#but was not a provincial king himself

[starboyshoyo]

Tropes-To-Lovers

Characters: All NRC boys x fem!reader (seperately)

Fandom: Twisted Wonderland

Genre: fluff

What were you to the NRC boys, before you were lovers?

Includes: Childhood friends to lovers, best friends to lovers, strangers to lovers, enemies to lovers, exes to lovers.

Childhood Friends to Lovers

Trey Clover the boy next door

Everyone and their mother knows Trey Clover, the golden boy in your little provincial town. Sweet, intelligent, and he can bake? He’s a heartthrob in every definition of the word. But Trey’s only ever had eyes for you, his parents’ best friends’ daughter and the girl next door.

Joined at the hip from the moment you met, you’ve done it all together- but Trey’s been away at NRC for three years. You were sure he would move to the city after getting a taste of the wider world. So you’re caught off-guard when he returns to take over his family’s bakery, eight inches taller than you remember.

His eyes crinkle at the corners when he sees you, and you can feel the firmness of muscles under his shirt when you launch yourself at him, embracing him tightly. He has to bend down to hug you now, you realize. And his face is sharper now, jaw angular instead of the soft cheeks you were used to. When did that happen?

And when did he get so handsome?

Leona Kingscholar betrothed to his brother

Leona has only ever had one friend- you, the heir from the neighboring kingdom. It shouldn’t be a problem to love you the way he does, but the stars in the sky had other plans, it seemed. Because from the moment you were born, you were meant to marry Falena.

Leona has long-since learned that no matter what he does, he’ll never be enough to win the public’s love. It didn’t matter that he knew you never had feelings for Falena, or that Falena was seeing someone else in secret. His brother will be king, not him. He’ll watch you walk down the aisle towards him, and then he’ll go back to his room and take a nap, and tell himself that he won’t be upset. That’s just the way life will be.

One day, while napping behind a curtain in the royal library, he catches wind of something so very interesting. Your parents arrived in the kingdom that morning, bearing news: Falena’s engagement has been peaceably broken, by your own choice, nonetheless. It’s a huge, life-changing decision and so a formal dinner is being held, to re-discuss the terms of the treaty. Leona wants to snap you up right away to be his, but he has to bide his time. For now, he’ll meet your eye across the banquet table, scowl softening a little. He should have known that he has always been king in your heart.

Silver childhood soulmates

Right person, right place, right time. Rarely did the universe ever align so beautifully. From your first meeting at the tender age of five to the time you were accepted into NRC, Silver has always been by your side.

He’s the first thing you see when you wake up in the mornings and the final good night you say before going to sleep. When small birds land on your desk and deposit gifts of acorns and flowers to you, you know exactly who they were from and who was thinking of you at the moment. And when you look at your handsome knight, you can’t help but imagine him by your side, every step of the way for the rest of your life.

Silver is more than just your best friend and first love. He is your person, through and through.

Best Friends to Lovers

Epel Felmier first friend, first love

You met Epel on the first day of school, getting beat up by a blonde upperclassman in the hallway. Much to the surprise of both boys, you jumped in to help him- pulling him off the ground and scolding the taller boy, who merely scoffed and wandered off. Though Epel’s ego was a bit bruised, he was grateful to you for helping him.

Epel became your constant companion after that. You could listen to him talk for hours while laying on the floor of your dorm room, a bag of apple chips in hand. His roguish accent and mischievous jokes charm you a little more each day, making him more than just the rough-hewn boy you met at the entrance ceremony not long ago.

His grandparents know all about you from the letters he sends home. Even in ink, they can sense his lovestruck heart. They had felt the same way when they started courting all those years ago. The Felmier family are fools in love, it seems. You would call him your best friend if someone asked, but Epel wants to be so much more.

Ace Trappola best friends to lovers

It’s pathetic how fast Ace changed his tune. The first time he met you, he was jeering you for being a magicless human. Now, he’s in love with you? When did that happen? And why did it have to be with you of all people?

Ace isn’t fooling himself. He knows why it’s you. It’s simply because no one could ever capture his heart the same way you do, with your smiles and your laughs and the way you look at him in both disapproval and exasperated fondness when he makes a crude joke.

Don’t act surprised when he holds your hand out of the blue or when he searches your face with those eyes, wondering what it would feel like to kiss you silly right then and there. He wants you, not anyone else, and it’s driving him crazy.

Kalim Al-Asim what are we?

Everyone thinks you and Kalim are dating already. You joke about it all the time. Oh, yeah, we’re partners in crime! Soulmates! Two sides of the same coin- but the line between teasing and reality has begun to blur. Once, you even made a jibe that you’d marry him one day, and Kalim got you an actual ring! It was so extravagant- a ruby inlaid with smaller gilded gems along the edges. He told you it was a family treasure, kept in the storerooms of Scarabia and just waiting to adorn the hand of the right person.

You tried to refuse, but he insisted. Money wasn’t something the Al-Asim heir ever had to worry about. So you go along with it, the golden band rubbing between your fingers and his when you walk down the halls, hands interlaced.

How does Kalim really feel about you? You’re not sure, so one day you ask- Kalim, what are we?

He looks at you curiously. “Aren’t we engaged?”

Strangers to Lovers

Deuce Spade the hallway crush

Every day between alchemy and history of magic, Deuce finds himself scanning faces in the hallway for someone who makes his face flush and his palms turn sweaty. And every day when you catch his eye and send him a wave, he finds himself tangled up a little more in his heartstrings, tripping over his feet as he tries to return your greeting.

He’s not sure when he first noticed you. Maybe it was when he fumbled and nearly dropped a potion on the carpet, and you caught it. His heart did flutter a bit then, but maybe that was because he nearly messed up the project he had been working on all night. He wants to talk to you again so badly- more than just a ‘hello‘ or a ‘thanks.’ He wants to brighten up your day just by walking by, like you do for him. Maybe if he becomes an honors student, then you’ll finally notice him too.

Jack Howl the mysterious savior

Being hounded by a group of rogue students wasn’t in your plans for the day. Trying to slip between the mob, avoiding their prying hands and sharp words, a sudden growl makes them all look up. A tall boy with wolflike ears towers over them.

Leave them alone. His voice is sharp, like a dog's canines. Golden eyes meet yours, steely and cold, but they soften for a moment when you manage to say thank you.

Your savior rubs the back of his neck. ‘S nothing, he says gruffly, but the lingering traces of blush on his face tell a different story. Only when he leaves do you realize that you had never gotten his name. Perhaps fate will lead you to meet once again, in the near future.

Azul Ashengrotto love at first sight

One minute he’s discussing the best way to mix a potion with his lab partner. The next, he’s sitting straight in his chair, eyes blown wide when you walk into the room. You’ve ensnared Azul Ashengrotto’s attention and heart without a single word. And when you finally say hi to him, ignorant of his shady dealings and strange company, he’s caught- hook, line, and sinker.

Azul begins to do things for you. Not in the way he does for others, with a flourish of his pen and a snap of his fingers. No, you’re special. He could never ask anything of you.

It’s so obvious, the way he favors you and gives you the best of everything he has. But he can’t bring himself to care- not when this new feeling brings him such happiness.

Idia Shroud closer than he thought

Idia Shroud has never met you irl. No way. All you are to him is a profile picture on a leaderboard, telling him to dodge the next attack or that he’ll never beat you in the latest game the two of you are playing. You make his gloomy days a little brighter. And when they’re brighter, he finally takes a chance to step outside for a bit and go to class.

In class is where he met you. His charming desk partner, whose presence he enjoyed far more than he thought he would. He likes your jokes. He likes that you play the same games as him and nerd out about the same topics. But when he returns to the world of online anonymity, he can’t help but feel disloyal- so much so that he doesn’t notice the lilt of the voice in his speakers is the same one that rings in his ears when he falls asleep in class.

Malleus Draconia love from afar

No one knows who you are, a mere human who attends NRC. You could be dangerous as far as his retainers know. Malleus isn’t supposed to speak with you- but oh, does he want to.

He’s tried to ignore the pull towards you, but he just can’t. Why is this mere child of man lingering in his thoughts, ensnaring his every waking moment?

One night when Sebek is busy berating Silver for falling asleep on the job, he sneaks away and finds you beneath the moonlight, staring up at the stars. He’s caught like a fly in a web from the first hello.

Enemies to Lovers

Riddle Rosehearts academic rivals

He’s so annoying. With a loud voice, short stature, and short temper, you could consider Riddle Rosehearts to always be underfoot. But even you have to admire his academic prowess, his name topping the scores at every turn. And just under him, is you. How very frustrating.

You’re so focused on one-upping one another that you don’t even catch yourself when thoughts of him wander into your mind throughout the day. Of course you think of him, you’re trying to beat him. But slowly the competition turns into wondering. What does he do in his free time? What’s his favorite food, his favorite color?

Little do you know, he thinks of you too.

Ruggie Bucchi the goodhearted thief

You heard from your neighbors about the slum thief who steals things from their shops. It’s only a matter of time before he comes to you next, they warn, so be ready.

And ready you are. When a skinny boy with rounded ears atop his head tries to slip something into his pocket, you call him out. And when he dashes away, you scramble after him- tackling him in a paved alley near some dumpsters. Cans go crashing over to reveal several homeless youngsters, shivering in the cold and barely more than bones. The boy tosses the food to them before you can intervene- but why would you, when you’ve just seen what you saw?

When he comes into the bakery next time, you make sure he pays. But you also slip an extra loaf or two into his order, with a wink and a nod. Your conversations become a bit longer, a bit friendlier. He’s quite charming and you have to berate yourself for falling for a thief.

He’s stolen your heart, hasn’t he?

Floyd Leech the hallway bully

Floyd Leech. Just his name makes you groan and roll your eyes. It’s not just you he teases you in the hallway by holding your things over his head, but you seem to be his favorite. How are you supposed to get your notebook back when it’s dangling almost 8 feet above the ground, courtesy of his freakishly long arms?

The graceful solution you come up with is to kick him. Right in his eel, to summarize. His twin brother is by his side in an instant while you walk off.

Jade expects Floyd to be livid. But even when he’s doubled up on the ground in pain, he’s got a grin plastered across his face.

His shrimpy is such a badass.

Jamil Viper flirting rivals

For someone who’s usually level-headed and cool, you sure bring out Jamil’s temper. He can find a million ways to insult and discredit you, but still you’ll bounce back with some snarky, suggestive comment that just makes his blood boil.

He swears he can feel your eyes on him from across the hallways. It makes him want to pull his hood up over his face. But when you approach him, he’s as calm as ever. Why are you leaning closer, prefect, and running your hands over his tie? He’s not going to fall for your ruse, so don’t even try.

Still, his eyes can’t help but wander down to your lips, wondering if they would taste like he imagined.

Rook Hunt one-sided annoyance

It seems like you’ve gained yourself a one-man paparazzi recently. If Rook is meant to be a hunter, you have to wonder if he’s any good at his job. He never seems to conceal his presence, following you down the hallways brazenly while spouting off fake compliments about your demeanor and beauty.

Well, you thought they were fake. It’s hard to believe anyone is genuine in a school full of villains, but you might have caught the attention of the one person who actually is. His company isn’t so bad sometimes, especially when you can talk his ear off about anything and everything.

Sebek Zigvolt forced proximity

This was meant to be a partner project, not a threeway. But being paired with the great Malleus Draconia means putting up with his annoying, self-proclaimed bodyguard for the next week as well.

You pity Sebek’s alchemy partner, because he’s ignoring his own work in favor of hovering over you and his liege. His loud, unsolicited advice and passive-aggressive comments don’t make him any more bearable. By the time Thursday rolls around, you’re about ready to drop-kick him into the cauldron.

Thankfully, you and Malleus get your work done early. When you’re packing up your things to leave, you find Sebek quiet for once, deep in concentration as he rushes to finish his own work.

I don’t need the help of a human, he proclaims in that loud, obnoxious bark of his. But he doesn’t complain when you settle down next to him, stirring the potion while he measures out ingredients.

Exes to Lovers

Cater Diamond the one that got away

Cater knows you probably hate his guts. Hell, he hates his own guts for fucking up so badly. You were the best thing that ever happened to him and he drove you away with his constant neediness and self-deprecation. It took him years to realize that he was so focused on himself that he didn’t realize that you needed support too.

He’s been lonely for a while, working on himself and his problems in the shadows. It’s been a while since he last saw you- he knows you might not want to see him again anyways, but he’s changed now- both for himself and for you.

Cater wants you back, if you’ll have him.

Jade Leech second chance romance

Jade was nothing more than a talking stage that never got off the ground. He was fun to be around and a good hiking partner, but you stopped seeing him after first year ended and you no longer shared a class together.

You didn’t think of him much throughout your second and third year at NRC . But when you arrive at your new work study to meet your partner for the program, a tall, familiar figure greets you at the door.

“Jade?”

Vil Schoenheit right person, wrong time

Vil has no one but himself to blame for the downfall of your relationship. He broke things off with you after his manager advised him to- she said that a young, taken idol isn’t marketable. You need to think about your image.

The stage lights blinded him and he dropped you without a second thought. Any trace of you in his life was erased; smoothed over to perfection like a beauty filter.

But oh, how Vil regrets it when he scrolls on his phone late at night, your Magicam account pulled up to a photo of you laughing. What he wouldn’t give to have you smile like that at him again.

The icon for a DM request sits beside your profile picture. Vil regards it for a second, finger hovering over the button, then clicks.

Lilia Vanrouge facing the future

Lilia has always known that humans live short lives. In his time, he’s seen countless people born and died. It’s just a fact of human life; a phenomena he watches from the outside in- disconnected. It doesn’t dawn on him that yours too will run out until Malleus points it out- and then Lilia becomes scared.

He’ll cut you off, hiding in the shadows and avoiding your eyes until a great danger almost befalls you. It is then that Lilia realizes he’d rather have loved and lost you than never have known you at all.

