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violetflowerswrites · 7 months

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My Love

Catherine the Great x Leo Voronsky

Summary: Catherine vents out her frustrations about the Russian nobility on her lover, Leo. Pure smut, very little plot, no spoilers. Season 1 of The Great.

Disclaimer: gratuitous swearing, many many F bombs, very crude sexual humor, cannon jokes about beastiality, excessive drinking, consensual oral sex (male and female receiving), p in v sex

Word Count: 1.8k

Author’s Note: I’m a huge fan of historical fiction—the satire and sarcasm in this show is totally my vibe. But I also love how intimate it can get! I love Leo and Catherine and literally cried after I finished season one. Enjoy!

…

“Fucking idiots!”

Catherine the (not yet) Great storms into Leo’s apartment. The light blue fabric of her heavy skirts almost snags the corner of an armchair as she angrily sweeps by.

Leo leans back on a lounge chaise, sketchbook in hand. He wordlessly lifts up a clear glass of vodka that Catherine immediately snatches out of his hand in her tirade about the room.

She gulps the drink in one go and blindly throws the glass in the direction of the tree in the corner of Leo’s quarters. It shatters with a delicate crackle of broken glass.

“I am not a pretty, empty headed jewel for them to jape at as they please. I am a force to be reckoned with!” Catherine shouts, her cheeks and eyes alike inflamed with indignation.

“Shall I propose a toast?” Leo has already produced another glass to replace the one she destroyed.

“You may.” Catherine flops down with an audible exhale of air, still seething in frustration.

“Fuck the court.”

“HAH! Fuck the court indeed.”

They raise their glasses and clink them before unceremoniously shooting back the hard liquor.

“Huzzah!” Catherine shouts sarcastically.

Leo continues sketching a cartoon of Catherine with a large speech bubble that says “Fuck the court!” A quiet giggle escapes his soft lips.

“And what, pray tell, amuses my dear lover?” She settles into the soft cushions of her armchair, the drink and the exertion from her rant relaxing her long, graceful limbs.

“I was just thinking about how you used to be terrified of swearing, thinking us Russians a crude and improper people—which we are, mind you—and yet…”

“And yet here I am, a true Russian, swearing in every sentence I utter.”

“Fuck.”

“Fuck indeed.”

Leo then shows Catherine his cartoon and they dissolve in a fit of giggles.

“You get it now, my love. The world we live in is absolutely fucked so why not laugh a little. I don’t like to see you so upset. Although I have to admit, it does make me wonder…”

“About what?”

“I wonder if you would like to take your frustration out on me? Sexually?” Leo grins at Catherine, eyes twinkling through his mess of dark curls.

“You’re a naughty boy!” She gasps, blushing. The rosyness of her cheeks contrasts prettily with her ivory skin.

“Ooo do tell me more,” Leo winks and offers a hand.

Catherine takes it, and kisses his olive-skinned knuckles.

“My Lord.”

“Empress.”

“Are you inviting me to your bed?”

“No.”

“No?”

“I am inviting you to fuck me, Empress.”

Catherine barks out an unladylike laugh and covers her mouth in surprise at the ugly sound. It makes Leo look at her in amusement all the more.

She clears her throat to recover. “I accept your invitation.” Catherine bends down in a formal curtsy. “Undress me.”

Leo proceeds to undo the laces of the empress’ dress, gently pulling apart the ribbons at the back. He presses his soft lips to the back of her neck, sending a slight shiver down her spine, before turning Catherine around to unbutton the frock. Her breath quickens as Leo’s mere proximity to her milky white bosom makes her skin flush an aroused pink, a phenomenon that does not go unnoticed.

“Empress?” Leo whispers against her chest, his eyes glued to his lover’s beautiful body.

“Yes?” She responds breathlessly.

“Do I have permission to touch you?”

“If you do not touch me this instant, I may have to go to the stables and fuck a horse like all those fools think I did.”

“Then I shall be quite jealous of the noble steed you deem worthy of your pussy.”

The two of them share a wry smile at the ridiculousness of their conversation. But, the moment Leo’s lips press hot, tender kisses to her chest, Catherine’s expression morphs into a pleased moan of desire.

His affections continue across her supple skin as he pulls apart her clothing, revealing her gorgeous feminine form to him once again. Somehow, Catherine’s hands have already removed his tunic and they are now exploring every inch of his handsome chest. She runs her fingers down his curly chest hair, leaving behind the slightest of tingles everywhere she moves. Leo’s breath quickly comes in pants as her touch alights his skin, and his heart, and of course, his cock, on fire.

