond is. (Also, they may or may not have gotten into some shenanigans. NO ONE CAN PROVE ANYTHING!)
Federico is trying to be the responsible older brother but he and Desmond are slacker buddies. Desmond knows the best spots in Monteriggioni and he shares them with Federico so people won’t find them napping.
Desmond’s disapproval of Giovanni is seen by everyone. Everyone just assumes he’s heard of the strained relationship between his father and uncle.
After Giovanni gets snarked at by Desmond over his loyalty to a person instead of the Creed, everyone now assumed that Desmond was raised as an Assassin since he was young.
They would be wrong. Desmond didn’t even know his grandparents were Assassins until he saw Mario’s letters.
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scotianostra · 6 months
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On December 5th 1560 King Francis II of France, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots, died.
Although not crowned it has to be remembered that Francis was also King consort of Scotland.
Francis was born on 19 January 1544, the eldest son of Henry II of France and Catherine de Medici, he was named for his grandfather, King Francis I.
When Francis was four years old, the Scots and French signed the Treaty of Haddington in July 1548 arranging the betrothal of Mary Queen of Scots and the dauphin Francis in return for French aid to expel the invading English. Mary Queen of Scots sailed from Dumbarton for France in the August of 1548 when she was but five years old. The young Queen was accompanied by her four Marys, the daughters of Scottish noble families, Mary Beaton, Mary Seton, Mary Fleming and Mary Livingston.
Mary spent the rest of her childhood at the court of her father-in-law, Henri II Her father-in-law, Henry II of France wrote 'from the very first day they met, my son and she got on as well together as if they had known each other for a long time'. Mary was a pretty child and brought up in the same nursery as her future husband and his siblings, became very attached to him. She corresponded regularly Mary of Guise , who remained in Scotland to rule as regent for her daughter. Much of her early life was spent at Château de Chambord. She was educated at the French court learning French, Latin, Greek, Spanish and Italian and enjoyed falconry, needlework, poetry, prose, horse riding and playing musical instruments.
Mary was the cosseted darling of the French court, the doting Henri II wrote 'The little Queen of Scots is the most perfect child I have ever seen.' He corresponded frequently with Mary of Guise, expressing his delight in his young daughter-in-law. Mary's maternal grandmother, Antoinette of Guise, in a letter to her daughter in Scotland, stated that she found Mary ' very pretty, graceful and self assured.'
Francis and Mary were married with spectacular pageantry and magnificence in the cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, by the Cardinal Archbishop of Rouen, in the presence of Henry II, Queen Catherine de' Medici and a glittering throng of cardinals and nobles. The French courtier Pierre de Brantôme described Mary as ‘a hundred times more beautiful than a goddess of heaven … her person alone was worth a kingdom.’
Among the wedding guests was one, James Hepburn Earl of Bothwell. Francis was fourteen and Mary fifteen at the time, Francis then held the title King consort of Scotland until his death.
When Henri II was killed during a jousting contest, incidentally by Gabriel de Lorges, Comte de Montgomery, Captain of The Scots Guard, and a descendant of Alexander Montgomerie of Auchterhouse, Mary's young husband Francois ascended the throne. Francis was reported to have found the crown of France so heavy that the nobles were obliged to hold it in place for him.
The young Francis became a tool of Mary's maternal relations, the ambitious Guise family, who seized the chance for power and hoped to crush the Huguenots in France. The Huguenot leader, Louis de Bourbon, prince de Condé plotted the conspiracy of Amboise in March 1560, an abortive coup d'etat in which Huguenots surrounded the Château of Amboise and attempted to seize the King. The conspiracy was savagely put down, and its failure led to increase the power of the Guises. This alarmed the king 's mother, Catherine de Medici, who reacted by attempting to secure the appointment of the moderate Michel de L'Hospital as chancellor.
During the autumn of 1560 François became increasingly ill, and died from the complications of an ear condition, in Orléans, Loiret. Since the marriage had borne no children, the French throne passed to his 10-year-old brother, Charles IX. Mary was said to be grief-stricken Multiple diseases have been suggested as the cause of Francis' death, such as mastoiditis, meningitis, or otitis exacerbated into an abscess. Francis was buried in the Basilica of St Denis.
There was no place for the seventeen year old Mary, Queen of Scots in France, she prepared to return to her native Scotland with an uncertain future that would hold.