Please, stay with him. You have the rest of your life, however short or long, to live by his side. Lilia would gladly warp time and face the consequences just for one more minute with you.

[fictionadventurer]

John's Passion narrative has a never-ending fascination for me, because it's where you get Jesus at his most divine--knowing everything that was going to happen, making the guards fall to their faces when he speaks the name of God--while the people around him are at their most human.

There's an entire political drama going on. Pilate the Roman pagan getting dragged into this provincial Jewish religious dispute. These Jewish leaders and Jesus providing different visions of truth to a politician who doesn't care what the truth is. There's extremely sharp political back-and-forth between the Roman and the Jewish authorities--the Pharisees trying to force Pilate's hand by saying that everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar, then Pilate backing them into proclaiming Caesar as their king and twisting the knife of pettiness by labeling Jesus as the Jewish king in four different languages while He hangs on the cross.

Petty, personal, political human drama taking up all their attention.

And meanwhile, God is dying.

[kwisatzworld]

Perhaps it is precisely Valentino’s precociousnes—reflected in his high-pitched voice, almost feminine face, and slender frame—that has captivated, or even unsettled, a society growing older, where people remain apprentices well into their thirties. The boy—almost a child—who began to dominate nearly ten years ago, quickly surpassing the painfully slow maturation process that was far too sluggish for him, had an almost Mozart-like effect: doubly scandalous in an era and a country of Salieris, where rigid hierarchies, faded codes, and youth are made to age before their time.

Rossi’s biographical speed—becoming a global star before he even turned twenty—evokes the pace of past generations, rich with youthful stars like James Dean, Hendrix, or Jim Morrison, whose lives flared up like shooting stars. Valentino is indeed drawn to this: he loves Morrison, fascinated by the energetic, voracious, and dangerous rush toward one’s destiny, in the classic canon of an audacious and overwhelming existentialism (which, in his case, overwhelms mostly others).

In a recent interview, as if offering a counterbalance, Rossi described himself as very patient, someone who takes his time with important decisions—reflective and cautious. This self-assessment seems particularly relevant to his future as a driver, especially given his strong interest in transitioning to F1 and Ferrari, which on paper would mark a prestigious step forward in a racer’s career. And yet, he seems hesitant, perhaps pulling back for once, as if sensing that the hyper-professionalism of F1 would promote him to adulthood in an irreversible way, tearing him away from his anarchic, provincial roots.

For Valentino, the real charm seems to be in winning and earning beyond measure while still remaining, at heart, a kid—one of the few young champions in the gerontocratic West, a boy king who can look down on everyone without having to wear a tie.

Briatore’s recent snub—essentially saying, “let him stay a child on two wheels, this is a world for serious people”—gave unconscious voice to the fear that the old have of the young. Even Alonso, the youngest world champion in F1 history, seems like Valentino’s grandfather when standing next to him. It’s not about age, but symbols. Right now, F1 simply cannot represent even a fraction of the brash, untamed youthfulness that Valentino embodies on the stage of show business.

[talonabraxas]

"Splendid You rise in the lightland of the sky, O living Aten, creator of life ! You have dawned in the eastern lightland. You fill every land with your beauty." -Great Hymn to the Aten, 1-4.

Aten/Aton Talon Abraxas

Ancient Egyptian Aten: Sun God And Creator Deity Symbols: sun disk, heat and light of the sun Cult Center: Akhetaten (Tel El-Amarna) Aten was a being who represented the god or spirit of the sun, and the actual solar disk. He was depicted as a disk with rays reaching to the earth. At the end of the rays were human hands which often extended the ankh to the pharaoh. Aten's origins are unclear and he may have been a provincial Sun-god worshipped in one of the small villages near Heliopolis. Aten was called the creator of man and the nurturing spirit of the world. In the Book of the Dead, Aten is called on by the deceased, "Hail, Aten, thou lord of beams of light, when thou shinest, all faces live." It is impossible to discuss Aten without mentioned his biggest promoter, the pharaoh Amenhotep IV, or Akhenaten. Early in his reign, Akhenaten worshipped both Amon (the chief god in Thebes at the time) and Aten. The first as part of his public duties, the latter in private. When he restored and enlarged the temple of Aten first built by his father Amenhotep III, relations between him and priests of Amon became strained. The priests were a major power in Egypt and if another god became supreme they would lose their own prestige. Eventually, relations became so strained that Akhenaten decided to built his own capital by the Nile, which he called, "Akhetaten", the Horizon of the Aten. At Akhetaten, Akhenaten formed a new state religion, focusing on the worship of the Aten. It stated that Aten was the supreme god and their were no others, save for Akhenaten himself. It has been said that Akhenaten formed the first monotheistic religion around Aten. However, this is not the case. Akhenaten himself was considered to be a creator god and like Aten was born again every day. Aten was only accessible to the people through Akhenaten because Akhenaten was both man and part of the cosmos. Akhenaten systematically began a campaign to erase all traces of the old gods, especially Amon. He erased the name of Amon from the temples and public works. He even went so far as to erase his own father's cartouche because the word "Amon" was featured in it. Even the word "gods" was unacceptable because it implied there were other deities besides Aten. It is clear that the Egyptian people never accepted their king's religion and view of the world. Even at his own capital, Akhetaten, amulets featuring Bes and Tauret have been found. Following Akhenaten's death, Atenism died rapidly. Mostly because the people never really believed in it and also because Akhenaten's successors did all they could to erase Akhenaten and Aten from the public eye. Eventually, Akhetaten became abandoned and the name "Akhenaten" conjured the dim memory of a "heretic king."

[gracehosborn]

Captain Alexander Hamilton: A Timeline

As Alexander Hamilton’s time serving as Captain of the New York Provincial Company of Artillery is about to become my main focus within The American Icarus: Volume I, I wanted to put a timeline together to share what I believe to be a super fascinating period in Hamilton's life that’s often overlooked. Both for anyone who may be interested and for my own benefit. If available to me, I've chosen to hyperlink primary materials directly for ease. My main repositories of info for this timeline were Michael E. Newton's Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years, The Papers of Alexander Hamilton and The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series on Founders Online, and the Library of Congress, Hathitrust, and the Internet Archive. This was a lot of fun to put together and I can not wait to include fictionalizations of all this chaos in TAI (literally, 20-something chapters are dedicated to this) hehehe....

Because context is king, here is a rundown of the important events that led to Alexander Hamilton receiving his appointment as captain:

Preceding Appointment - 1775:

February 23rd: The Farmer Refuted, &c. is first published in James Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer. The publication was preceded by two announcements, and is a follow up to a string of pamphlet debate between Hamilton and Samuel Seabury that had started in the fall of 1774. The Farmer Refuted would have wide-reaching effects.

April 19th: Battles of Lexington and Concord — The first shots of the American War for Independence are fired in Lexington, Massachusetts, and soon followed by fighting in Concord, Massachusetts.

April 23rd: News of Lexington and Concord first reaches New York. [x] According to his friend Nicholas Fish in a later letter, "immediately after the battle of Lexington," Hamilton "attached himself to one of the uniform Companies of Militia then forming for the defense of the Country by the patriotic young men of this city." It is most likely that Hamilton enlisted in late April or May of 1775, and a later record of June shows that Hamilton had joined the Corsicans (later named the Hearts of Oak), alongside Nicholas Fish and Robert Troup (see Newton, Michael E. Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years, pg. 127; for Fish's letter, Newton cites a letter from Fish to Timothy Pickering, dated December 26, 1823 within the Timothy Pickering Papers of the Massachusetts Historical Society).

June 14th: Within weeks of his enlistment, Hamilton's name appears within a list of men from the regiments throughout New York that were recommended to be promoted as officers if a Provencal Company should be raised (pp. 194-5, Historical Magazine, Vol 7).

June 15th: Congress, seated in Philadelphia, establishes the Continental Army. George Washington is unanimously nominated and accepts the post of Commander-in-Chief. [x]

Also on June 15th: Alexander Hamilton’s Remarks On the Quebec Bill: Part One is published in James Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.

June 22nd: The Quebec Bill: Part Two is published in James Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.

June 25th: On their way to Boston, General Washington and his generals make a short stop in New York City. The Provincial Congress orders Colonel John Lasher to "send one company of the militia to Powle's Hook to meet the Generals" and that Lasher "have another company at this side (of) the ferry for the same purpose; that he have the residue of his battalion ready to receive" Washington and his men. There is no confirmation that Alexander Hamilton was present at this welcoming parade, however it is likely, due to the fact that the Corsicans were apart of John Lasher's battalion. [x]

Also on June 25th: According to a diary entry by one Ewald Shewkirk, a dinner reception was held in Washington's honor. It is unknown if Hamilton was present at this dinner, however there is no evidence to suggest he could not have been (see Newton, Michael E. Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years, pg. 129; Newton cites Johnston, Henry P. The Campaigns of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn, Vol. 2, pg. 103).

August 23-24th: According to his friend Hercules Mulligan decades later in his “Narrative” (being a biographical sketch, reprinted in the William & Mary Quarterly alongside a “Narrative” and letters from Robert Troup), Hamilton and himself took part in a raid upon the city's Battery with a group composed of the Corsicans and some others. They managed to haul off a good number of the cannons down in the city Battery. However, the Asia, a ship in the harbor, soon sent a barge and later came in range of the raiding party itself, firing upon them. According to Mulligan, “Hamilton at the first firing [when the barge appeared with a small gun-crew] was away with the Cannon.” Mulligan had been pulling this cannon, when Hamilton approached and asked Mulligan to take his musket for him, taking the cannon in exchange. Mulligan, out of fear left Hamilton’s musket at the Battery after retreating. Upon Hamilton’s return they crossed paths again and Hamilton asked for his musket. Being told where it had been left in the fray, “he went for it, notwithstanding the firing continued, with as much unconcern as if the vessel had not been there.”

September 14th: The Hearts of Oak first appear in the city records. [x] Within the list of officers, Fredrick Jay (John Jay’s younger brother), is listed as the 1st Lieutenant, and also appears in a record of August 9th as the 2nd Lieutenant of the Corsicans. This, alongside John C. Hamilton’s claims regarding Hamilton’s early service, has left historians to conclude that either the Corsicans reorganized into the Hearts of Oak (this more likely), or members of the Corsicans later joined the Hearts of Oak.

December 4th: In a letter to Brigadier General Alexander McDougall, John Jay writes “Be so kind as to give the enclosed to young Hamilton.” This enclosure was presumably a reply to Hamilton’s letter of November 26th (in which he raised concern for an attack upon James Rivington’s printing shop), however Jay’s reply has not been found.

December 8th: Again in a letter to McDougall, Jay mentions Hamilton: “I hope Mr. Hamilton continues busy, I have not recd. Holts paper these 3 months & therefore cannot Judge of the Progress he makes.” What this progress is, or anything written by Hamilton in John Holt’s N. Y. Journal during this period has not been definitively confirmed, leaving historians to argue over possible pieces written by Hamilton.

December 31st: Hamilton replies to Jay’s letter that McDougall likely gave him around the 14th [x]. Comparing the letters Hamilton sent in November and December I will likely save for a different post, but their differences are interesting; more so with Jay’s reply having not been found.

These mentionings of Hamilton between Jay and McDougall would become important in the next two months when, in January of 1776, the New York Provincial Congress authorized the creation of a provincial company of artillery. In the coming weeks, Hamilton would see a lot of things changing around him.

Hamilton Takes Command - 1776:

February 23rd: During a meeting of the Provincial Congress, Alexander McDougall recommends Hamilton for captain of this new artillery company, James Moore as Captain-Lieutenant (i.e: second-in-command), and Martin Johnston for 1st Lieutenant. [x]

February-March: According to Hercules Mulligan, again in his “Narrative”, "a Commission as a Capt. of Artillery was promised to" Alexander Hamilton "on the Condition that he should raise thirty men. I went with him that very afternoon and we engaged 25 men." While it is accurate that Hamilton was responsible for raising his company, as acknowledged by the New York Provincial Congress [later renamed] on August 9th 1776, Mulligan's account here is messy. Mulligan misdates this promise, and it may not have been realistic that they convinced twenty-five men to join the company in one afternoon. Nevertheless, Mulligan could have reasonably helped Hamilton recruit men between the time he was nominated for captancy and received his commission.

March 5th: Alexander Hamilton opens an account with Alsop Hunt and James Hunt to supply his company with "Buckskin breeches." The account would run through October 11th of 1776, and the final receipt would not be received until 1785, as can be seen in Hamilton's 1782-1791 cash book.

March 10th: Anticipating his appointment, Hamilton purchases fabrics and other materials for the making of uniforms from a Thomas Garider and Lieutenant James Moore. The materials included “blue Strouds [wool broadcloth]”, “long Ells for lining,” “blue Shalloon,” and thread and buttons. [x]

Hamilton later recorded in March of 1784 within his 1782-1791 cash book that he had “paid Mr. Thompson Taylor [sic: tailor] by Mr Chaloner on my [account] for making Cloaths for the said company.” This payment is listed as “34.13.9” The next entry in the cash book notes that Hamilton paid “6. 8.7” for the “ballance of Alsop Hunt and James Hunts account for leather Breeches supplied the company ⅌ Rects [per receipts].” [x]

Following is a depiction of Hamilton’s company uniform!

First up is an illustration of an officer (not Hamilton himself) as seen in An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Uniforms of The American War For Independence, 1775-1783 Smith, Digby; Kiley, Kevin F. pg. 121. By the list of supplies purchased above, this would seem to be the most accurate depiction of the general uniform.

Here is another done in 1923 of Alexander Hamilton in his company's uniform:

March 14th: The New York Provincial Congress orders that "Alexander Hamilton be, and he is hereby, appointed captain of the Provincial company of artillery of this Colony.” Alongside Hamilton, James Gilleland (alternatively spelt Gilliland) is appointed to be his 2nd Lieutenant. “As soon as his company was raised, he proceeded with indefatigable pains, to perfect it in every branch of discipline and duty,” Robert Troup recalled in a later letter to John Mason in 1820 (reprinted alongside Mulligan’s recollections in the William & Mary Quarterly), “and it was not long before it was esteemed the most beautiful model of discipline in the whole army.”