“Shall we try something?” Leo suggests, an amused smirk barely hiding just how aroused he is.

“What’s that?”

“Come here,” Leo gestures for Catherine to get on top of him as he lies on the bed, and she does, quickly pressing kisses to his soft lips. “Now, turn around.”

“What?”

“Let me taste your pussy, and you can lick my cock. A win-win, don’t you think?”

“Leo, that's quite—oh!” Her sentence is cut off with a gasp, followed by a pleasured groan. Her lover's mouth is now planted firmly inside her pink folds. His chin glistens with her slickness in seconds.

“You were saying, my love?” Leo lifts his head out of her cunt with a wet noise. Catherine slowly loosens her hold on the sheets that she didn’t even know she was gripping with white knuckles.

“Never mind. You may continue.” She acquiesces quickly, her gaze now locked onto the bouncing cock before her. She has only sucked him a few times, thinking it not much to look at, much less taste, but she felt it is only fair that he gets what he’s giving.

So, Catherine widens her jaw and attempts to swallow the thick log down her gullet.

And proceeds to gag immediately.

Leo pauses at once and calls out, “Are you alright?”

“Yes, do not worry!” Her voice betrays some embarrassment.

Leo realizes that she’s trying so hard to please him and it makes his heart melt in love for her all the more. “You don’t have to—“

“Stop. I want to. Just let me try at my own pace.”

Catherine ducks her head down, lips pressing kisses to the pink tip of his cock, the engorged shaft and its criss cross of veins, the heavy ballsack dangling underneath.

Men are truly an odd creature, what with this uncomfortable thing dangling about in their trousers.

Another moan rips her out of her musings, her mind forgetting for a moment that Leo is eating out her pussy as if it is a delicious piece of fruit, perhaps his favorite peaches.

So she relaxes herself and tries again, slowly accepting his length into her mouth, her tongue lapping up the underside of the shaft. A strong, salty smell fills her nostrils as she inhales, trying to suppress her gag reflex.

She hears a guttural groan escape her lover's lips, somewhat muffled by her soft core, but clearly a sound of pleasure nonetheless. Encouraged, she proceeds to suck his cock in more, her cheeks hollowing out as she adds pressure on his member.

Leo gasps and groans underneath her, his hips thrusting upward automatically, chasing his high. In response, Catherine spreads her thighs and settles on top of Leo’s face even more, letting his hot breath tickle her most intimate regions, and his tongue appreciatively pries apart the petals of her pussy.

And then, he finds her pearl.

In seconds, Catherine releases his cock and comes with a scream, her eyes screwed shut and her hands clawing at the bedspread. Her breath comes in messy gasps as her body shudders with the aftershocks of orgasm.

Leo calmly sits up as she crumples into a spent heap on the mattress.

“Well, that was nice.” He quips nonchalantly.

“More.” The word barely audible through her heady pants.

“What was that?” Leo smiles, his own breath unsteady, betraying how aroused he is behind his causal grin.

“I need more.” Catherine locks eyes with him fiercely, like a lioness staring down her prey.

“Of course.”

Catherine climbs atop his lap, his still erect cock pressed against her soft belly, and she devours her lover’s mouth ferociously. They exchange tongue and saliva and breath in a duel of passion, their lips interlocking as if they could never kiss each other again.

Catherine breaks for air first, her tender breasts rising and falling rapidly. Leo seizes the opportunity to suck her sensitive pink nipples into his hot mouth, eliciting a shout from her lips.

“Oh god—!”

“God should probably turn his eyes away right now, don’t you think?”

“Leo—mmph!— you never stop joking, do you?”

“I’m just here for the ride,” he laughs and Catherine joins him, her voice ringing across the room.

“Shall I, then?”

“With what?”

“Ride you.”

“If it pleases you, Empress.”

Catherine squeals with unbridled enthusiasm and quickly aims Leo’s cock straight for her pussy. She smiles into another kiss at the same time she sinks onto his length.

“Mmph!”

Leo’s moan is swallowed by her lips, just as her cunt swallows his cock. Her sunlight blonde hair cascades in waves around their faces, as if a private curtain hides the two of them from the harsh reality of the world around them. Her warm, wet inner walls squeeze him as he grips the flesh of her hips in ecstasy. In response, Catherine locks her hands behind his neck and into his dark curls and starts to bounce her plush ass onto his lap.

“Oh! Oh! Yes!” Her voice comes out in high-pitched yelps that can surely be heard by the guards standing outside their doors.