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themuseumwithoutwalls · 6 months
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MWW Artwork of the Day (12/4/23) Scheggia [Giovanni di ser Giovanni Guidi](Italian, 1406–1486) The Triumph of Fame (c. 1449) Tempera, silver & gold on wood, 62.5 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Rogers Fund)
This commemorative birth tray (desco da parto), celebrates the birth of Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492), the most celebrated ruler of his day as well as an important poet and a major patron of the arts. Knights extend their hands in allegiance to an allegorical figure of Fame, who holds a sword and winged cupid (symbolizing celebrity through arms and love). Winged trumpets sound Fame's triumph. Captives are bound to the elaborate support. The three-colored ostrich feathers around the rim are a heraldic device of Lorenzo's father, Piero de' Medici. Painted by the younger brother of Masaccio, it was kept in Lorenzo’s private quarters in the Medici palace in Florence.
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robin-in-the-library · 6 months
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Here is how we can kill Giovanni Auditore and still win—
So, everyone who knows me know that I have a personal and deep dislike of the whole assassination of the Auditore, for a variety of reasons. First of all my suspension of disbelief ends at a process on a noble that is part of the medicean close circle being concluded, ruling for execution too, in but one night. It would be more likely for it to rule for exile, even if it happened in one night. Anyway. Second thing, you are really going to make a pivotal death in the game’s plot happen, in the kill-people-game, set in incredibly-violent-stab-stab-murders years of Italy, cushioned between the Duke of Milano being stabbed in the chest entering a church and Giuliano de’ Medici getting his head bashed in and a dozen other stab wounds in Santa Maria del Fiore, and make it something so utterly boring as a hanging? Where is the drama? Where is the visceral hatred, the centuries long hidden war intertwined with the political opposition in Firenze? Shameful, I say.
I have already ranted about the execution but I will shortly repeat it: man wasn’t getting condemned to the rope in one night. Least of all his children, and especially Petruccio. Like, that was going to be unlikely even if he were not in the favour of the current political power. But he very much is in the favour of the Medici, and even if Lorenzo were away for that day (one hour away on horseback, btw) his brother remained in Firenze, and most people involved with the trial would have been in the Medici’s pockets, loyal to them, or simply unwilling to risk going against them, I truly doubt the Templars could buy or threaten everyone. With the added point of, what guarantees Lorenzo wouldn’t have retaliated? Even if the hanging were lawful (which, it can’t be, but anyway) the Medici are very good at financially ruining people (see what happened after the congiura dei Pitti).
That being said, we have arrested Giovanni and Federico (and not Petruccio because that’s just whack, and that child shouldn’t even be in Firenze anyway, put him in the countryside for his health or so help me). Now we have the, previously mentioned arrest or Cosimo de Medici to take inspiration from, I guess: when the man was imprisoned in 1433 he refused to eat anything not given to him by his family for he feared being poisoned. Now, I don’t think you’d get to poison an Assassin, but he can still be killed in his cell.
After all, a hanging is so impersonal and clean, it’s much more satisfying to corner an imprisoned man and stab him enough times that his body has to be sewn closed for burial (that’s what happened to Giuliano, btw :3). And Federico can be made to watch, can be stabbed too, and whether he dies or not is up for discussion I guess.
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Hii, who do you think is lorenzo's fav boy in s3? Madelina has a special place in his heart. Daddy's little girl🥰 but i am not sure which boy was his fav
Piero- He used to dote on piero and spent time with him until guilio came. I felt like they had a special bond n that's why piero was so hurt about guilio while his brother didn't care much
Giovanni - we didn't get much scenes n almost no affectionate ones but he did lobby to make him a cardinal at 14 and wanted him to be influential so he n piero can aid each other n hold onto their power n become more powerful by having each other's back.
Guilio-he was super affectionate n adored him as a child but he later did nothing to secure his future. Piero was the heir, Giovanni was cardinal. He loved guilio but his children will carry on his legacy so he did favour them later over guilio
hello!! This is an awesome question, thank you my love!!
Okay, so Lorenzo and his kids...that's, that's a big conversation lol, and I guess I should start this off by saying that Maddalena was 100% her parent's favorite child.
I should also say that I really don't like how the show portrayed Lorenzo as a father, it was just shitty, and I personally don't believe he would have been a shitty father. Lorenzo and all his siblings were very loved by their parents, and their grandparents. Piero and Lucrezia were both very involved parents (both in the show and historically)
Historically speaking, Maddalena was Clarice's favorite, but it was also noted that Clarice doted on all her kids, which I thought they brought through in the show which was nice. But they missed the boat with Lorenzo.