March 24th: Within a pay roll from "first March to first April, 1776," Hamilton records that Lewis Ryan, a matross (who assisted the gunners in loading, firing, and spounging the cannons), was dismissed from the company "For being subject to Fits." Also on this pay roll, it is seen that John Bane is listed as Hamilton's 3rd Lieutenant, and James Henry, Thomas Thompson, and Samuel Smith as sergeants.

March 26th: William I. Gilbert, also a matross, is dismissed from the company, "for misbehavior." [x]

March-April: At some point between March and April of 1776, Alexander Hamilton drops out of King's College to put full focus towards his new duties as an artillery captain. King's College would shut down in April as the war came to New York City, and the building would be occupied by American (and later British) forces. Hamilton would never go back to complete his college degree.

April 2nd: The Provincial Congress having decided that the company who were assigned to guard the colony's records had "been found a very expensive Colony charge" orders that Hamilton "be directed to place and keep a proper guard of his company at the Records, until further order..." (Also see the PAH) According to historian Willard Sterne Randall in an article for the Smithsonian Magazine, the records were to be "shipped by wagon from New York’s City Hall to the abandoned Greenwich Village estate of Loyalist William Bayard." [x]

Not-so-fun fact: it is likely that this is the same Bayard estate that Alexander Hamilton would spend his dying hours inside after his duel with Aaron Burr 28 years later.

April 4th: Hamilton writes a letter to Colonel Alexander McDougall acknowledging the payment of "one hundred and seventy two pounds, three shillings and five pence half penny, for the pay of the Commissioned, Non commissioned officers and privates of [his] company to the first instant, for which [he has] given three other receipts." This letter is also printed at the bottom of Hamilton’s pay roll for March and April of 1776.

April 10th: In a letter of the previous day [April 9th] from General Israel Putnam addressed to the Chairmen of the New York Committee of Safety, which was read aloud during the meeting of the New York Provincial Congress, Putnam informs the Congress that he desires another company to keep guard of the colony records, stating that "Capt. H. G. Livingston's company of fusileers will relieve the company of artillery to-morrow morning [April 10th, this date], ten o'clock." Thusly, Hamilton was relieved of this duty.

April 20th: A table appears in the George Washington Papers within the Library of Congress titled "A Return of the Company of Artillery commanded by Alexander Hamilton April 20th, 1776." The Library of Congress itself lists this manuscript as an "Artillery Company Report." The Papers of Alexander Hamilton editors calendar this table and describe the return as "in the form of a table showing the number of each rank present and fit for duty, sick, on furlough, on command duty, or taken as prisoner." [x]

The table, as seen above, shows that by this time, Hamilton’s company consisted of 69 men. Reading down the table of returns, it is seen that three matrosses are marked as “Sick [and] Present” and one matross is noted to be “Sick [and] absent,” and two bombarders and one gunner are marked as being “On Command [duty].” Most interestingly, in the row marked “Prisoners,” there are three sergeants, one corporal, and one matross listed.

Also on April 20th: Alexander Hamilton appears in General George Washington's General Orders of this date for the first time. Washington wrote that sergeants James Henry and Samuel Smith, Corporal John McKenny, and Richard Taylor (who was a matross) were "tried at a late General Court Martial whereof Col. stark was President for “Mutiny"...." The Court found both Henry and McKenny guilty, and sentenced both men to be lowered in rank, with Henry losing a month's pay, and McKenny being imprisoned for two weeks. As for Smith and Taylor, they were simply sentenced for disobedience, but were to be "reprimanded by the Captain, at the head of the company." Washington approved of the Court's decision, but further ordered that James Henry and John McKenny "be stripped and discharged [from] the Company, and [that] the sentence of the Court martial, upon serjt Smith, and Richd Taylor, to be executed to morrow morning at Guard mounting." As these numbers nearly line up with the return table shown above, it is clear that the table was written in reference to these events. What actions these men took in committing their "Mutiny" are unclear.

May 8th: In Washington's General Orders of this date, another of Hamilton's men, John Reling, is written to have been court martialed "for “Desertion,” [and] is found guilty of breaking from his confinement, and sentenced to be confin’d for six-days, upon bread and water." Washington approved of the Court's decision.

May 10th: In his General Orders of this date, General Washington recorded that "Joseph Child of the New-York Train of Artillery" was "tried at a late General Court Martial whereof Col. Huntington was President for “defrauding Christopher Stetson of a dollar, also for drinking Damnation to all Whigs, and Sons of Liberty, and for profane cursing and swearing”...." The Court found Child guilty of these charges, and "do sentence him to be drum’d out of the army." Although Hamilton was not explicitly mentioned, his company was commonly referred to as the "New York Train of Artillery" and Joseph Child is shown to have enlisted in Hamilton's company on March 28th. [x]

May 11th: In his General Orders of this date, General Washington orders that "The Regiment and Company of Artillery, to be quarter’d in the Barracks of the upper and lower Batteries, and in the Barracks near the Laboratory" which would of course include Alexander Hamilton's company. and that "As soon as the Guns are placed in the Batteries to which they are appointed, the Colonel of Artillery, will detach the proper number of officers and men, to manage them...." Where exactly Hamilton and his men were staying prior to this is unclear.

May 15th: Hamilton appears by name once more in General George Washington’s General Orders of this date. Hamilton’s artillery company is ordered “to be mustered [for a parade/demonstration] at Ten o’Clock, next Sunday morning, upon the Common, near the Laboratory.”

May 16th: In General Washington's General Orders of this date, it is written that "Uriah Chamberlain of Capt. Hamilton’s Company of Artillery," was recently court martialed, "whereof Colonel Huntington was president for “Desertion”—The Court find the prisoner guilty of the charge, and do sentence him to receive Thirty nine Lashes, on the bare back, for said offence." Washington approved of this sentence, and orders "it to be put in execution, on Saturday morning next, at guard mounting."

May 18th: Presumably, Hamilton carried out the orders given by Washington in his General Orders of May 16th, and on the morning of this date oversaw the lashing of Uriah Chamberlain at "the guard mounting."

May 19th: At 10 a.m., Hamilton and his men gathered at the Common (a large green space within the city which is now City Hall Park) to parade before Washington and some of his generals as had been ordered in Washington's General Orders of May 15th. In his Sketches of the Life and Correspondence of Nathanael Greene (on page 57), William Johnson in 1822 recounted that, (presumably around or about this event):

It was soon after Greene's arrival on Long Island, and during his command at that post, that he became acquainted with the late General Hamilton, afterwards so conspicuous in the councils of this country. It was his custom when summoned to attend the commander in chief, to walk, when accompanied by one or more of his aids, from the ferry landing to head-quarters. On one of these occasions, when passing by the place then called the park, now enclosed by the railing of the City-Hall, and which was then the parade ground of the militia corps, Hamilton was observed disciplining a juvenile corps of artillerist, who, like himself, aspired to future usefulness. Greene knew not who he was, but his attention was riveted by the vivacity of his motion, the ardour of his countenance, and not less by the proficiency and precision of movement of his little corps. Halt behind the crowd until an interval of rest afforded an opportunity, an aid was dispatched to Hamilton with a compliment from General Greene upon the proficiency of his corps and the military manner of their commander, with a request to favor him with his company to dinner on a specified day. Those who are acquainted with the ardent character and grateful feelings of Hamilton will judge how this message was received. The attention never forgotten, and not many years elapsed before an opportunity occurred and was joyfully embraced by Hamilton of exhibiting his gratitude and esteem for the man whose discerning eye had at so early a period done justice to his talents and pretensions. Greene soon made an opportunity of introducing his young acquaintance to the commander in chief, and from his first introduction Washington "marked him as his own."

Michael E. Newton notes that William Johnson never produced a citation for this tale, and goes on to give a brief historiography of it (Johnson being the first to write about this). While it is possible that General Greene could have sent an aide-de-camp to give his compliments to Hamilton after seeing his parade drill, there is no certain evidence to suggest that Greene introduced Hamilton to George Washington. Newton also notes that "John C. Hamilton failed to endorse any part of the story." (see Newton, Michael E. Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years, pp. 150-152).

May 26th: Alexander Hamilton writes a letter to the New York Provincial Congress concerning the pay of his men. Hamilton points out that his men are not being paid as they should be in accordance to rules past, and states that “They do the same duty with the other companies and think themselves entitled to the same pay. They have been already comparing accounts and many marks of discontent have lately appeared on this score.” Hamilton further points out that another company, led by Captain Sebastian Bauman, were being paid accordingly and were able to more easily recruit men.

Also on May 26th: the Provencal Congress approved Hamilton’s request, resolving that Hamilton and his men would receive the same pay as the Continental artillery, and that for every man he recruited, Hamilton would receive 10 shillings. [x]

May 31st: Captain Hamilton receives orders from the Provincial Congress that he, “or any or either of his officers," are "authorized to go on board any ship or vessel in this harbour, and take with them such guard as may be necessary, and that they make strict search for any men who may have deserted from Captain Hamilton’s company.” These orders were given after "one member informed the Congress that some of Captain Hamilton’s company of artillery have deserted, and that he has some reasons to suspect that they are on board of the Continental ship, or vessel, in this harbour, under the command of Capt. Kennedy." Unfortunately, I as of writing this have been unable to find any solid information on this Captain Kennedy to better identify him, or his vessel.

June 8th: The New York Provincial Congress orders that Hamilton "furnish such a guard as may be necessary to guard the Provincial gunpowder" and that if Hamilton "should stand in need of any tents for that purpose" Colonel Curtenius would provide them. It is unknown when Hamilton's company was relieved of this duty, however three weeks later, on June 30th, the Provincial Congress "Ordered, That all the lead, powder, and other military stores" within the "city of New York be forthwith removed from thence to White Plains." [x]

Also on June 8th: the Provincial Congress further orders that "Capt. Hamilton furnish daily six of his best cartridge makers to work and assist" at the "store or elaboratory [sic] under the care of Mr. Norwood, the Commissary."

June 10th: Besides the portion of Hamilton's company that was still guarding the colony's gunpowder, it is seen in a report by Henry Knox (reprinted in Force, Peter. American Archives, 4th Series, vol. VI, pg. 920) that another portion of the company was stationed at Fort George near the Battery, in sole command of four 32-pound cannons, and another two 12-pound cannons. Simultaneously, another portion of Hamilton's company was stationed just below at the Grand Battery, where the companies of Captain Pierce, Captain Burbeck, and part of Captain Bauman's manned an assortment of cannons and mortars.

June 17th: The New York Provincial Congress resolves that "Capt. Hamilton's company of artillery be considered so many and a part of the quota of militia to be raised for furnished by the city or county of New-York."

June 29th: A return table, reprinted in Force, Peter's American Archives, 4th Series, vol. VI, pg. 1122 showcases that Alexander Hamilton's company has risen to 99 men. Eight of Hamilton's men--one bombarder, two gunners, one drummer, and four matrosses--are marked as being "Sick [but] present." One sergeant is marked as "Sick [and] absent" and two matrosses are marked as "Prisoners."

July 4th: In Philadelphia, the Continental Congress approves the Declaration of Independence.

July 9th: The Continental Army gathers in the New York City Common to hear the Declaration read aloud from City Hall. In all the excitement, a group of soldiers and the Sons of Liberty (who included Hercules Mulligan) rushed down to the Bowling Green to tear down an equestrian statue of King George III, which they would melt into musket balls. For a history of the statue, see this article from the Journal of the American Revolution.

Also on July 9th: the New York Provincial Congress approve the Declaration of Independence, and hereafter refer to themselves as the Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York. [x]

July 12th: Multiple accounts record that the British ships Phoenix and Rose are sailing up the Hudson River, near the Battery, when as Hercules Mulligan stated in a later recollection, "Capt. Hamilton went on the Battery with his Company and his piece of artillery and commenced a Brisk fire upon the Phoenix and Rose then passing up the river. When his Cannon burst and killed two of his men who I distinctly recollect were buried in the Bowling Green." Mulligan's number of deaths may be incorrect however. Isac Bangs records in his journal that, "by the carelessness of our own Artilery Men Six Men were killed with our own Cannon, & several others very badly wounded." Bangs noted further that "It is said that several of the Company out of which they were killed were drunk, & neglected to Spunge, Worm, & stop the Vent, and the Cartridges took fire while they were raming them down." In a letter to his wife, General Henry Knox wrote that "We had a loud cannonade, but could not stop [the Phoenix and Rose], though I believe we damaged them much. They kept over on the Jersey side too far from our batteries. I was so unfortunate as to lose six men by accidents, and a number wounded." Matching up with Bangs and Knox, in his own journal, Lieutenant Solomon Nash records that, "we had six men cilled [sic: killed], three wound By our Cannons which went off Exedently [sic: accidentally]...." A William Douglass of Connecticut wrote to his wife on July 20th that they suffered "the loss of 4 men in loading [the] Cannon." (as seen in Newton, Michael E. Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years, pg. 142; Newton cites Henry P. Johnston's The Campaigns of 1776 in and around New York and Brooklyn, vol. 2, pg. 67). As these accounts cobberrate each other, it is clear that at least six men were killed. Whether these were all due to Hamilton's cannon exploding is unclear, but is a possibility. Hamilton of course was not punished for this, but that is besides the point.

One of the men injured by the explosion of the cannon was William Douglass, a matross in Hamilton's company (not to be confused with the William Douglass quoted above from Connecticut). According to a later certificate written by Hamilton on September 14th, Douglass "faithfully served as a matross in my company till he lost his arm by an unfortunate accident, while engaged in firing at some of the enemy’s ships." The Papers of Alexander Hamilton editors date Douglass' injury to June 12th, but it is clear that this occurred on July 12th due to the description Hamilton provides.