To his credit, Leo is no quiet lover either. His relentless groans reveal just how much he enjoys being ridden by the Empress of Russia.

She pauses to catch her breath, rolling so that her clit rubs against his hard body. Leo marvels at her shameless chase of carnal joy, and quickly sucks his fingers wet and finds her sensitive nub between their connected bodies.

“Leo!” Catherine grits out his name and catches his hand, her fingernails digging into his wrist. His mind goes wild with equal parts pleasure and pain and he doubles down, rubbing even faster.

He thrusts upward to match her eager rhythm, which only serves to make Catherine scream louder.

“Fuck!”

“Yes, my love! Give it to me!” Leo encourages, his girth stretching her deliciously. She can feel him bottoming out, his length completely disappearing inside her with every bounce.

“Ohhhhh!” A particularly violent push elicits a long moan from the empress, her orgasm apparent to her lover underneath her. He can feel the throbbing of her cunt squeezing his cock, and he cums inside with an equally long exclamation.

Completely spent, they both roll onto their sides, facing one another with silken sheets covering their sweat-soaked, heat-driven bodies.

She sighs contentedly, her face adoringly searching his.

“I do love it when you call me that.”

“Hmm?”

“Empress.”

“That is who you are, is it not?”

“Indeed. But perhaps I like it more when you call me something else.”

“And what’s that?”

“ ‘my love’ “

Leo melts instantly and presses a soft kiss to her lips.

“My love. I’ll follow you forever.”

“Even if I make a fool of myself?”

“Oh, especially then.” Leo smiles with good humor, and quickly adds on, “my love.”

“I love you.” Catherine whispers, her gaze soft and pure with emotion.

Leo simply kisses her forehead and holds her tightly to the warmth of his beating heart. A heart that beats only for his love.

…

#the great #Catherine the Great #Catherine x Leo #the great fic #the great smut #the great imagines #Catherine the Great fic #Catherine the Great smut #Leo #Leo Voronsky

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ladystrallan · 3 months

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The weird way The Great frames infidelity

The Great is a show which portrays many extramarital relationships. However, it is quite inconsistent with the way in which they are framed by the narrative. This portrayal results in a strange theme of ‘cheating is okay if you don’t love your spouse’. Let’s look at all of the affairs in the show and how they are framed:

1. Catherine and Leo: this affair is consensual from all sides until it isn’t. Peter is the one who sets up Catherine and Leo, who she ends up falling in love with. Peter only starts to have a problem with this relationship once he falls in love with Catherine, and we all know how that ends. Catherine is not portrayed as in the wrong for cheating, because her marriage to Peter is loveless and he is a horrible person in season 1. Additionally, Peter is also not framed as bad for being jealous, only for killing Leo.

2. Peter and George: the most fucked up relationship in the show. Both are married; George to Grigor who she does love, and Peter to Catherine who he doesn’t love (at first). It is also pretty evident that their relationship started long before Peter married Catherine. There is an obvious power imbalance here. Peter is the absolute ruler of the country and George is his subject. No matter how ambiguous the question of consent is, he could absolutely have her killed if he wanted to. A lot of people forget how volatile and absolutely cutthroat Peter was in season 1. Catherine is hurt when Peter invites her into a threesome with George, but his infidelity largely doesn’t matter after she decides she doesn’t love him. Peter cheating on his wife is pretty much not a big problem at all and just adds to reasons why he is a ‘bad person’ in season 1. There is also a second element that makes this affair ‘worse’. George’s husband is Peter’s best friend. We see just how distraught Grigor is about this affair, finally snapping and trying to kill Peter. George is framed as an ‘evil whore’ for cheating on her husband with his best friend, while no one mentions how Peter is fucking his best friend’s wife. Peter is the emperor of Russia. He literally could have chosen anyone to be his mistress and he chose his best friend’s wife. Additionally, in the 18th century ‘mistress of the king’ was a legitimate position and one of the only ways for women to improve their position in court. She also makes many references to how she only does this to keep her (and Grigor’s) position in court. (See scenes from s1e5 and s1e9)

3. Peter and Joanna: this one is also a mess. Joanna is obviously framed as bad for trying to seduce her daughter’s husband. Peter is framed as in the wrong— but there is a bit of ‘he couldn’t help himself because Joanna seduced him’— but mostly because of who he cheated with. It’s not that big of a deal that he cheated, it’s bad because he fucked her mother. (And then she fell out the window and died and he covered it up)

4. Grigor and Marial: Similarly to Catherine and Leo, this relationship is also ‘person finds true love outside of their evil spouse’ except George was not an abusive murderous tyrant, but that’s besides the point. This affair is framed as very triumphant for Grigor; he has finally escaped his toxic marriage! Even though his relationship with Marial is very toxic. She is constantly rude to him, lies to him, hates his friends, not to mention how she treats him after Peter’s death. She wants to be the only person in his life. When George returns from France to find that her husband has left her for another woman, she is justifiably upset but is framed by the narrative as in the wrong even though she does nothing to break up Grigor and Marial. Marial is also married to Maxim but he’s 11 so it doesn’t really matter, and the fact that he is upset about her infidelity is played for laughs more than anything.