Lorenzo was also very involved with his kids, he was involved in their education but also involved in their everyday life. He would hold meetings in the gardens of the Medici Palazzo so he could hang out with his kids while he worked. There was an instance that was recorded that when Clarice and Lorenzo were away from Florence for an extended period of time, (I think they were in Rome), and Lorenzo had to go to Milan I believe on business at the last minute, and when Clarice returned to her children they started crying because Lorenzo hadn't returned with Clarice. So clearly there was a bond. Another example was when Clarice and the children were away from Florence after the Pazzi Conspiracy they stayed in the Villa di Castello I believe, but Piero wrote to his father daily asking when he would visit. So this family was close and Lorenzo was an involved father and I don't know why the show didn't show this.
So take away, historically, Lorenzo probably wasn't a shit father.
Show Lorenzo is another story. I honestly don't know who his favorite son is, my instinct is probably Piero, but Lorenzo is just crap at showing it. Piero is his firstborn, and he was very loved when he is a babe so obviously there would have to be a bond, Lorenzo just sucked at showing that, but that came back to bite him in the butt when Piero basically ends the entire Dynasty in one fellow swoop.
I should say, I do think Lorenzo loves all his kids, I just think he is shit at showing it. The Pazzi Conspiracy broke something in him that he didn't know how to fix and his family suffered because of it.
I am not sure Giovanni would have been Lorenzo's favorite? Just because we didn't see a lot of interactions between the two, and yes, Lorenzo did make sure Giovanni advanced in life and became a Cardinal, but that was more for his own personal ambition than thought for Giovanni because Giovanni wanted to be an artist. So I am not sure Giovanni would count as Lorenzo's favorite.
As for Giulio...I think Lorenzo loved Giulio, yes, and it as good of him to take Giulio in, but I don't think Lorenzo loved Giulio for Giulio. Lorenzo loved Giulio for his brother, for Giuliano. Because in a sense Lorenzo probably saw Giulio as the last thing he had linking him to Giuliano.
As kids, Giulio was probably favored over Piero for that fact, and then as they grew Lorenzo probably still thought of Piero as his favorite child, but then realized he sort screwed up that relationship and slowly began to try to rebuild that relationship.
So yeah if I had to say, I would say Piero was Lorenzo's favorite, Lorenzo just sucked at parenting!
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homomenhommes · 7 months
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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY
based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …
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1660 – Cardinal Francesco Maria de' Medici, was born in Florence, the son of Grand duke Ferdinando II of Tuscany and Vittoria Della Rovere (d.1711).
In 1683 he was appointed to governor of Siena, a position he maintained until his death. He was the grand prior of the Sovereign Order of Malta in Pisa; Abbot commendatario of S. Galgano, Siena; Abbot commendatario of S. Stefano, Carrara, 1675.
According to a family tradition was promoted to the cardinalate at a young age in 1686. He remained in Florence, in his villa of Lappeggi, devoting himself to a life not really religious, made of amusements and love affairs with men.
He resigned the cardinalate on June 19, 1709 and was named prince of Siena. He then was forced to marry in 1709 Eleonore Luisa Gonzaga, duchess of Guastalla, daughter of Vincenzo Gonzaga, in an attempt to save the dynasty, but they did not have children.
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1746 – Jacques Charles (d.1823) was a French mathematician and inventor, best known for his work with the hydrogen balloon.
Jacques was the only child of his parents. Jacques' education consisted of basic arithmetic , and no science at all. Other than this almost nothing is known about his earlier years.
Late in life Jacques married a creole woman, Julie Françoise Bouchaud des Hérettes, who was 37 years younger than himself. Many historians believe that his marriage was a cover up for his homosexual relationship with the poet, Alphonse de Lamartine.
In 1785 Charles became a professor at the French Académie des Sciences without having any formal science education himself.
Without Charles's contributions, the Hindenburg would not have even existed, so that accident would not have occurred, and we wouldn't have the one-way valve, or at least until someone else came up for the idea after Charles did.
Most notably Jacques Charles is known for the Hydrogen balloon which he built with the Robert Brothers. Jacques originally got the idea for using hydrogen gas as a lifting agent after intensive study of Boyle's Law. Previous to the use of hydrogen gas, hot air was used to make balloons fly.
Charles also is known for the invention of the gas valve, which he used on his hydrogen balloons, the hydrometer, and the reflection goniometer. He improved the heilostat and the arometer. Charles also confirmed Benjamin Franklin's electrical experiments. Charles is also responsible for Charles's Law, but did not publish it. It was published by Joseph Gay-Lussac in 1802, and Joseph named it in Charles's honor, crediting an unpublished work by Jacques Charles.