July 26th: Hamilton writes a letter to the Convention of the Representatives (who he mistakenly addresses as the "The Honoruable The Provincial Congress") concerning the amount of provisions for his company. He explains that there is a difference in the supply of rations between what the Continental Army and Provisional Army and his company are receiving. He writes that "it seems Mr. Curtenius can not afford to supply us with more than his contract stipulates, which by comparison, you will perceive is considerably less than the forementioned rate. My men, you are sensible, are by their articles, entitled to the same subsistence with the Continental troops; and it would be to them an insupportable discrimination, as well as a breach of the terms of their enlistment, to give them almost a third less provisions than the whole army besides receives." Hamilton requests that the Convention "readily put this matter upon a proper footing." He also notes that previously his men had been receiving their full pay, however under an assumption by Peter Curtenius that he "should have a farther consideration for the extraordinary supply."

July 31st: The Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York read Hamilton's letter of July 26th at their meeting, and order that "as Capt. Hamilton's company was formally made a part of General Scott's brigade, that they be henceforth supplied provisions as part of that Brigade."

A Note On Captain Hamilton’s August Pay Book:

Starting in August of 1776, Hamilton began to keep another pay book. It is evident by Thomas Thompson being marked as the 3rd lieutenant that this was started around August 15th. The cover is below:

For unknown reasons, the editors of The Papers of Alexander Hamilton only included one section of the artillery pay book in their transcriptions, being a dozen or so pages of notes Hamilton wrote presumably after concluding his time as a captain on some books he was reading. The first section of the book (being the first 117 image scans per the Library of Congress) consists of payments made to and by Hamilton’s men, each receiving his own page spread, with the first few pages being a list of all men in the company as of August 1776, organized by surname alphabetically. The last section of the pay book (Image scans 181 to 185) consists of weekly company return tables starting in October of 1776.

As these sections are not transcribed, I will be including the image scans when necessary for full transparency, in case I have read something incorrectly. Now, back to the timeline....

August 3rd: John Davis and James Lilly desert from Hamilton's company. Hamilton puts out an advertisement that would reward anyone who could either "bring them to Captain Hamilton's Quarters" or "give Information that they may be apprehended." It is presumed that Hamilton wrote this notice himself (see Newton, Michael E. Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years, pp. 147-148; for the notice, Newton cites The New-York Gazette; and the weekly Mercury, August 5, 12, and September 2nd, 1776 issues).

August 9th: The Convention of the Representatives resolve that "The company of artillery formally raised by Capt. Hamilton" is "considered as a part of the number ordered to be raised by the Continental Congress from the militia of this State, and therefore" Hamilton's company "hereby is incorporated into Genl. Scott's brigade." Here, Hamilton would be reunited with his old friend, Nicholas Fish, who had recently been appointed as John Scott's brigade major. [x]

August 12th: Captain Hamilton writes a letter to the Convention of the Representatives concerning a vacancy in his company. Hamilton explains that this is due to “the promotion of Lieutenant Johnson to a captaincy in one of the row-gallies, (which command, however, he has since resigned, for a very particular reason.).” He requests that his first sergeant, Thomas Thompson, be promoted as he “has discharged his duty in his present station with uncommon fidelity, assiduity and expertness. He is a very good disciplinarian, possesses the advantage of having seen a good deal of service in Germany; has a tolerable share of common sense, and is well calculated not to disgrace the rank of an officer and gentleman.…” Hamilton also requested that lieutenants James Gilleland and John Bean be moved up in rank to fill the missing spots.

August 14th: The Convention of the Representatives, upon receiving Hamilton’s letter of August 12th, order that Colonel Peter R. Livingston, "call upon [meet with] Capt. Hamilton, and inquire into this matter and report back to the House."

August 15th: Colonel Peter R. Livingston reports back to the Convention of the Representatives that, "the facts stated by Capt. Hamilton are correct..." The Convention thus resolves that "Thomas Thompson be promoted to the rank of a lieutenant in the said company; and that this Convention will exert themselves in promoting, from time to time, such privates and non-commissioned officers in the service of this State, as shall distinguish themselves...." The Convention further orders that these resolutions be published in the newspapers.

August ???: According to Hercules Mulligan in his "Narrative" account, Alexander Hamilton, along with John Mason, "Mr. Rhinelander" and Robert Troup, were at the Mulligan home for dinner. Here, Mulligan writes that, after Rhineland and Troup had "retired from the table" Hamilton and Mason were "lamenting the situation of the army on Long Island and suggesting the best plans for its removal," whereupon Mason and Hamilton decided it would be best to write "an anonymous letter to Genl. Washington pointing out their ideas of the best means to draw off the Army." Mulligan writes that he personally "saw Mr. H [Hamilton] writing the letter & heard it read after it was finished. It was delivered to me to be handed to one of the family of the General and I gave it to Col. Webb [Samuel Blachley Webb] then an aid de Champ [sic: aide-de-camp]...." Mulligan expresses that he had "no doubt he delivered it because my impression at that time was that the mode of drawing off the army which was adopted was nearly the same as that pointed out in the letter." There is no other source to contradict or challenge Hercules Mulligan's first-hand account of this event, however the letter discussed has not been found.

August 24th: Alexander Hamilton helped to prevent Lieutenant Colonel Herman Zedwitz from committing treason. On August 25th, a court martial was held (reprinted in Force, Peter. American Archives, 5th Series, vol. I, pp. 1159-1161) wherein Zedwitz was charged with "holding a treacherous correspondence with, and giving intelligence to, the enemies of the United States." In a written disposition for the trial, Augustus Stein tells the Court that on the previous day [this date, August 24th] Zedwitz had given him a letter with which Stein was directed "to go to Long-Island with [the] letter [addressed] to Governour Tryon...." Stein, however, wrote that he immediately went "to Captain Bowman's house, and broke the letter open and read it. Soon after. Captain Bowman came in, and I told him I had something to communicate to the General. We sent to Captain Hamilton, and he went to the General's, to whom the letter was delivered." By other instances in this court martial record, it is clear that Stein had meant Captain Sebastian Bauman (and to this, Zedwitz's name is also spelled many different times throughout this record), which would indicate that the "Captain Hamilton" mentioned was Alexander Hamilton, Bauman's fellow artillery captain. Bauman was the only captain serving by that name in the army at this time (see Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register of the Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, pg. 92). It could be possible that Alexander Hamilton personally delivered this letter into Washington's hands and explained the situation, or that he passed it on to one of Washington's staff members.

August 27th: Battle of Long Island — Although Alexander Hamilton was not involved in this battle, for no primary accounts explicitly place him in the middle of this conflict, it is significant to note considering the previous entry on this timeline.

May-August: According to Robert Troup, again in his 1821 letter to John Mason, he had paid Hamilton a visit during the summer of 1776, but did not provide a specific date. Troup noted that, “at night, and in the morning, he [Hamilton] went to prayer in his usual mode. Soon after this visit we were parted by our respective duties in the Army, and we did not meet again before 1779.” This date however, may be inaccurate, for also according to Troup in another letter reprinted later in the William & Mary Quarterly, they had met again while Hamilton was in Albany to negotiate the movement of troops with General Horatio Gates in 1777.

September 7th: In his General Orders of this date, General Washington writes that John Davis, a member of Alexander Hamilton's company who had deserted in early August, was recently "tried by a Court Martial whereof Col. Malcom was President, was convicted of “Desertion” and sentenced to receive Thirty-nine lashes." Washington approved of this sentence, and ordered that it be carried out "on the regimental parade, at the usual hour in the morning."

September 8th: In his General Orders of this date, Washington writes that John Little, a member of "Col. Knox’s Regt of Artillery, [and] Capt. Hamilton’s Company," was tried at a recent court martial, and convicted of “Abusing Adjt Henly, and striking him”—ordered to receive Thirty-nine lashes...." Washington approved of this sentence, and ordered it, along with the other court martial sentences noted in these orders, to be "put in execution at the usual time & place."

September 14th: Hamilton writes a certificate to the Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York regarding his matross, William Douglass, who “lost his arm by an unfortunate accident, while engaged in firing at some of the enemy’s ships” on July 12th. Hamilton recommends that a recent resolve of the Continental Congress be heeded regarding “all persons disabled in the service of the United States.”

September 15th: On this date, the Continental Army evacuated New York City for Harlem Heights as the British sought control of the city. According to the Memoirs of Aaron Burr, vol. 1, General Sullivan’s brigade had been left in the city due to miscommunication, and were “conducted by General Knox to a small fort” which was Fort Bunker Hill. Burr, then a Major and aide-de-camp to General Israel Putman, was directed with the assistance of a few dragoons “to pick up the stragglers,” inside the fort. Being that Knox was in command of the Army’s artillery, Hamilton’s company would be among those still at the fort. Major Burr and General Knox then had a brief debate (Knox wishing to continue the fight whereas Burr wished to help the brigade retreat to safety). Aaron Burr at last remarked that Fort Bunker Hill “was not bomb-proof; that it was destitute of water; and that he could take it with a single howitzer; and then, addressing himself to the men, said, that if they remained there, one half of them would be killed or wounded, and the other half hung, like dogs, before night; but, if they would place themselves under his command, he would conduct them in safety to Harlem.” (See pages 100-101). Corroborating this account are multiple certificates and letters from eyewitnesses of this event reprinted in the Memiors on pages 101-106. In a letter, Nathaniel Judson recounted that, “I was near Colonel Burr when he had the dispute with General Knox, who said it was madness to think of retreating, as we should meet the whole British army. Colonel Burr did not address himself to the men, but to the officers, who had most of them gathered around to hear what passed, as we considered ourselves as lost.” Judson also remarked that during the retreat to Harlem Heights, the brigade had “several brushes with small parties of the enemy. Colonel Burr was foremost and most active where there was danger, and his con-duct, without considering his extreme youth, was afterwards a constant subject of praise, and admiration, and gratitude.”

Alexander Hamilton himself recounted in later testimony for Major General Benedict Arnold’s court martial of 1779 that he “was among the last of our army that left the city; the enemy was then on our right flank, between us and the main body of our army.” Hamilton also recalled that upon passing the home of a Mr. Seagrove, the man left the group he was entertaining and “came up to me with strong appearances of anxiety in his looks, informed me that the enemy had landed at Harlaam, and were pushing across the island, advised us to keep as much to the left as possible, to avoid being intercepted….” Hercules Mulligan also recounted in his “Narrative” printed in the William & Mary Quarterly that Hamilton had “brought up the rear of our army,” and unfortunately lost “his baggage and one of his Cannon which broke down.” [x]

September ???: As can be seen in Hamilton's August 1776-May 1777 pay book, while stationed in Harlem Heights (often abbreviated as "HH" in the pay book), nearly all of Hamilton's men received some sort of item, whether this be shoes, cash payments, or other articles.

October 4th: A return table for this date appears in Alexander Hamilton’s pay book, in the back. These return tables are not included in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton for unknown reasons.

The table, as seen above, provides us a snapshot of Hamilton’s company at this time, as no other information survives about the company during October. His company totaled to 49 men. Going down the table, two matrosses were “Sick [and] Present,” one bombarder, four gunners, and six matrosses were marked as “Sick [and] absent,” and two matrosses were marked as “On Furlough.” Interestingly, another two matrosses were marked as having deserted, and two matrosses were marked as “Prisoners.”

October 11th: In Hamilton’s pay book, below the table of October 4th, another weekly return table appears with this date marked.

The return table, as seen above, again records that Hamilton’s company consisted of 49 men. Reading down the table, two matrosses were marked as “Sick [and] Present,” one bombarder and four matrosses were marked as “Sick [and] absent,” and one captain-lieutenant [being James Moore], one sergeant, and two matrosses were marked as being “On Furlough.”

To the right of the date header, in place of the usual list of positions, there is a note inside the box. The note likely reads:

Drivers. 2_ Drafts_l?] 9_ 4 of which went over in order to get pay & Cloaths & was detained in their Regt [regiment]

Drafts were men who were drawn away from their regular unit to aid another, and it’s clear that Hamilton had many men drafted into his company. This note tells us that four of these men were sent by Hamilton to gather clothing for the company, and it is likely that they had to return to their original regiment before they could return the clothing. This, at least, makes the most sense (a huge thank you to @my-deer-friend and everyone else who helped me decipher this)!! In the bottom left-hand corner of the page, another note is present, however I am unable to decipher what it reads. If anyone is able, feel free to take a shot!

October 25th: Another weekly returns table appears in Hamilton’s company pay book. Once more, this table of returns was not transcribed within The Papers of Alexander Hamilton.

The table, as seen above, shows that Hamilton’s company still consisted of 49 men. Reading down the table, it can be seen that one matross and one drummer/fifer were “Sick [but] present,” and one sergeant, two bombarders, one gunner, and four matrosses were marked as “Sick [and] absent.” Interestingly, one matross was noted as being “Absent without care”. Two matrosses were listed as “Prisoners” and again two matrosses were listed as having “Deserted.”

Underneath the table, a note is written for which I am only able to make out part. It is clear that two men from another captain’s company were drafted by Hamilton for his needs.

October 28th: Battle of White Plains — Like with Long Island, there is no primary evidence to explicitly place Alexander Hamilton, his men, or his artillery as being involved in this battle, contrary to popular belief. See this quartet of articles by Harry Schenawolf from the Revolutionary War Journal.

November 6th: Captain Hamilton wrote another certificate to the Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York regarding his matross, William Douglass, who was injured during the attacks on July 12th. This certificate is nearly identical to the one of September 14th, and again Hamilton writes that Douglass is “intitled to the provision made by a late resolve of the Continental Congress, for those disabled in defence of American liberty.”

November 22nd: As can be seen in Hamilton's pay book, all of his men regardless of rank received payments of cash, and some men articles, on this date.