Honorable mentions:

- Hugo and Agnes: they both make passes at other people but are both always in on it

- Catherine and the American ambassador: it’s fine because she does it to get back at Peter for fucking her mother

- Peter’s countless hookups: don’t matter because they mostly happen when he and Catherine are not in love

- Tatyana and Arkady: Arkady gets really defensive at the idea of Tatyana doing anything with Peter, but she wants to take George’s place as his mistress. This is pretty evident when they think Pugachev is Peter and Tatyana is desperately trying to fuck him. It doesn’t amount to much of anything

When you look at all these relationships and how they are framed, one thing stands out. The only person who is vilified for cheating is George. Even though the dynamic between her, Peter, and Grigor is super complex, the one takeaway the narrative and most people in the fandom get is ‘George is an evil slut’. Even when she gets her ‘punishment’ and loses Peter, Grigor, and some of her standing in court, it’s still not enough and people want her dead. The theme turns out to be ‘cheating is only bad if you’re George’.

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g-l-o-w-y-l-i-g-h-t-s · 8 months

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Unpopular take I guess but it's weird to me how many fans of The Great don't recognize Catherine's abuse of Leo. Like...she straight up lies to him and says "Peter" is keeping him captive. He's been threatened very thoroughly to do whatever she wants and she takes full advantage of that. Even when her lie comes out she straight up tells him "sorry, I'm not going to let you go." And he goes "yeah I'm probably gonna end up dead huh?" And then, what do you know, she goes and gets him killed in the process. I mean she was blatantly just continuing the cycle of abuse, taking out Peter's treatment of her on Leo. And Leo had like...pretty obvious Stockholm Syndrome type issues? Like...Don't get me wrong Catherine is a GREAT CHARACTER (pun intended) but it's very weird and off-putting to me that some of y'all seem to think she's a good PERSON or that she somehow didn't abuse Leo/that she has some kind of moral high ground over Leo because he *checks notes* acted out for attention. Like, he'd be well within his rights to kill her tbfh. This is a show about awful people, Catherine included, and that's what makes it fun. Let's not pretend. She strung along her rape victim into a situation that got him killed. That is a canon thing that happened.

#the great #catherine the great #Leo the great #Leo #Leo x Catherine #Catherine x Leo

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friendszy · 2 years

Video

❝i will haunt you❞

❝promise it❞

the great (2020- )

ac: adoraudios on instagram

#tv #the great #the great hulu #elle fanning #sebastian de souza #relationships #catherine and leo #ship #sad #love #mitski #mine #video #video edit #edit #catherine x leo

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bunthebunarts · 1 year

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i wonder whos child this is 👀

#bun arts #doodles #digital art #wip post #tmnt oc #oc: catherine hamato #rottmnt oc #line art #minimal color #tmnt next gen #implied rottmnt leo x oc #cobalt and jadeite

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thedefinitionofendgame · 2 years

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18.16 grey’s anatomy *spoilers* reactions/opinions:

I literally forgot what happened last episode on Grey's ☠️ so sorry if I'm a bit confused at first

Leo's pink cowgirl outfit is very cute. I hope that Teddy and Owen will be supportive of Leo moving forward no matter what Leo identifies as

oh Winston's brother is still here

we support Jo and Todd!

yikes Grey's really got right to business with a case...of someone's arm not attached to their body

Link stop being annoying jesus christ

"hell of a first surgery back" Owen you are very correct

I love seeing Levi back at work :)

Meredith vs Richard is making me chuckle

"we're all adults here, let's act like it" I never thought Addison would've said that after watching s2 lol 😂

why is Jo going BACK to general surgery? nooo

I love that everyone's dead!

you can totally wing Leo's future...she states she's a girl, so let her be a girl. if it changes (and it doesn't have to!) then just make the change. love is all Leo needs

no they're sending Dr. Wright back to Minnesota 😭 I actually liked that guy

oh shit they lost the baby

Winston does not have to help you sir...back off

"if Leo says he's a girl, I'm going to believe him" god yes Owen go you!