Jacques Charles outlived his young wife, and later died himself April 7, 1823 in Paris.
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1915 – Roland Barthes (d.1980), a French semanticist, symbolist, and philosopher, like André Gide and Marcel Proust, two of his favorite writers, was somewhat of an outsider. He was Protestant. (France is predominantly Catholic.) He was left-handed. (France is, of course, predominantly right-handed.) He was déclassé. (Barthes's father, a naval officer, died in the First World War, and his mother had to work as a bookbinder.) He was consumptive. (Barthes spent several years in sanatoria.) And he was expatriate. (Barthes spent the 1950s in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, working for cultural services.) He was also, like Proust, (if not like Gide, who saw himself as a pederast), a homosexual.
Barthes's critical writings are best understood in relation to this sexual marginality. Because Barthes sees homosexuality, and for that matter any transgressive and eccentric "perversion," as unclassifiable, he rejects the classification "inversion" as inaccurate—a notion that will come as a surprise to gays and lesbians who see themselves as "inverts."
Oddly enough, Barthes does not reject every gay male stereotype. Barthes rejects sexual inversion, but embraces "tricking" and "cruising," activities that he claims represent true sexual liberation. (Not that they did so for Barthes himself; his autobiographical texts suggest he had an unhappy love life.) Cruising, he writes, is "anti-natural, anti-repetition." It may be that Barthes is simply "protecting" his sexuality here (something he feels all writers do), or at least the macho ("phallocentric") part of his sexuality because whereas sexual inversion feminizes gay men, cruising for tricks is a rather manly (and purportedly desirable) thing to do.
Barthes sees tricking and cruising as desirable in another sense as well. The trick, he writes, "is homogenous to the amorous progression; it is a virtual love, deliberately stopped short on each side, by contract." Likewise, men cruise with "the invincible idea that one will find someone with whom to be in love." Some gays (who cruise for sex, not love) will find these descriptions unrealistic. Barthes, however, feels that sentimentality, in an age such as ours in which love doesn't make too much sense, is essentially—and even nonparadoxically—insignificant.
According to Barthes, "it is Western discourse as such" —discourse that marginalizes and stereotypes gays and lesbians—" that we must now try to break apart."
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1946 – James F. Amos is a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general who served as the 35th Commandant of the Marine Corps. As a Naval Aviator, Amos commanded the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing during the Iraq War in 2003 and 2004. He served as the 31st Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps. He is the first Marine Corps aviator to serve as commandant.
As Commandant, Amos opposed the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding homosexuals openly serving in the U.S. military. After President Obama signed the legislation setting the conditions for repeal, Amos led the Department of Defense in carrying out the will of the nation's civilian leadership. In late November 2011, Amos stated that his opposition to gays openly serving in the military has proven unfounded and said that Marines have embraced the change, describing the repeal as a "non-event."
1947 – A New York appellate court overturns the sodomy conviction of a "man of education and culture" accused by a mentally retarded vagrant, thus showing class bias.
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1958 – Eric Marcus, born in New York City, is an American non-fiction writer. His works are primarily of LGBT interest, including Breaking the Surface, the autobiography of gay Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis, which became a #1 New York Times Bestseller and Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights, 1945-1990, which won the Stonewall Book Award. Other topics he's addressed in his writing include suicide and pessimistic humor.
Marcus received his B.A. from Vassar College in 1980 where he majored in Urban Studies. He earned his Master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1984 and a Master's degree in real estate development in 2003, also from Columbia University. He was an associate producer for Good Morning America and CBS Morning News.
Eric Marcus is the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Senior Director for Loss and Bereavement Programs. He wrote his best-seller Why Suicide? in order to come to terms with his own father's suicide when Eric was twelve years old.
Other popular works include What If Someone I Know Is Gay? Answers to Questions about What It Means to be Gay and Lesbian, and The Male Couple's Guide: Finding a Man, Making a Home, Building a Life.
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1970 – Craig Parker, born in Suva, Fiji, is an actor from New Zealand, known for his roles as Haldir in the films The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Two Towers (2002), Darken Rahl in the television series Legend of the Seeker, Stéphane Narcisse in the CW television series Reign, and Gaius Claudius Glaber in the television series Spartacus.He also serves as narrator for New Zealand documentaries. Parker starred in the TVNZ soap Shortland Street, as Guy Warner, a character that has made several return appearances, most recently involving a story where Guy ran off with his brother's wife, Toni, only to return months later as a drug addled loser who attempted to use his daughter to score drugs for him. It ultimately led to the death storyline of Toni Warner. He is the reigning champion of New Zealand's Celebrity Joker Poker.