December 1st: Stationed near New Brunswick, New Jersey, General Washington wrote in a report to the President of Congress, that the British had formed along the Heights, opposite New Bunswick on the Raritan River, and notably that, "We had a smart canonade whilst we were parading our Men...." Alexander Hamilton's company pay book placed he and his men at New Brunswick in around this time (see image scans 25, 28, 34, and others) making it likely that Hamilton had been present and helped prevent the British from crossing the river while the Continental Army was still on the opposite side. In his Memoirs of My Own Life, vol. 1, James Wilkinson recorded that:

After two days halt at Newark, Lord Cornwallis on the 30th November advanced upon Brunswick, and ar- Dec. 1. rived the next evening on the opposite bank of the Rariton, which is fordable at low water. A spirited cannonade ensued across the river, in which our battery was served by Captain Alexander Hamilton,* but the effects on eitlierside, as is usual in contests between field batteries only, were inconsiderable. Genei'al Washington made a shew of resistance, but after night fall decamped...

Though Wilkinson was not present at this event, John C. Hamilton similarly recorded in both his Life of Alexander Hamilton [x] and History of the Republic [x] that Hamilton was part of the artillery firing the cannonade during this event. Though there is no firsthand account of Hamilton's presence here, it is highly likely that he and his company was involved in holding off the British so that the Continental Army could retreat.

December 4th?: Either on this date, or close to it, Alexander Hamilton’s second lieutenant, James Gilleland, left the company by resigning his commission to General Washington on account of “domestic inconveniences, and other motives,” according to a later letter Hamilton wrote on March 6th of 1777.

December 5th: Another return table appears in the George Washington Papers within the Library of Congress. This table is headed, "Return of the States of part of two Companeys of artilery Commanded by Col Henery Knox & Capt Drury & Capt Lt Moores of Capt Hamiltons Com." The Papers of Alexander Hamilton editors calendar this table, and note that Hamilton's "company had been assigned at first to General John Scott’s brigade but was soon transferred to the command of Colonel Henry Knox." They also note that the table "is in the writing of and signed by Jotham Drury...." [x]

The table, as seen above, notes part of the "Troop Strength" (as the Library of Congress notes) of Captain Jotham Drury and Captain Alexander Hamilton's men. As regards Hamilton's company, the portion that was recorded here amounted to 33 men.

December 19th: Within his Warrent Book No. 2, General George Washington wrote on this date a payment “To Capn Alexr Hamilton” for himself and his company of artillery, “from 1st Sepr to 1 Decr—1562 [dollars].” As reprinted within The Papers of Alexander Hamilton.

December 25th: Within Bucks County, Pennsylvania, hours before the famous Christmas Day crossing of the Delaware River by Washington and the Continental Army, Captain-Lieutenant James Moore passed away from a "short but excruciating fit of illness..." as Hamilton would later recount in a letter of March 6th, 1777. According to Washington Crossing Historic Park, Moore has been the only identified veteran to have been buried on the grounds during the winter encampment. His original headstone read: "To the Memory of Cap. James Moore of the New York Artillery Son of Benjamin & Cornelia Moore of New York He died Decm. the 25th A.D. 1776 Aged 24 Years & Eight Months." [x] In his aforementioned letter, Alexander Hamilton remarked that Moore was "a promising officer, and who did credit to the state he belonged to...." As Hamilton and Moore spent the majority of their time physically together (and therefore leaving no reason for there to be surviving correspondence between the two), there is no clear idea of what their working relationship may have looked like.

December 26th: Battle of Trenton — Alexander Hamilton is believed to have fought in he battle with his two six-pound cannons, having marched at the head of General Nathanael Greene's column and being placed at the end of King Street at the highest point in the town. Michael E. Newton does note however that there is no direct, explicit evidence placing Hamilton at the battle, but with the knowledge of eighteen cannons being present as ordered by George Washington in his General Orders of December 25th, it is highly likely the above was the case (see Newton, Michael E. Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years, pp. 179-180; Newton cites a number of sources for circumstantial evidence: William Stryker's The Battles of Trenton and Princeton, Jac Weller's "Guns of Destiny: Field Artillery In the Trenton-Princeton Campaign" [Military Affairs, vol. 20, no. 1], and works by Broadus Mitchell).

December ???: Within Hamilton’s pay book, a note appears for December on the page dedicated to Uriah Crawford, a matross in his company. See a close up of the image scan below.

The note likely reads:

To Cash [per] for attendance during sickness [ampersand?] funeral expenses —

This note would thus indicate that Crawford likely passed away sometime during the month, and a funeral was held. That Hamilton paid the expenses for the funeral is quite a telling note. Crawford was also provided a pair of stockings in December.

Final Months - 1777:

January 2nd: Battle of Assumpink Creek — Near Trenton, the Continental Army positioned itself on one side of the Assumpink Creek to face the approaching British, who sought to cross the bridge into Trenton. In a letter of January 5th to John Hancock, Washington explained that "They attempted to pass Sanpink [sic: Assumpink] Creek, which runs through Trenton at different places, but finding the Fords guarded, halted & kindled their Fires—We were drawn up on the other side of the Creek. In this situation we remained till dark, cannonading the Enemy & receiving the fire of their Field peices [sic: pieces] which did us but little damage." According to James Wilkinson, who was present at this battle, Hamilton and his cannons were present. [x] Corroborating this, Henry Knox wrote in a letter to his wife of January 7th that, "Our army drew up with thirty or forty pieces of artillery in front", and an anonymous eyewitness account which noted that "within sevnty of eighty yards of the bridge, and directly in front of it, and in the road, as many pieces of artillery as could be managed were stationed" to stop the crossing of the British (see Raum, John. History of the City of Trenton, New Jersey, pp. 173-175). Further, another eyewitness account from a letter written by John Haslet reported a similar story (see Newton, Michael E. Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years, pg. 181; for Haslet's account, Newton cites Johnston, Henry P. The Campaigns of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn, Vol. 2, pg. 157). This surely would have been a sight to behold.

January 3rd: Battle of Princeton -- Overnight, the Continental Army marched to Princeton, New Jersey with a train of artillery. Once more, Alexander Hamilton was not explicitly mentioned to have been present at the battle, however with 35 artillery pieces attacking the British (see again Henry Knox's letter of January 7th), and the large role these played in the battle, there is little doubt that Hamilton and his men played a part in this crucial victory (see Newton, Michael E. Alexander Hamilton: The Formative Years, pg. 182). According to legend, one of Hamilton's cannons fired upon Nassau Hall, destroying a painting of King George II. However, this has been disproven by many different scholars and writers, including Newton.

January 20th: In a letter to his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Hansen Harrison, George Washington requests Harrison to “forward the Inclosed to Captn Hamilton….” Unfortunately, the letter Washington intended to be given to Alexander Hamilton has not been found. It is believed by both the editors of Washington and Hamilton’s papers that this letter contained Washington’s request for Hamilton to join his military family.

Also on January 20th: Many of Hamilton’s men received payments of cash on this date. Alongside cash, one man, John Martim, a matross in Hamilton’s company, was paid cash “per [Lieutenant] Thompson” for his “going to the Hospital.” The hospital in particular, and the circumstances surrounding Martim’s stay are unknown. [x]

January 25th: As printed in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, an advertisement appeared in the Pennsylvania Evening Post directly naming Hamilton. Only one sentence, the advertisement alerts Hamilton that he “should hear something to his advantage” by “applying to the printer of this paper….” Presumably this regarded George Washington wishing to make Hamilton his newest aide-de-camp.

January 30th: Alongside cash, a greatcoat, and cash per “Doctor [Chapman?]” and a cash balance due to him, Alexander Hamilton paid his third lieutenant Thomas Thompson for gathering “sundries in Philadelphia” and for his “journey to Camp”. See close up of the image scan below. [x]

Several other later pages in the pay book indicate that Hamilton and his men were in Philadelphia at some point in January and February. It is thus plausible that Hamilton went to see the printer of the Pennsylvania Evening Post and it may be possible that Lieutenant Thompson had accompanied him and have had picked up his items while in the city, however whether or not Hamilton actually made that journey, and Thompson’s involvement are my speculation only. It is also entirely possible that Thompson's "journey to Camp" was in reference to seeing the doctor, and had picked up the "sundries" then.

March 1st: At Morristown, New Jersey, in his General Orders of this date, George Washington announces and appoints Alexander Hamilton “Aide-De-Camp to the Commander in Chief,” and wrote that Hamilton was “to be respected and obeyed as such.”

March 6th: Alexander Hamilton writes a letter to the Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York regarding his artillery company for the last time. Hamilton explains a delay in writing due to having only “recently recovered from a long and severe fit of illness.” He goes on to explain the state of the company—that only two officers, lieutenants Thomas Thompson and James Bean, remained with the company and that Lieutenant Johnson "began the enlistment of the Compan⟨y,⟩ contrary to his orders from the convention, for the term of a year, instead of during the war" which, Hamilton explained, "with deaths and desertions; reduces it [the company] at present to the small number of 25 men." Hamilton then requests that Thomas Thompson be raised to Captain-Lieutenant, for Lieutenant Bean, "is so incurably addicted to a certain failing, that I cannot, in justice, give my opinion in favour of his preferment."

Remarkably, the New York Provincial Company of Artillery still survives to this day, and is the longest (and oldest) continually serving regular army unit in the history of the United States. For a deeper history of the company up to the present day, see this article from the American Battlefield Trust. The company are commonly referred to as “Hamilton’s Own” in honor of the young man who raised the company in 1776.

[gallusrostromegalus]

Bleach is full of characters who cannot fucking stand people they ostensibly work alongside. In AEIWAM, who holds the deepest, most caustic grudge(s) in Hueco Mundo and/or Soul Society?

BOY FUCKIN' HOWDY there are some deeply caustic and fucked up relationships and I dumped battery acid on the existing ones, then made up more for AEIWAM. Pick Who you want to hear about first:

Yamamoto and his Ex-Wife (OC).

Yamamoto and every single major and minor noble house, the Shiba clan, the Urahara clan, the central 46, the Punishment squad, Every Single Provincial Governor, and One Monkey Specifically.

Mayuri in General but things are particularly fucked between him and Nemu, Jizo (his zanpaktou), Captain Unohana, Kon, Kisuke Urahara, and The Actual King Of Hell.

The mans done fuckt up.

Gin is another strong contender for Worst Coworker Of All Time, esp in regards to Matsumoto and Kira, but definitely his most bizarre relationships are with Aizen and Urahara.

Speaking of Urahara, the man is a magnet for Drama, and is currently on the Shit List of... yeah, it's actually shorter to list the people Kisuke has NOT seriously pissed off at this point.

As in, among his theoretical immediate coworkers, the only people without a *specific* axe to grind with him are Matsumoto and Zaraki, and that is soley because they have not had the opportunity to work with him directly.

Yet.

If you asked Urahara to name his greatest nemesis though, he'd probably pick Don Kanonji.

In a dark horse of Drama, Retsu Unohana has recently made a discovery that's put her already-kinda-tense relationship with her medical mentor Tenjiro Kirinji in an awful new light and that is brewing into a nasty fucking brawl.

And she's only Kirinji's Second biggest Hater :)

None of the Arrancar really get along with each other, mostly because carnivores tend to be solitary and need a lot of personal space but fucking nobody likes Nnoitra.

Aizen, who hired Nnoitra, does not like Nnoitra.

You'd think his biggest hater among the arrancar would be Harribel on account of the Misogyny, but it's actually Aaroniero and Arruruerie.

...because they're not quite what they appear to be :)

Beyond the arrancar, Zaraki Kenpachi has beef with nnoitra that transcends lifetimes

Ironically, self-described self-centered asshole Grimmjow is the most social of the Arrancar, with his gang of Adjuchas followers and his extremely one-sided homoerotic rivalry with Ulquiorra and heck, he even has borderline-normal conversations with Coyote Starrk, when Coyote is awake.

Zommari and Sayzel would each beat him to death with a chiar if give half a chance, and for the same reason: Cat Hair.

Later in the Series, Grimmjow manages to move himself to the top of Yoruichi Shihon's "To Kill" list by attending the Seireitei Flower Festival.

Barragan is generally not well-liked but his most utterly seething hatred is reserved for a Roadrunner.

Speaking of Hollow-adjacent Persons, the Visoreds get along pretty well with each other, and of them Kensei and Mashiro are probably the closest, but there is Just One Thing you cannot mention around them because it will stir up a century-old and extremely bloody argument.

I'm still forming up what's going on with Yhwach and the Sternritter but DEAR GOD there is so much fucked up shit in there. Like. It's a cult there was no way this was coming out well but HOO BOY.

Lillie barro's #1 Nemesis in the Court Guards is Yachiru Kusajishi tho. She thinks he's mildly funny.

Lots of people die but the worst death so far is probably PePe Waccabrada at the hands of Retsu Unohana. He has it coming though.

Unless you count what happens to Giselle but the issue there is really that she does not die.

Definitely the most fucked up Quincy is Kanae Ishida, whose rage not even death can stop.

And of course,

Ichigo and Isshin Kurosaki

[artist-issues]

Wait, hold up. You wanna run that by me again? People are saying he didn’t deserve to be turned into a beast? When he literally was rude for no reason to that “old lady”?

Yup. Like he was just a teenager, he should be cut some slack, she was setting him up.

But it’s like

Yeah

She was setting him up because she knew he had no love in his heart. Do you know how horrible a King with no love in his heart would be when the Prince grows up? Do you know how awful the “little poor provincial town” would have it in the shadow of a Prince who reaches adulthood with the kind of character and heart that shuts old women out in the cold? The Enchantress did. So she cursed him so that he’d develop into a kind, gentle, loving man. There’s a reason the curse lasted until his twenty-first birthday. That’s adulthood. He had till then to learn to love.

And you know what else?

Of course the castle and servants would be cursed too.

That’s the Beast’s first lesson: you’re being cursed because when you have no love for anything but yourself, it’s the people closest to you who suffer for it. His household is a living object lesson for him to be faced with, day after day, for ten years, about how the consequences of your actions affect more than just you—they affect the people who depend on you. Really important lesson for the King of a kingdom to learn.