Catherine Avery annoys me so much sometimes. always has actually

Levi is such a sweet soul. I've really appreciated him the second half of this season

the boys supporting Jo is what I need. & Todd making a cute analogy was perfect

Schmico is hurting

Nick tried to do the right thing imo. I understand how overwhelmed Meredith is but Nick was actually trying to help lol

#grey's anatomy spoilers #grey's anatomy season 18 #leo hunt #towen #owen hunt #teddy altman #jo x todd #levi schmitt #schmico #jo wilson #meredith grey #richard webber #winston ndugu #catherine avery #nick marsh #mernick #grey's anatomy #the definition of endgame

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uwmspeccoll · 9 months

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Milestone Monday

On this date, August 31 in 1535, King Henry VIII of England was excommunicated from the church by Pope Paul III. This was the culmination of a long series of conflicts and actions stemming from the king's desire to have his marriage to his first wife Catherine of Aragon annulled, which the previous Pope Clement VII opposed. This eventually led to a schism with the church in Rome and several excommunication proclamations by both Clement and Paul. Henry's confirmation as the Supreme Head of the Church of England in 1534, and then his execution of Bishop John Fisher in June of 1535, followed in July by the execution of Sir Thomas More, precipitated Paul III's excommunication order of August 31. On 17 December 1538 Pope Paul III issued a further bull renewing the execution of the August 31 bull, which had been suspended in a cautious hope Henry would repeal his behavior.

Henry was not always on the outs with Rome, and was in fact once considered a contemporary pillar of the church. In the early part of his reign, Henry was a devout and well-informed Catholic to the extent that his 1521 publication Assertio Septem Sacramentorum ("Defence of the Seven Sacraments") earned him the title of Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith) from Pope Leo X. One testament to his early piety might be seen in his probable ownership of this Book of Hours, known as The Hours of Henry VIII executed by the French miniature painter and manuscript illuminator Jean Poyet sometime between 1500 and 1503, and currently held by the Morgan Library in New York City. The images shown here are from "the Library's first monograph devoted to the oeuvre of a single illuminator," published by George Brazillier in 2000. Click on the Alt description of each image to view the titles.

View more Milestone Monday posts.

#Milestone Monday #milestones #Henry VIII #excommunication #Pope Paul III #The Hours of Henry VIII #Jean Poyet #Book of Hours #devotional art #illuminated manuscripts #Morgan Library #George Brazillier

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fideidefenswhore · 2 months

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In the years following her death, Anne had few defenders. One of them, though, was Étienne Dolet, former French embassy secretary in Venice and practically minded commentator on diplomacy. In 1538, he published an epitaph for the queen ‘falsely condemned of adultery’. The news of Anne’s arrest travelled rapidly south through Europe. It must have been a shock to the men who had toiled for six years to achieve her marriage to Henry, but then political conspiracies and swift executions were far from rare in Rome. Barely twenty years earlier, Cardinal Petrucci had been secretly strangled and his servants publicly hanged, drawn and quartered over claims they had conspired to kill Pope Leo X. Gregorio Casali’s guardian, Cardinal Riario, had been accused of complicity in their plot. On 24 May, as yet unaware of Anne Boleyn’s execution, Gregorio wrote to Richard Pate to ask what he knew or thought of the news of her arrest. Many in Rome who had seen Henry’s obsession with Anne as a temporary madness thought that her fall signified a means to open discussions with the king.

The Divorce of Henry VIII: the Untold Story, Catherine Fletcher

#yeah this was...big-time missing from BE #that there was any skepticism about the charges or anne's (legally proved; as it were) guilt at all)#anne boleyn #catherine fletcher

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lunarproject · 4 months

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commission info!

hi, i'm kay! i'm an english BA & creative writing MA graduate who is opening fic & poetry commissions via my kofi! i have a few different tiers:

fics/original prose is priced at the following: 200 words - £20 1000 words - £50 2000 words - £100 5000 words - £150 (please message me regarding any alternative lengths)

poetry is priced as below: short form (2-3 stanzas/one prose paragraph) - £10 long form (4+ stanzas/two prose paragraphs) - £20 (please note that rhyme schemes are an additional £5)

please send a message with any questions or requests; i'll do my best to accommodate!! see below for extra information.

if you do not see anything on this list, please ask about it! i probably haven't thought of it lol. feel free to message regarding anything i will write with limitations too. please see here for fandoms/ships i will not write for.