Parker first publicly discussed being gay in an interview with New Zealand’s Sunday Herald back in 2008. Regarding his sexuality, the very private Parker told the reporter that as a gay man, he doesn’t care what people say about his sexuality and that:
It’s jut not an issue for me. I just don’t get why an actor would want to reveal their secrets, hopes and fears to a magazine or newspaper. I know what the magazine gets out of it, but not the person. If you are doing publicity to increase your self-confidence then you are really in trouble. It’s important to keep some privacy. Your friends and family are the people you reveal yourself to. They are the ones who should have real access to you. 
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1980 – James Ryan Clabots , best known as Jimmy Clabots, is an American physical therapist, actor, and screenwriter. In 2009 he became a male escort, and retired in 2012. Since 2014 he’s been working as a writer and physical therapist in Los Angeles.
In 2000 he became a model. In 2008 Clabots started his career as an actor in the comedy film Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild!. In 2011 he starred in Showtime's Gigolos, showing male escorts in Las Vegas, but left the show in 2012 when he retired from escorting.
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Clabots is of Cuban and Spanish descent.
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1964 – The first depiction of a same-sex relationship is found in an Egyptian tomb. Nyankh-khnum and Khnum-hotep are discovered buried together side by side. The wall art shows the two men kissing. They were ancient Egyptian royal servants. They shared the title of Overseer of the Manicurists in the Palace of King Nyuserre Ini, sixth pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, reigning during the second half of the 25th century BC. They were buried together at Saqqara and are listed as "royal confidants" in their joint tomb.
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The Embrace of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep
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love-for-carnation · 9 days
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Vase of Flowers with Daffodils, Carnations and Anemones Giovanna Garzoni (1600-1670, Italian)
Giovanna Garzoni was the daughter of Giacomo Garzoni of Venice and Isabetta Gaia of Ascoli, who also had Venetian ancestors. From 1615 to 1630 she lived intermittently in Venice, where she studied with her uncle Pietro Gaia, a student of Jacopo Palma the Younger , and with the calligrapher Giacomo Rogni. In 1622 she married the portrait painter Tiberio Tinelli, from whom she separated the following year. In 1630 she traveled with her brother Matteo to Naples, where she entered the service of the viceroy Fernando Alfán de Ribeira. On the way to Naples she spent some time in Rome, where she came into contact with Cassiano Dal Pozzo. In November 1632, at Christina's request, she came to Turin from France and received a position at the court of Vittorio Amadeo I. She created numerous portraits for the court and her first known still lifes. After Vittorio Amadeo's death she left Turin and probably lived in Paris, possibly also in England. From 1642 she lived as an established artist in Florence and worked particularly for the Medici. Her clients and supporters included Ferdinando II de' Medici, his wife Vittoria della Rovere and Leopoldo de' Medici. Giovanna was at the peak of her popularity at this time, selling many works and becoming somewhat wealthy. In 1651 she settled in Rome, but continued to maintain contact with her clients in Florence. She purchased a house near the Accademia di San Luca, with which she was closely associated. It is unclear whether and when she was formally accepted into the academy, but from 1654 onwards she took part in the members' meetings. In her will of 1666, the childless Garzoni bequeathed her property to the Academy on the condition that a tomb be built for her in the church of Santi Luca e Martina. This tomb was created by Mattia de Rossi in 1698, 28 years after her death.
Giovanna created mainly works in tempera, watercolor and gouache on parchment, in addition to some oil paintings on canvas. Her motifs are portraits, calligraphy and fruit and flower still lifes, and from 1630 increasingly botanical motifs. She developed a characteristic, almost pointillist technique between painting and drawing. In the style of English miniature painting, she placed many tiny dots with a special brush and delicate, dense strokes on the parchment. Her works, based on the still life tradition of Orsola Caccia, Panfilo Nuvolone and Fede Galizia, show fruit and vegetable peels, often combined with flowers, animals or foliage in a simple, symmetrical structure. Her floral still lifes are varied and display an extraordinary wealth of color. From around 1630, Giovanna's pictures show a naturalistic, non-idealized representation of plants and animals that correspond less to contemporary still life painting than to natural history painting in the tradition of Dürer or Leonardo or to the model of Jacopo Ligozzi. Giovanna was obviously knowledgeable in botany and also created illustrations for flower books. Giovanna's other works: http://www.artnet.de/k%C3%BCnstler/giovanna-garzoni/
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