And even if that weren’t enough, which it is, don’t come griping to me about the servants being cursed for something the Prince did. Riddle me this: why is the Prince answering the door? Why isn’t a footman doing that? Why isn’t Lumiere doing that?

Why is it they’re turned into furniture instead of little beasts? Why is the first scene they’re introduced in an old MAN begging for shelter from the bitter cold, and choosing to welcome him in despite “The Master?”

Why is their big number “Be Our GUEST?”

The answers to those questions aren’t given but it’s strongly implied that, instead of doing their jobs, and instead of standing up to their Master up to and including the incident with the Enchantress, they used to just stand to the side, making no sacrifices, taking no risks.

The theme of the movie is “true love is self-sacrifice.” Hospitality is one of the most self-sacrificial practices you can engage in. You’re literally making yourself vulnerable: you’re inviting someone into your home, you’re putting their comfort before your own, you’re giving them your hard-earned food and heat and drink and time, you’re allowing them to come into your sanctuary, your safe space, and judge it while you make them comfortable. Be Our Guest, indeed! Standing up to the Master, indeed! They’ve learned their lesson by the time Belle and her father are on the scene.

The thing is, we love to try and excuse away the responsibility of the main character because we love to try and excuse away our own character flaws. Blame it on trauma. That’s not the point. The point is, for the story to work, and for the fictional kingdom to have a happy ending with a Prince who’s like that, the Beast has to grow out of his character flaws. He has a problem, and it needs solving—how he got the problem is irrelevant.

And there’s just so little chance that a Prince, who has everything in life that he could ever want and is dependent on nobody, for anything, would ever feel the need for love. Or worse, he’d never feel the need to correct himself, or change, or grow in any way. He needed to have some discipline—some MAJOR discipline, some KINGDOM-SAVING discipline—in order to even be the kind of guy that could notice a peasant girl’s self-sacrificial loving nature, much less value her and fall in love with her.

Thank goodness for the Enchantress and the Curse. Or else this fairy tale could’ve turned into the French Revolution.

[jojo-schmo]

Beauty and the Beast, but it's Metadede?

Ohohoho-!! This one really got me thinking!! :D If I had unlimited emotional bandwidth and time this could be a fun concept to explore a BUNCH! I'm a sucker for fairy tales! I'm not capable of fully developing this idea right now, but I did brainstorm a little bit!

There's some aspects of that story that I just can't think of good parallels for (Like Gaston, Belle's dad, Belle's character motivations and such). So this is more Beauty and the Beast inspired than being a perfect retelling.

Anyways, ENOUGH TALK. LET'S GO.

So when I read this ask, I immediately got slammed with a very passionate and explosive Brain Blast: Dedede as Beast!! BUT he's got an appearance inspired by King D-Mind (And Dark Mind by extension) and a beastly demeanor like his Primal form in Forgotten Land. So this is not Shadow Dedede!! Important distinction!

Like Dedede's personality in early Kirby games, he would be selfish and arrogant enough to be cursed by an Enchantress to find true love and compassion. (So the rose and its petals are still connected to this curse's time limit.) But at his core there is a being capable of love, compassion, and self-sacrifice! It just takes a bit of character development to get there!

Meta stumps me a bit more. He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy singing about how "there must be more than this provincial life..." And who would Gaston even be?? Beats me.

So instead of being a damsel from a small town with big dreams, maybe he's some kind of traveling knight or mercenary who has always worked alone. He's got a stoic demeanor that can even come off as cold since he doesn't make many meaningful connections with others. But those walls he's put up over his life are indeed capable of coming down with a little care!

You'll also have to forgive me for how little I changed Meta's design... I did this during my lunch break and all I could think of was adding some gold flourishes to his outfit- but there is definitely more potential there than I came up with!!

Why would he get stuck being Dedede's prisoner? Perhaps he bartered someone else's imprisonment for his own. Or he found himself in debt by chance to the King, or accidentally disturbed/destroyed/or damaged something important to him and has to pay with a prison sentence.

Whatever the reason, he's truly stuck living there. And they super do not get along at first. Dedede's fiery temper and Meta's colder exterior would be at odds a lot of the time.

Jumping ahead a bit, here's that scene from the original where Beast defends Belle from a bunch of wild wolves (but here they're Primal Awoofies!)

And from there, the character development continues.... Meta warms up a little and shows more emotion and vulnerability than he ever has before. Dedede cools down in turn and learns that he is worthy of affection and genuine connection... And so on and so on~

As for the supporting character roles filled by "Beast's servants," I figure most of Kirby's allies could be in this role! I just only explored Bandee and Kirby to start with.

I had trouble coming up with household object forms for them (granted I didn't invest that much time into it). So I thought about another time-sensitive form they could take that is high-stakes enough that they'd want to turn back to normal and break the curse. So I came up with the ghostly angel form that happens when you get knocked out in Kirby Fighters. :)

So there you have it! A few days worth of daydreaming for a metadede Beauty and the Beast-type story! Hehe. If anyone happens to find themselves inspired and wants to develop this further as an exercise in AU writing or just plain having fun with it, DO IT! This is my donation to the internet, lol.

...Just please share it with me. I love reading people's stories. <3

[whencyclopedia]

Louis XIV and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

Beginning in the 16th century, Protestants in France struggled in their rapport with royal power. Protestants owed the recognition of their rights more to sovereign decrees than to genuine tolerance or religious pluralism. The realization that the monarch held the authority to revoke what had been granted led to suspicion and mistrust toward rulers. Under Louis XIV of France (r. 1643–1715), they lost the rights gained under Henry IV of France (r. 1589–1610).

Edict of Nantes Undermined

Louis XIV, known also as the Sun King (le Roi Soleil), was one of the most illustrious French kings. His reign was marked by cultural and military achievements as well as endless wars and religious intolerance. During the reign of his grandfather Henry IV, the effects of the Edict of Nantes in 1598 allowed French Catholics and Protestants to cohabitate in an uneasy peace. After the death of Henry IV in 1610, the Catholic Church and monarchy began plotting the removal of protections provided under the Edict of Nantes leading to its Revocation in 1685.

Early in Louis XIV’s reign, there was a season of religious tranquility for Protestants. With Cardinal Mazarin (l. 1601–1661) at his side, Louis XIV initially thought that strict respect for previous edicts and the refusal to grant additional rights was the most effective way to reduce the number of Protestants in his kingdom. Mazarin himself exercised tolerance in granting employment and government positions to Protestants, and he did not give satisfaction to the complaints of Catholic clergy who protested the construction of Protestant temples. A royal declaration in 1652 recognized Protestant fidelity to the Crown and promised the maintenance of the Edict of Nantes with the enjoyment of all its benefits. In 1656 this declaration was revoked and the exercise of Reformed religion was forbidden in places where it had recently been established. Provincial synods sent a delegation to present their grievances to the king who authorized them to hold a general synod in November 1659 at Loudun. The king’s representative reproached the Protestants in attendance for their insolence and announced that this would be their last general synod.

After the death of Mazarin, Louis XIV was determined to become the absolute master of his kingdom. With hostile measures, he sought to paralyze Protestant vitality and bring about conversions to Catholicism. The king reinstated the Commissions as the principal means of repression through which he sent commissioners into the provinces to investigate reported or supposed violations of the Edict of Nantes. Reformed churches were placed in an accusatory posture and had to justify their existence while Catholic Church representatives argued systematically for the closure of Reformed churches. Dozens of churches were forcibly closed in the provinces of Bas-Languedoc and the Cévennes where there were about 140,000 Protestants, or religionnaires as they were called.

Continue reading...

[caffedrine]

Hii, I could never find any posts about it, but what was the plot or main conflict of Chevalier's sequel? I still can't seem to find any spoilers on it

Weird, I could have sworn someone was working on Chevalier's sequel.

Chevalier sequel spoilers as well as Gilbert Route spoilers below.

Getting Gilbert to agree to an alliance with Rhodolite is the central plot of Chevalier's sequel. (You know, the alliance Gilbert himself suggested in the prologue? Yeah, that one)

First of all, Gilbert has two goals, a main one, and a real/hidden one.

Remember how, in all the season one routes where the princes were able to sign a peace treaty/alliance with Obsidian? Apparently, it doesn't count since only a provincial lord/military commander/town drunk signed the treaty and not the central Obsidian government. But, Gilbert is offering to sign a real peace treaty that Obsidian would be beholden to, if only the now king of Rhodolite would come to Obsidian to sign it.

So, both Leon and Chevalier have to go to Obsidian to sign the treaty (and I'm guessing Yves too in his upcoming sequel).

When they get to Obsidian, Gilbert refuses to sign the treaty (the one that he personally invited them to Obsidian to sign). Gilbert's reason is that the entirety of Obsidian nobility isn't on board with the treaty, and he wants Chevalier and Chevalier's people to win a majority of the Obsidian Nobles over to the pro-Rhodolite alliance side.

That is Gilbert's official goal, and the conflict for the first half.

And now we get Gilbert's unofficial goal - it's all about Emma. He thinks that Chevalier has hoodwinked her into marrying him, and is trying to separate them. He tries a couple of things to separate them, but in the end, he is defeated by the power of Emma and Chevalier's love and trust for each other. That is the conflict in the second half of the route.

Emma and Chevalier also start treating Gilbert's bedroom as a save point, like in a horror RPG game, so that was pretty fun too.

[dekarios]

Five Books That Conjure Entirely New Worlds

The best-written stories can make readers feel as if they have passed through mundane states of being and been brought over to another universe.

By Jeff VanderMeer

Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov

Perhaps the most effervescent and elegiacal of Nabokov’s novels, Pale Fire famously consists of a long poem written by John Shade, an English professor at a small fictional college, which is explicated in extensive endnotes by his new neighbor and self-proclaimed close friend Charles Kinbote, who has come to rural Appalachia from a country he calls Zembla. The poem itself conjures up hints and glimpses of a place after death, while Kinbote’s ongoing commentary builds up a rich and detailed story about an exiled king, an assassination plot, and an unknown European land. But Kinbote’s references and allusions, over time, become more and more unreliable, and the shape of the novel reminds us that what we think of the truth is at times completely dependent on whose perspective shapes our view of events. Pale Fire opens out beyond its central verse into a wider space that asks us to decide what is fantasy, what is fact, and whose reality to live within.

Primeval and Other Times, by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

In a series of interwoven vignettes that roam from character to character, the fearless Nobel Prize–winning novelist Tokarczuk explores how folklore, ritual, and strife shape the minds of the inhabitants of a village appropriately called Primeval, over a long period starting in 1914. Dreamlike and yet viscerally real, the book feels like what you might recall in that space between sleep and wakefulness, when people are more in touch with otherwise-hidden instincts and emotions; meanwhile, the roving from one point of view to another recalls the technique of the avant-garde filmmaker Luis Buñuel. The author touches on key events in 20th-century Polish history while also introducing unreal phenomena, such as archangels who watch over the village and seem truly alien. You may never know what it was really like to live in a village in Poland during the period in question, but in Tokarczuk’s skillful hands you receive something both more intimate and more fulfilling: an understanding of the life of the mind in a different time.

Brodeck, by Philippe Claudel, translated by John Cullen

The past is another country, as the famous saying goes. But novels can help us enter territories otherwise closed off to us. In Brodeck, a stranger arrives in a remote French village in the mountains, disturbing the everyday existence of its inhabitants, who have secrets to hide. Brodeck, a nature wanderer who has himself returned to the village after time away, then assembles a “report” on the clash between the world the stranger brings to the villagers and the world they try to force him to accept—a disconnect that creates a dramatic, tragic conflict between the past and the present. But Brodeck’s own experiences outside the community begin to influence the telling of the tale. As the stranger suffers from the clash of two crucially different views of reality, the report becomes an indictment and a record of human folly with political undertones. By the end, Claudel’s novel is a heartbreaking and stunning work of fiction about provincialism and secrets that I think about frequently, unable to escape the unknowable place it documents in such meticulous yet compassionate detail.

The Ravicka novels, by Renee Gladman

In understated prose, Gladman’s dispatches from an imaginary city-state remake the very idea of architecture into a new concept. One of the four books in the series, Houses of Ravicka, chronicles the quest of the city comptroller to find a house that has disappeared from its set location, while an invisible house begins to appear elsewhere. Similarly, other stories set in Ravicka address odd physics, ritual, logic, and illogic in peculiar ways that nevertheless feel modern and relevant. In a sense, Gladman defamiliarizes our world to show us how it works, and her novels wrench this kind of fantastical fiction into the 21st century by referencing the mundane municipal roles often left out of other works. It’s no wonder, then, that her exploration of Ravicka has spilled into her nonfiction and visual art, because the sociological and philosophical questions she poses feel as if they require expression in other media as well.

Dark Matter, by Aase Berg, translated by Johannes Göransson

A work of phantasmagorical, erotic, postapocalyptic unease by one of Sweden’s most important poets, Dark Matter exists in a nightmare state that entangles nature and the pollution of human-built environments in unsettling ways. A hybrid composition of prose and poetry, the book has a tactile quality that colonizes you without mercy. “I now slowly fold myself like a muscle against the wet clay to press the flesh against the sleep-gland’s mouths,” Berg writes, the terrain fusing with the speaker’s body. “I will sleep now in my bird body in the down, and a bitter star will radiate eternally above the glowing face’s watercourse.” Despite the way Berg implicates the reader in what amounts to body horror, by some alchemy she ends up transforming the reader’s initial fright into feelings of febrile fascination. Berg pulls in string theory, folklore, references to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and what appear to be H. R. Giger–esque flourishes, meshing them with a contaminated yet still powerful view of nature. There is no way to describe this trenchant, uncompromising view of a transformed landscape other than to continue to quote from it: “But time runs on time and starvation and the weakness carries me in across the gray regions. And the soul’s dark night will slowly be lowered through me.” This is the ultimate other world, created from broken pieces of our own.