here are some things i am happy to write:

prose, poetry, lgbt content (especially sapphics!), romantic ships, platonic & familial relationships, horror, mild gore, smut (with limitations), kink (with limitations), fics with your ocs (includes oc/canon), self-insert (not x reader, sfw only), any pov, letters from a fictional other (sfw only), mecha (sfw only), fantasy/sci-fi, monster of the week concepts (includes original monsters), vampires, werewolves (sfw only), genderbends (trans headcanons, cis-swaps - please specify), historical fiction (with limitations), fics based on songs/albums, age gaps (adult/adult only), mild violence, angst, dubcon (nothing too intense though), characters from media i don't know (please provide info!!), polyam ships, AUs, crossovers, pregnancy (sfw only)

things i will not write:

incest, underage smut, adult/minor ships, noncon, suicide, dead dove, smut for minors, aging up minors for smut, zoophilia, rpf, hard gore, hardcore kink (please ask if you need clarification), furries, mecha nsfw, x reader, nsfw self insert, hard violence, major character death, over 1000 words, multi-chapter (with exceptions), human/non-human (excluding vampires), omegaverse, zombies, prison aus, royalty aus, sex worker aus, slavery aus

some fandoms i will write for:

yugioh (duel monsters, gx, 5ds, zexal), the x files (seasons 1-3), death note, doctor who (seasons 1-4 of reboot), superstore, how i met your mother, madoka magica, fire emblem (sacred stones, awakening, fates), legend of zelda (botw/totk), marvel (mcu up to phase 3, + dsmom & wandavision), howl's moving castle (studio ghibli movie), classic literature (rebecca, wuthering heights, sherlock holmes), pokemon (most familiar with gens 1 + 5 and original anime run), avatar (atla), twilight, five nights at freddys (no ships), sabrina the teenage witch (seasons 1/2), stardew valley, + more as i think of it

ships i enjoy writing:

my faithshipping, mulderscully, doctorrose, lawlight, gx rivalshipping, matsuda/misa, peachshipping, violetshipping, scoopshipping, amy/jonah, lily/marshall, barney/robin, zelink, howl/sophie, chrom/robin, chrom/frederick, bella/alice, leo/takumi, bella/rosalie, bella/edward, ironstrange, stevetony, peppernat, tonynat, pepperony, palmerstrange, homura/madoka, frostiron, strangefrost, wandavision, doctor/jack/rose, misa/rem, doctor/jack, matsuda/light, mello/matt, gameshipping, mastershipping, fianceshipping, chaseshipping, puzzleshipping, thiefshipping, sherlock holmes/professor moriarty, dragonshipping, wishshipping, heathcliff/catherine earnshaw, edward/jacob, katara/zuko, katara/aang, sokka/zuko, + more as i think of them

#writblr #commissions open #writing commissions #writers of tumblr #comm info #poetry commissions #poetblr #poets of tumblr #my commission info

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valeskafics · 7 months

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besties i have my first big assignment due for law school tomorrow so i'll only be posting one long-ish oneshot today but!!! i think y'all will like it 🤭❤️

aegon x reader x aemond

based on the great

aegon as peter, reader as catherine, aemond as orlo (but they succin n fuccin like she did with leo)

#update

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histoireettralala · 11 months

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Childhood experience and Identity: Catherine de Medici

Catherine de Medici [..] had wed not the dauphin, but his younger brother. A ritual change of clothes did not greet her, but other actions asserted her outsider status. Take, for example, Mary Stuart's branding her mother-in-law a "marchande Florentine", insinuating that she came from a much lower status family than the Stuarts or Valois. This pronouncement may have been effective courtly posturing on Mary Stuart's part, suggesting as well that Catherine's prior experience would in and of itself be irrelevant. The insult depends, however, upon a selective look at kinship. True, Catherine's father was a Medici and she was the first of her family to be born to an ennobled male; but she was not royal and the dukedom was of recent creation. Her mother, however, was a French princess, descended on the Bourbon line from Louis IX, and Mary Stuart was, in fact, related to her mother-in-law.