[lemurious]

[triumvirate]

Drabbles and ficlets for @lesmis-prompts. October 21st: Triumvirate. Also on AO3

An AU for when the revolution succeeds, if only for a brief couple of years. Honestly, I was going to make it darker, with shadows of the '93 - but somehow it kept insisting on hope instead, even if it ultimately comes at a cost.

(Might turn it into a proper AU and a much longer fic one day).

The soldiers are approaching, the heavy cannons are being rolled ahead, barely visible through the smoke, and Enjolras turns back for one last encouragement to his lieutenants – and sees the crowd.

Wine-sellers and shopkeepers, lamplighters and priests, maids and seamstresses, his fellow students and professors too, and sailors on shore leave, and ladies of the night and what even looks like a policeman, just around the corner.

Gavroche shouts something unintelligible from the roof of the Musain, god only knows how he got there, perhaps his angel’s wings have sprouted a bit prematurely, but Enjolras hears the triumph in his voice, and he knows that the streets around them must be bristling with barricades, and he takes a deep breath and starts in a clear, high voice, Allons, enfants de la Patrie, holding a flag in his right arm and wrapping his left around Courfeyrac’s shoulders, who is helping Combeferre up, and the lieutenant of the National Guard is looking confusedly behind him, and the crowd roars.

They have come when called.

--

They do not even need to kill the king. He takes care of it himself, and the cleanup goes faster and smoother than in the stories they’d heard from their parents, a noble in exile is almost a rite of passage this time.

The prisons are full, but Courfeyrac has changed the laws for the treatment of all prisoners, though they don’t have enough wardens with so many being sacked from excessive use of force, and eventually he turns to the old man who’d stood side by side with Marius during the triumph, and asks for help.

They have not rolled out the guillotine yet, though they could not get around the summary executions, always held at dawn and out of sight of the citizens, and if they got drunk on wine and philosophy after the first one, shaking in each other’s hands when the memories hit, by the time they reached the eighth they got used to the minute of silence followed by a clear command and a thought sent towards the future.

They sack the ministers, but keep the lesser bureaucrats, because the country stretches far beyond Paris, and they don’t have time to take care of it all, busy as they are with the reforms. Courfeyrac’s prisons and courts and a single, unified law code is only the beginning.  

The doctors are now paying house calls in the alleys where nobody had ever seen a doctor, unless one had been signing a death certificate, and while Combeferre gets death threats daily for the taxes that he had levied to pay for them, he shrugs them off, at least in public.

Enjolras, now, Enjolras takes up the mantle of his Patria and begins to spread the revolution beyond the borders of France, and barricades rise in Vienna and in Berlin, and Rome is on fire, and Madrid is shuddering from explosions, and London is taking a lesson from its former colony.

Their friends are all helping them run the government, but in the end, it has always been the three of them. The Triumvirate, ringing through the streets, written on the walls. Courfeyrac. Combeferre. Enjolras.

--

They think of Robespierre, Saint-Just and Couthon, and swear not to take that next step towards terror, even if the rumors from Marseilles are speaking of a new king, a relative of who knows which king or emperor, returning with the army and the backing of all provincial nobles who’d only been paying taxes when the guard was stationed outside their villas to collect them.

They think of Caesar, Crassus and Pompey, and swear to keep their Republic from falling back into the hands of those who would make it an Empire. (They refuse to even consider the other Roman triumvirs; they think themselves beyond such petty warlords.)

They had found the treasury empty, and the guards and the weapons and the medicine and the schooling and the soup and the work offices all cost money, and soon the tax-wars of France are in the front pages all through the Continent. They barely sleep, and their faces are lined with perpetual care mixed with brazen determination, and their decisions are harsher and their sentences are tougher by the day, though they still would not turn on each other. The line becomes thin, sometimes, between their Triumvirate and those they have succeeded, but it hasn’t been erased yet.

They hear of war, now – only in a few districts, only a few villages at a time, but open war, paid for from abroad, and families are torn apart and houses lie in ruins, as in every war before theirs.

And yet. The epidemics have all but stopped, in a single year of a sanitation campaign. The hovels have turned into houses; small and humble, but with a window and a fireplace, and water nearby instead of a well. The bakers and the fishmongers, and so many traders they haven’t ever really thought about before their victory, are wearing new hats, because their business is booming, because suddenly everyone can afford better wares.

There is a new song in the streets of Paris, and while it is dressing down the Triumvirate in the most scathing manner possible, they know exactly who has put it together, and can hear the hope between the lines.  

--

They last a year, and then another, until the fires go out in Europe, quenched by the iron of the sword and the coin and the machine, and the skirmishes in the provinces suddenly turn into armies marching on Paris, ready to starve them if they do not give themselves up to the new king.

They have barely raised a military, they’ve simply had other preoccupations, and secretly they all agree that they’ve paid blood enough for the revolution already, even if it hasn’t been their own.

They have the daring, and the knowledge, and the kindness, to negotiate a treaty. A simple trade. The end of the war, in exchange for the three of them.

They walk outside, together, hand in hand, and the sun is blazing down on them, just like that June morning two years ago, when they knew they had won. They do not speak as they walk towards the gates, to where the new king has stationed the guards, ready with their guns. The regime will return. All through the night they sat with heavy hearts as they wrote their wills, as courageous to speak of defeat as they did of victory.

The people are lining the streets, throwing carnations under their feet. High on the rooftops, a boyish, irreverent voice starts a song, and soon the entire Paris is singing as the Triumvirate is walking to their execution, and someone has thrown a flag in their way, and Enjolras lifts it up with a smile, bright and radiant as the dawn when they walk through the gates, side by side, and barely hear the command to fire through the words still ringing in their ears.  

[fictionadventurer]

Pieces of The Man Born to Be King that are lingering in my head lately:

After Jesus heals the man born blind, he goes back to talk to him, and the blind man rhapsodizes about how beautiful it is to see the moon for the first time and is like, "Can you imagine what it must be like to see it new like this?" And then Jesus quotes Genesis because he's remembering when He created the moon!

Pilate's hearing Jesus' case and doesn't care too much about this provincial religious dispute. Then the Jewish leaders tell him that Jesus has made himself a god, and Pilate goes back to Jesus and is like, "Where are you from?" with an almost desperate fear, because a god walking the earth is a much more real possibility to a pagan.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot

By Ben Johnson

Published 30 October 2020

Remember, Remember, the 5th of November, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot!

Fireworks can be seen all over France every July 14 as the nation celebrates Bastille Day.

Across the USA some ten days earlier on the 4th of July, Americans celebrate their Independence Day.

In Britain, the words of a children’s nursery rhyme “Remember, Remember the 5th of November, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot” are chanted as fireworks fly and bonfires gradually consume a human effigy known as the ‘Guy.’

So who was this Guy? And why is he remembered so fondly 400 years after his death?

It could be said that the story started when the Catholic Pope of the day failed to recognise England’s King Henry VIII‘s novel ideas on separation and divorce.

Henry, annoyed at this, severed ties with Rome and appointed himself head of the Protestant Church of England.

Protestant rule in England was maintained and strengthened through the long and glorious reign of his daughter Queen Elizabeth I.

When Elizabeth died without children in 1603, her cousin James VI of Scotland became King James I of England.

James had not been long on the throne before he started to upset the Catholics within his kingdom.

They appear to have been unimpressed with his failure to implement religious tolerance measures, getting a little more annoyed when he ordered all Catholic priests to leave the country.

A group of Roman Catholic nobles and gentlemen led by Robert Catesby conspired to essentially end Protestant rule with perhaps the biggest ‘bang’ in history.

Their plan was to blow up the King, Queen, church leaders, assorted nobles, and both Houses of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder strategically placed in the cellars beneath the Palace of Westminster.

The plot was apparently revealed when the Catholic Lord Monteagle was sent a message warning him to stay away from Parliament as he would be in danger, the letter being presented to Robert Cecil, James I’s Chief Minister.

Some historians believe that Cecil had known about the plot for some time and had allowed the plot to ‘thicken’ to both ensure that all the conspirators were caught and to promote Catholic hatred throughout the country.

And the Guy? Guy Fawkes was born in Yorkshire on 13 April 1570.

A convert to the Catholic faith, Fawkes had been a soldier who had spent several years fighting in Italy.

It was during this period that he adopted the name Guido (Italian for Guy), perhaps to impress the ladies.

What we do know is that Guido was arrested in the early hours of the morning of November 5th 1605, in a cellar under the House of Lords, next to the 36 kegs of gunpowder, with a box of matches in his pocket and a very guilty expression on his face.

Under torture, Guy Fawkes identified the names of his co-conspirators. Many of these were the relations of a Catholic gentleman, Thomas Percy.

Catesby and three others were killed by soldiers while attempting to escape.

The remaining eight were imprisoned in the Tower of London before being tried and executed for High Treason.

They experienced that quaint English method of execution, first experienced almost 300 years earlier by William ‘Braveheart’ Wallace.

They too were hanged, drawn, and quartered.

*Hanged, drawn and quartered:

Victims were dragged on a wooden hurdle behind a horse to the place of execution where they were first of all hanged, then their genitals were removed.

They were disembowelled and beheaded.

Their bodies were finally quartered, the severed pieces often displayed in public.

—

Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was an unsuccessful attempted regicide against King James I by a group of English Catholics led by Robert Catesby, who considered their actions attempted tyrannicide and who sought regime change in England after decades of religious persecution.

The plan was to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605, as the prelude to a popular revolt in the Midlands during which King James's nine-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was to be installed as the new head of state.

[paranoid-radio]

GO AWAY J-MAN I SAID I'M NOT GOING. Oh, ex-ex princeee i've got something really good for you! Oh, really?

WHAT THE FUCK IS SHE DOING HERE.

It's your lucky day, ex-ex prince, you're going to be king! King of whatever armpit of hell the king sends me to this time after she RATS us out. Yay. You told me to do the planning, your ex-ex majesty. So i've done it all for you! Your lovely sister is going to stage her own murder and we're going to help her with it. She'll run away so the both of you will never have to interact again and then you'll be crowned king. And why on EARTH would she do that? Because. And I know this is going to be VERYY difficult for you to understand because it involves someone having an authentic feeling and not acting purely out of their own self interest, but.. i'm in love. And I can't be with them here! So, to be safe I will do whatever it takes.

...For HIM?

NOT JASON DUMBASS, MADDOX?? If you even remember who they are. Oh, god.. This brings us to what you have to do, darling. Gallantly break out the mage from the prison. ABSOLUTELY NOT. It's your fault they're in there in the first place! What do you mean? You don't know? You've recruited him to your new coup without telling him why the old one failed. I WAS GOING TO GET AROUND TO IT.

Two years ago, this DUMBASS decided to kill the king! For very good reasons. Well, either way, he decided to rope in Maddox who was just quietly practicing magic and working at an Inn. THEY APPROACHED ME THEY WANTED MAGIC TO BE LEGAL AGAIN!! EITHER WAY.. As they were getting preparations ready to ward the entire palace and kill the king in one perfectly effective spell, THIS ONE decided he was just too impatient and stormed the palace himself! Getting Maddox locked in the dungeons and himself sent to a cushy provincial town TO FUCK AROUND FOR TWO YEARS.

Theo is this like your new tumblr-exclusive copypasta

[streets-in-paradise]

New Moves - Dastan x (Fem)Plus Size Reader

Word Count: 3.600 

Warnings: Dastan loosing his shit over a chubby, curvy reader and mutual teasing happening. 

Summary:  A childhood friend of Sharaman and Nizam returns to the capital of the empire with his daughter. Dastan was still a kid the last time she visited the palace and things didn’t work out very well. Their reintroduction as adults becomes his chance to make things up when he realizes he can’t stop laying eyes on her. 

Glossary: Shatranj - Persian game, predecessor of modern chess. 

Inspired by ♫: Princess of Cairo - Eli ( I listened to this while writing,you may want to check it)

Notes: I wrote this for me, so expect some self indulgence lol 

The governor of the most prosperous of the distant provincial corners of the empire was a man chosen because of his strong connections to the royal family, but always enjoyed proving his capacity. He never stayed in the capital for long, unless his presence would be required for a matter of war. A complex and crucial task was commanded to him when the king put him in charge of that territory, one that required the maximum commitment. Seeing him with his family was rare, but on that occasion he was about to become the one asking his friend for a committed favor. The protection of his most precious treasure, his young daughter, who was coming to spend a time on the capital as an obligated step to become a fully refined lady. 

Garsiv and Tus had to practically drag Dastan to the receivement. He didn’t have fond memories of her and he was pretty sure she didn’t have any of him either. They both were children at the time of her last visit, and for most of it he remembered bickering to no end. The one positive thing about it was that, although he didn’t remember the exact cause, it didn’t start with her being demeaning to him due to judging his origins. It was surely a silly matter of children, but she left furious and he didn’t like to remember that. 

“ Don’t worry, little brother. I bet she doesn’t even remember it.” Tus was attempting to calm him down. “ It happened so long ago… Why would she care?” 

“ Yes, you annoy us everyday and we still love you.” Garsiv added.” I remember she was very curious about you at first. Whatever happened between you, it was probably a misunderstanding.” 

“ One that made her despise me so much that she never came back.” Dastan recalled. “ Don’t try to make it seem smaller, I bet she still hates me.” 

“ Give yourself and her a second chance. “ Tus insisted, trying hard to be the voice of reason. “ You aren’t children anymore, she must have matured as much as you.” 

Garsiv bursted into laughter, showing blatant skepticism for that claim and frustrating all the good intentions of his eldest brother. 

“ Let’s hope her maturity outruns yours and Garsiv’s as well, for the sake of us all.” 

Dastan had little to no hope about that encounter, betting only on making it as less awkward as possible. He was not good at hiding his emotions, already famous for intempestive reactions, but he knew he couldn’t allow himself to accidentally offend her again. When the time came Tus went ahead first, making him wait for his turn to approach alongside Garsiv. The woman he saw cheerfully saluting his eldest brother was nothing like he would have expected from the girl he remembered. 

Only a shade of her remained in the soft features of her face. Her hair was longer, her eyes were more vivacious, her lips plumper and those weren’t the only side of her that seemed fuller. She was an exuberant beauty, her curves were impossible to hide even in a modest dress for travel. Her round hips swinging with each one of her confident steps got him way more distracted than what he should have allowed himself to be. 

That was how the youngest prince of Persia found you at the edge of your second introduction. To shamelessly check on you may haven’t been his intention, but you could tell he did by the drastic difference between his reaction to you and his brother’s next to him.

“ … and these are my brothers: Garsiv and Dastan. “  Prince Tus was reintroducing you all. “ … you may remember them.” 

One was looking at you with a cordial smile and welcoming demeanor, the other one seemed lost for any sort of intelligent response. 

“ I do.” You simply replied, your glance oscillated between one man and the other. “ The best Shatranj player I have ever met … and the boy who used to complain about being left behind to entertain me based on our similar ages because you don’t have any sisters.”  

" That will not be a problem anymore." Garsiv spoke for him. " Tus has many wives now, the palace is full of ladies and you will find no time to feel alone." 

You smiled at him in approbation of his sayings, but your attention was quickly back in the silent young brother. 

The surprise was mutual, although you were better prepared. Fame had warned you about the man he had become. A ferocious, unstoppable fighter bards often compared to a lion in their poetry. His stories were being sung at every corner of the empire and rumors said women were falling at his feet, since he was claimed to be the most wildly handsome man of the royal house. 

Gossips and legends turned out to be true and you felt the pride of the pioneer seeing it for yourself. He was your first crush, a failed one, back when people only acknowledged him as the street kid adopted by the king. You used to be fascinated with him, but he barely paid any attention to you. A matter of boys maturing slower than girls, your mother secretly explained to you a long time ago. At that age, he was surely clueless of what your reactions implied and the particular way in which you used to like him. Besides, the life he had before finding a family probably kept him used to being ignored. Getting attention was completely new to him, even more coming from a girl of his age. He didn't know how to react and neither of you were in good understanding of the situation because crushing was new to you as well. It was the recipe for an awkward dísaster, remembering it made you very curious about the effect that the changes of time had on him. 

The man in front of you was better looking than what the guesses of your imagination expected and he was noticing you. 

" ... Dastan." You called his name softly. " I hope to not be as boring and annoying to you as last time. " 

The eye contact was intense enough to weird the outside witnesses. 

" Surely not, my lady. '' Dastan replied, attempting to sound polite. In barely a moment you managed to make him feel regretful. " Welcome back! It has been so long since those simpler times. " 

You chuckled and he followed instinctively. 

" Of course, we all have changed. " You agreed, getting back into a more composed self. " Do you still play, Garsiv?" 

" I do, although not as often. " the prince answered ríght away, hoping the tension between his brother and you would be over. " I switched the playing board for real strategy planning in warfare. " 

" Bring it back anytime, I will be waiting. " 

You were drumming your fingers on top of the skirt of your dress, involuntary reflex of your genuine excitement, but Dastan couldn't help himself from being caught by it. He felt very wrong for noticing a glimpse of how thick your thighs probably were underneath. 

" I hope you will join us someday for a round, Tus. I haven't had the pleasure of playing against you. " He heard you following the conversation with his brothers, not long before you were back at him

 " How about you, Dastan? Back then you used to be a beginner player, I remember that Nizam was instructing you and he used to watch us play... Have you been practicing?"

He felt some of his usual flirty cheekiness slowly restauring. 

" I'm full of new moves to show you, I will not disappoint this time."

The encounter with more nobles forced a distraction and you had to excuse yourself from the royal trío to salute other people. 

As soon as you were away from them, sibling bickering started. 

" What's wrong with you?" Tus nagged Dastan. " Instants before you didn't even want to show up and now this?" 

" Dastan is not in his ríght mind at the moment. " Garsiv pointed out. " Look at him, his head is empty." 

" I'm surprised, that's all." The youngest defended himself. " Tus was ríght, she became a woman... and she is a very particular woman." 

" Particularly beautiful, eh?" The eldest teased him. " We saw you, we have an approximate idea of what's going through that little empty head of yours." 

" Just a bit of advice: don't take her to a tavern full of your uncivilized friends. She would cause a scandal just for entering there. Quite a few unrefined men would express rudely the same things you are thinking about her developed body of grownup girl." 

" Her provincial life must have made her used to that, Garsiv. Our local savages are gentlemen in comparison to theirs." 

Dastan was getting tired of their different versions of lecturing him. 

" Are you two giving me dating advice for a woman we just met? The one who clearly remembers I was awful to her when we were children for some reason I am not sure yet?" 

" Figure out what happened and fix it. " Garsiv concluded. " From all of us, she seems excited about you the most. "

His brother had a point and he was aware of that. Unfortunately, Dastan didn't find as many chances to put the advice in practice because you became harder to find than initially expected. Since you were actively choosing to socialize in the circle of Tus' wives like it was suggested to you, the younger prince was deprived of chances of getting close to you during the first few days. 

Exchanging furtive glances in the dining hall was pretty much all he got around that time. He would often wink at you from afar, inviting you to come closer, but you would only smirk in return. 

It was driving him insane, ironically punishing him for the perceived mistreatment of the past. He had no idea of when it would be over, but he was growing desperate. You didn't seem upset, but you were enjoying yourself playing with him and he was foolishly following your games. Chazing you subtly, waiting for the ríght moment to prove himself to you. 

The occasional rounds of Shantraj could have been a good opportunity, if you wouldn't have challenged everyone else first. He was being left for last on purpose, he had no doubt of that. After your expected turn to play against Garsiv like in the old times, you asked to face Nizam. It didn't work out well, he warned you about that before starting, but you wanted to obtain from it more valuable outcomes than the round's results. Reminding him of when he used to play with your father as kids and get both of them to share once more the playing anecdotes from their childhood friendship. 

After that, the following round was against Tus. Dastan was sure he would be the next one and he came up with an idea while he was watching you play against his eldest brother for the first time. 

He would make sure you would be playing against him and he would make you bet, obtaining more than just vindication from the victory. The truth, you would have to explain yourself to him about the past.

You defeated his eldest brother, all your moves played with fearless precision. Your acts could have been perceived as insolence, but that didn't matter to you at that particular round. Humiliating the heir of the persian throne worried you way less than hurting the ego of his uncle. 

" Congratulations! You have proved yourself well versed in games. " Tus cheered you. " However, I would love to play a new round soon. I shall vindicate myself. "

You smiled in return, he was clearly not the sort of man that would feel dismissed with your victory. 

" Of course! And as we are speaking I want to thank you. I'm learning a lot from your wives, sir. All lovely women who have received me so kindly. " 

" Haven't us, the lords of the land, done the same?" Garsiv snarked, clearly aiding Dastan although more mischievously than helpfully. " You are welcome to join us anytime, not just for games. My sisters in law see you so often that they may start thinking you are about to join them permanently." 

The joke didn't suit you right. He noticed it and didn't insist with it. 

" My father wants to find me a husband in the capital, he is here for advice from his greatest friends and thinks i haven't notice it. " You calmly explained. " The province has become a dangerous place for me. Many men that want me, he disapproves. Many men I disapprove want me. " 

Dastan feared that could be a callout to him, but said nothing. 

" King Sharaman and Lord Nizam are being consulted about it as we speak. Yesterday I could have tried winning, but I chose not to. Never piss off the man that holds your destiny in his hands. " 

You were opening up the them for real and the younger prince was craving to comfort you. 

"  Fate it's yours to decide. " He spoke softly to you. " ... But if you ever need a defender to protect your will of choice, my mouth and arms will be there for you. " 

Tus and Garsiv stared at each other in a desperate attempt to stiff their chuckles. Their little brother didn't pick the best word choices for his phrasing. 

He meant he would support you with his words and actions, but it almost sounded like an ' i'm yours to take' sort of statement. 

" That's very sweet, Dastan." You humbly and sincerely thanked him. " Between us? I'm particularly worried about your uncle's opinion. The Shantraj game was my attempt to show him I want to stay on his good side." 

The three princes were amused by the implications of your confession. You, the overconfident girl who came one day to make Dastan go insane, were surprisingly afraid of their uncle. Scared enough to show vulnerability, to pause your silly game in seek of shelter from the danger. 

" Are you afraid of Nizam?" Garsiv asked. " For real? Since when? That's absurd! " 

" Darling, there is nothing to be afraid of!" Dastan followed him, seeking to calm you with the purest sweetness. " Tell me this... Are you afraid of me?" 

He was waiting for your answer with the cutest smile and you couldn't help feeling a bit weak for him. 

" No, not at all. " 

" Then don't be afraid of him, we are very alike. I aspire to be like him someday. " 

They weren't, not to you at least. There were certain things that you had kept hushed for many years, just like the secret of that old crush. 

" Are you going to ask me now what happened for real the last time I was here or were you planning to compete for the truth?" 

" She got you, little brother. " Tus mocked Dastan. " She still remembers you are easily vulnerable to challenges. " 

" I almost jumped from a rooftop following him once. " 

" ... And I would have certainly catched you in my arms before letting you fall, if you would have climbed there with me." Dastan defended himself again. " If you would have trusted me." 

" How? Even when I was slimmer, I was still too heavy for you to hold me."  

He stood up out of sudden and his brothers had the certainty that he was about to do something recklessly stupid. 

" Let me lift you. I'm sure I was strong enough then and I am even stronger now. " 

The proposal left you in weird disbelief. 

" Now that is truly absurd! Why does that matter now? " 

" If you feel safe in my arms, that means you were wrong about me; and if you were wrong about me you have to accept you can be mistaken about Nizam." 

It didn't sound any smarter, but your heart raced to the thought of being held in his arms. 

" Alright, but this has nothing to do with my lack of trust in your uncle's judgment. " 

You stood up in front of him with a challenging demeanor, willing to let Dastan try picking you up. To your great surprise, he accomplished it with ease.

 In the blink of an eye he was carrying you bridal style. Being so close to him in such a strange context may not have been the ideal, but it felt really good. The closer look to his gorgeous face, your body softly pressed against his torso while his arms were holding you tight

... and that damn irresistible charm of his...

It was a great move played against your resistance. 

" How are you feeling, pretty one?" 

You felt that tease to the deepest corners of your being. 

" Safe, indeed... But I bet you wouldn't be able to carry me around the palace." 

Dastan began to walk out of the room, no hesitation and no warning. 

" See you later, my brothers! I'm going to show her around." 

As simply as that, you both disappeared from their sight. He heard you chuckling all the way out, but the laughing stopped when you realized he wasn't pulling you down any soon. 

It was his first time in days to be all alone with you and you had gifted it to him accidentally, falling for his games. 

" It's alright, you proved your point and it has been very funny. You can let me go now.." 

" What if I don't want to?" He playfully commented. " Tell me the truth you owe me first." 

You were visibly annoyed, but couldn't stay mad at him. 

" You weren't the reason why I never wanted to come back, even when my father travels here often and I could have asked him anytime. " You began to explain. " It was Nizam." 

Dastan was looking at you like a confused puppy, but didn't interrupt you. 

" He was quite nice to me before, but when i started to seek getting close to you his attitude changed. I'm going to be completely honest: i had a crush on you. He noticed it and I think he was disappointed of me for that, maybe thinking that the daughter of a governor wasn’t good enough for you even when said man is his friend. I was little and it hurted me, not only because I used to like him. He used to look at us with sarcastic disgust … and then one day. I heard him when I wasn't supposed to, he said such horrible things about me. It broke my heart, I never looked at him the same way. The fact that he will be consulted in the choice of my husband scares me to death." 

He looked amazed, like if he wouldn't have paid any attention to anything after your ' I had a crush on you'. 

Neither of you knew your assumptions were wrong or could have possibly imagined that. Those horrible insults you heard from Nizam weren't meant for you. He didn't want Dastan near you. It was his adoptive nephew who he judged in the most demeaning way and not the other way around. 

" A misunderstanding with my uncle broke your heart, not me. " He summarized, as if he was trying to make it make sense. " I didn't behave at my best with you and I had no idea you felt that way for me... Are you still sure it wasn't me?" 

"You were merely treating me like a silly little boy dealing with an annoying little girl who wants to be around him all the time for reasons he doesn't understand. " You insisted, fairly justifying him. " You didn't catch a single one of my signals, but it was ríght there. I must admit it was a very frustrating first experience for me, Dastan." 

He raised an eyebrow, looking at you with skeptical curiosity. 

" Is that why you keep frustrating me? Hiding from my sight in the rooms of the women to punish me, making me crave to see you once more day after day."  

It sounded almost as if he was begging for it to be over. The light shade of sadness in his face was making you melt for him. 

" Can you blame me? You look so cute when I catch you looking at my chest. Short peeks when you think no one else is noticing, but I do... and you haven't got a chance of watching me dance yet! I wonder where your eyes will stop first then. " 

He released you immediately, carefully and securely as he promised. You could tell he was perhaps a bit ashamed. 

" Feel no shame, my prince. Until quite recently I used to believe mine was the most provocative chest in the empire." You softly comforted him, then started running your fingertips through the límits of his always partially open shirt. " Returning to the capital has opened my eyes." 

You were toying with his necklace, your eyes descending from his face to his chest and stopping there for an instant before doing all the way back. 

If you wouldn't have been in the middle of a hallway, Dastan could have been capable of taking off his shirt by himself for more of your attention.

" Look at you, disappointing Nizam all over again. " He teased you in a fake reprobatory tone. " You haven't changed at all. " 

" You neither, I bet you are still thinking about making me climb to that rooftop." 

The mention gave him an even better idea regarding the place of your old altercate. 

" Consider it from our current perspective. It's a distant spot where nobody would bother us and it offers an increíble view of the sunset." 

It was a date, you accepted the invitation carelessly for the plans for your future that were being discussed between your father and his friends. 

If Dastan was your fate, nothing and nobody would separate you from him.