Catherine's extraordinarily unsettled early life has compounded the view that she arrived in France a virtual tabula rasa. She was orphaned within two weeks of her birth and, while under the official guardianship of highly placed male relatives, raised in Rome and Florence by a series of female relatives and nuns. Catherine would have been aware of her bilateral descent from an early age. Motivated more by concern for her property than for her welfare, Francis I proposed that she be reared at the French court; Leo X's refusal acknowledged her potential importance to the Medici. Her childhood coincided with her family's rise to papal status and nobility, with concomitant mythmaking via various cultural forms. While we usually consider the primary audience for images of power to be those who need to be impressed, I contend that, in part, Catherine learned about who she was from precisely those materials manufactured expressly to create "identity". New dynasties may have more work to do in affirming legitimacy, but, in fact, every ruler must affix his or her person to his or her position and many young royals experienced challenging childhoods and flexible notions of family. Death in childbirth meant that they often grew up with stepmothers; many were removed entirely from parents, placed under the care of offical guardians and reared in the company of half siblings, royal bastards, future spouses and cousins (some of whom might be foreign). Given these conditions, it was extremely important for the young members of ruling families to learn their dynastic identities at an early age.

Many situations that Catherine would face in France over her fifty-six years there had, in fact, occured to her in Italy by age fourteen. She had exposure to courtly life and ceremony, to composite families (including the presence and promotion of illegitimate children), to widows looking out for the interests of their sons, to objections to female rule, to factional strife, to the problem of having only young boys representing the family's future and to dynastic worries. At the end of her life, in fact, Catherine watched a rerun of the Medici experience of her childhood. Valois hopes for dynastic survival diminished when none of Catherine's legitimate grandsons survived and the crown seemed destined to shift to a collateral branch. As each new situation presented itself, Catherine improvised, as had her relatives during her childhood.

Sheila ffolliott - The Italian Training of Catherine de Medici: Portraits as Dynastic Narrative

#xvi #sheila ffolliott #the italian training of catherine de medici: portraits as dynastic narrative #catherine de médicis #queens of france #marie stuart

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violetflowerswrites · 7 months

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Finally posted a fic a wrote a while back for Catherine the Great!

Some excellent gifs that didn’t make it in but make my heart go 🥹

And a favorite:

#the great #the great smut #the great imagines #the great fic #catherine the great #leo voronsky #the great gifs #catherine x leo

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tilbageidanmark · 11 months

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Movies I watched this Week #123 (Year 3/Week 19):

When thinking of Ozu, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Refined domestic dramas, tatami shots, chrysanthemums flowers - or fart jokes? ... Good morning, my 5th film by Yasujirō Ozu, is apparently one of the few films he directed that is not about old people but about children.

A gentle and delightful comedy about two boys who refuse to speak until their parents buy a television set, it is full with ‘Pull my finger’ (rather ‘Touch on my forehead’) moments. With Ozu's favourite actor Chishū Ryū. 8/10.

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Let him go, a wonderful discovery by a Thomas Bezucha, a director previously-unknown (to me). A moving, and slow-moving, neo-Western that turns 180 degrees for the third act. Salt of the earth, retired sheriff Kevin Kostner and taciturn wife Diane Lane grieve after the death of their son, then try to rescue their only grandson from some unsavory hillbillies. A tense story about loss. 8/10.

There are some magnetic and gorgeous actresses I am completely attracted to. Beside Diane Lane, there are Léa Seydoux, Maggie Cheung, Catherine Deneuve, Charlize Theron, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Isabelle Huppert, Anna Kendrick, La Binoche, Etc.

So I’m going next to watch Lane’s two 1983 back-to-back Coppola films, ‘The Outsiders’ and ‘Rumble fish’.

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First watch: The ruthless, brutal City of God, a Brazilian ‘Goodfellas’, but worst, not as funny, and so much bloodier and grittier. I was reluctant to watch it for a long time and for a good reason. Merciless crimes in the favelas, cruel, senseless killings committed by children, the poorest of the poor, and based on a true story.

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Lianna, my first relationship drama by independent director John Sayles, picked randomly from a list. An honest exposition about a vulnerable woman [who’s married to a prick named ‘Dick’!] and a mother of two who suddenly realizes that she’s a lesbian. She comes out, sans heroism, and faces the difficult and lonely struggles of being herself. Hard to imagine that it was written (so well) by a man, and in 1983.

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‘Meet me at the top of the Empire State Building in 3 months’ X 3:

🍿 Re-watch: Warren Beatty and Annette Bening’s Love Affair is broadly panned as one of the worst remakes ever made, but for me it’s one of my favorite romances. I love everything about it, from Ennio Morricone’s theme (which did tend to repeat itself again and again, but was glorious) to the sappy chemistry between the two lovers, and to this being Katharine Hepburn’s final role. 9/10.

🍿 It was based on Leo McCarey’s 1939 original Love Affair with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. But I found it a stiff and slow tearjerker in spite of its pedigree - "If you can paint, I can walk".

🍿 Leo McCarey’s own remake, the 1957 An Affair to remember, with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr was better (because it was newer?). Still I prefer the later Beatty-Bening version.

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The Novelist’s Film, my 10th art film by the always-the-same Korean naval-gazer Hong Sang-soo. Two women, one a prolific writer who all of a sudden can’t find the energy to write, and the other pretty actress Kim Min-hee who doesn’t want to work any more, meet randomly during a walk in the park, and on the spot decide to make a film together. As usual in his movies, the whole concept is but a series of mundane conversations, usually over coffee and drinks (this time over Makgeolli rice wine) which eventually adds up to a small and subtle epiphany. 7/10.

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Sapphire, my third by forgotten British director Basil Dearden. While it’s not as compelling as the first two groundbreaking films of his that I saw (‘Victim’ and ‘All night long’), this murder mystery again dealt with a social problem of the day, one not usually explored on film. This time it was bigotry and racial discrimination, and it did so openly and honestly.

How is Dearden not better appreciated today?

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Dogtooth, my third uncomfortable art film by Yorgos Lanthimos (after ‘The killing of a sacred deer’ and ‘The lobster’). A weird, freaky and perverse metaphor for fascism, or at least for the cult of the patriarchy. A Fritzl-like story about a father who isolates his three adult children in the family compound and keeps them home-schooled and emotionally stunted. Unpleasant and joyless.

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“I've known you for all of two mins & already I don't like you...”

Midnight Run, my 3rd re-watch in 3 years (and possibly my 20th re-watch in 20 years...), one of my all-time favorite movies, a perfect comedy-action buddy-cop with a heart. Best roles for (newly father of 7) Robert de Nero, as well as for FBI Special Agent Alonzo Mosely, Dennis Farina, Joe Pantoliano, and a fantastic Danny Elfman score. 10/10 again (and again).

Strangely enough, this brilliant script and impeccable dialogue were written by one prolific George Gallo, who also wrote 27 other scripts and directed 21 movies none of which I ever heard of. And most all his other movies have between ZERO to 30 ‘Rotten Tomato Scores’!

(Photo Above).

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William Wyler’s 1966 How to Steal a Million. The idea of seeing Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole [whose names, both first and last, are euphemisms for 'Cock'] in a light romantic comedy is irresistible. But the movie itself was a big letdown: All style and no substance. 2/10.

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2 counties:

🍿 "Here I was for the first time in my life having a nice peaceful time and you had to come and spoil it".

County hospital, a 1932 Laurel and Hardy 2-reeler, simple and not too slapsticky. What a strange relationship these two “friends” had...

🍿 I used to lived in Anaheim Hills & Yorba Linda, CA when the third-rate teen ‘comedy’ Orange County premiered, but I only tried to see it now for the first time. Sadly, I couldn't stand this superficial and Clichéd low-brow piece of nepotism, just like (many of) the people who used to live there, and I had to click it off after 15 torturous minutes. 1/10

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I got talked into watching Saul Goodman’s violent action flick Nobody again. It’s still generic and unoriginal, and I hope they never do a sequel. 4/10.

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Moviewise is a YouTube channel offering interesting film essays by a guy with a deep voice and a strange accent who often gives reactionary /masculine analyses. Last week I saw his ‘The camera and the mirror, a love story’. Here are some that I saw this week:

Why ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ has no ending *

How to Immediately Identify a Great Director *

What is the Encyclopedic Film genre *

Why ‘All about Eve’ is a perfect screenplay *

Why ‘Jeanne Dielman 23, Quai du Commerce’ is boring and does not deserve to be called ‘World’s Best film’ *

How are “Puzzle film” different from surreal ones *

Breaking down film dialogue into the ‘Practical’ and the ‘Analytical’ *

Why Succession’s Logan Roy Always Wins *

But he’s also funny sometimes, as he is in A Guide for Analyzing Movies.

Many more inside. In spite of his endocentric chauvinism, his readings are still worth the watch.

And talking of Succession, I’m looking forward to bingeing on Season 4 at the end of May, when it’s all done.

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3 shorts:

🍿 Of course I know about them, but I never actually seen any ‘Star Wars’ or JRR Tolkien movies. Caleb Ward used Midjourney AI tools to create two fictional trailers for alternative films directed by Wes Anderson, one for Star Wars, and another for Lord of the Rings: Cute.

🍿 In the end, what it felt like to almost die. A woman tells the story what she experienced when she had a massive pulmonary embolism.

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(My complete movie list is here)

#movies

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