#the other two introduced themselves by their full names but did not specify if they want to be called professor or not

[scyaxe]

so i recently started classes at Real College, and idk why i expected it to be like the community college i went to, but they just threw us in the deep end. classes started monday and i've already had a 1 page paper due. but also all of my professors have been like "call me by my first name" which i think is very funny, but also, respectfully, that is scary.

[the-did-bunny]

A Simple Intro & Quick Guide

Hello! Let me introduce myself:

I am a college student (and current art major) in my mid 20s. I learned I had DID when i was about 15, but wasn’t “officially” diagnosed for a few more years, and now have been diagnosed for over 7 years. I do not always have full amnesic walls, and therefore technically have OSDD-1b.

I also have Autism, ADHD, C-PTSD, Anxiety, and Fibromyalgia. So these things interact with my dissociative disorder, and inform some aspects of what I talk about.

I’m also trans/nonbinary, and mostly use they/them, or he/him pronouns, but some alters use different ones. I have at least 12 alters that I’m aware of.

I intend to post useful or important information about DID and OSDD 1b on this blog, as well as letting my alters post, posting about my alters and personal experiences with the disorder, and memes. I do NOT partake in discourse. This is a safe blog for browsing.

I also intend to share coping skills and suggestions, as well as things i’ve learned from my therapists, and my excellent psychology & psychiatry professor who also had DID.

Now, A Quick Guide:

What is DID? DID stands for Dissociative Identity Disorder. it is a disorder which develops in early childhood, typically by the age of 9 caused by trauma, of periods of prolonged intense stress. The non-nuanced definition is a disorder that manifests with a person presenting multiple different personalities, who often have amnesia between them. There is no maximum, but at least 2 distinct ‘alters’ must be present. Of course, like any disorder it is a spectrum. But this is just a quick and basic explanation. There are also a few variations knows as OSDDs (Other Specified Dissociative Disorder) the ones most closely related to DID being types 1A and 1b.

Does DID only come from abuse? No. DID develops from prolonged or multiple traumas in childhood. This can include things which caused intense stress for a young child over a period of time, not exclusively abuse. It can include medical trauma, multiple moves, major interfamily conflict such as divorce, or death of a loved one, severe bullying, emotional neglect, repeated exposure to distressing or stressful situations, you get the idea. It doesn’t have to be a specific type of trauma, but it comes from trauma. However, due to the nature of the disorder it is common that individuals with DID will not remember their trauma. But this means DID is inherently a traumagenic disorder.

What Are Alters? Alters is the term used to refer to the alternate personalities, or ‘other people’ that make up a system- all the members of a system so to speak. Individuals will DID/OSDD are called systems, or plural, referring to the fact that while physically one person, they can have any number of additional people within them. Alters aren’t just personalities for many, they have their own names, ages, appearances, etc, but they appear outwardly as a different personality. Since we can’t shapeshift.

How does OSDD-1A and OSDD-1b differ from DID? These two particular subtypes are most close to DID. With 1A a person may not experience their alters as distinctly separate people, but rather as just other versions of themselves, while with 1B, a person experiences distinct alters, but doesn’t have complete amnesic walls between alters, only having partial or emotional amnesia.

What are amnesic walls? What is emotional amnesia? Amnesic walls refers to amnesia, or memory loss between alters. Meaning that when one personality is present, they do not remember, or fully remember what another personality did while present. Emotional amnesia means that a newly present personality may remember, but feel no attachment to the memory, as if despite the body experiencing it, it is not theirs.

What are Fronting and Switching? Fronting refers for being the one who is present, interacting with the real world, in “the front” of the body. When an alter is fronting they are controlling the body. When two or more alters are present it’s called co-fronting. Or being co-conscious. “Switching” refers to when one alter/personality leaves or comes to the front, taking the place of another.

What is splitting? Splitting refers to the “creation” of new alters. It is not intentional, or controllable. And typically is caused when confronting stressful situations. If the system is under too much stress, or faces a problem and the brain feels the need for someone who can solve it, a new alter will “split off” of the system. not necessarily fully developed.

Can you have DID/OSDD without early trauma? No. But you can have it without remembering any of the trauma or stress, either because you were too young, or since that’s part of the “job” of the disorder, to protect you from the stress/trauma. And you can also have it without necessarily realizing that you experienced trauma.

How common is DID/OSDD? Currently it is believed to exist within roughly 1.2-1.5% of the population l, which is considered rare, but is only slightly less common than bipolar, or red hair. to give perspective.

~and lastly~

What is DID Not? DID is NOT “having a different personality at work with coworkers than with friends.” or “acting differently with your friends than around your family.” it is common and normal for people to present different sides of themselves based on what is appropriate behavior for a setting. This is called code-switching. it’s very common for people to act differently with their coworkers, close friends, classmates, or family members, because you know these people in different contexts. DID is also NOT your personality being different based on your mood. People do act differently when they are sad vs angry vs happy, or calm vs stressed. And lastly, DID is NOT hallucinating your alters. Alters/other personalities are not hallucinations, regardless of a person’s tendency towards delusions or hallucinations. the alters exist within a person, and may or may not be actively present in their mind, giving input, etc. they present sometimes covertly, meaning they will ‘act like’ the person you know, to keep safe, or they will act blatantly different from how that person ‘usually’ acts. (But I’ll probably make a whole post about this.)

Thank you for reading! My askbox is open for questions and clarifications!

[spine-buster]

peaceful easy feeling ft. b.boeser | one

A/N: Here’s the beginning of my new mini-series!  I hope you all enjoy it.  It will definitely be a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, so be prepared!  There will be five parts!

SUPPORT MY WRITING HERE: https://ko-fi.com/spine_buster

CONTENT WARNING: parents with disease/sickness (Parkinson’s); swearing; sex; alcohol use; lots of emotions.

                                                                   *     *     *     *     *

Brock Boeser felt like he was at some sort of Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, with everybody around the circle introducing themselves and their similar predicaments.  The group was in a big meeting room at the local community centre, and when he walked in, he saw a group of dads playing basketball in the gym.  He sort of wanted to join them instead of being here, in this room, with all these people that he didn’t know talking about what they were going to talk about, but he’d done this back in Minnesota, at his mother’s behest with his siblings, and he was going to do it here, too, in Vancouver, to make her happy and ease her mind and to make sure that he was easing his own mind.  

“Um, hello everyone.  My name is Brock Boeser.  I’m from Minnesota, but I’m living in Vancouver.  And um, I’m here with you all because my dad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.”

“Hello Brock,” everyone smiled at him, and he smiled and nodded back.

“So it was your dad that was diagnosed,” the leader, a kind, older woman named Esther who had greeted him at the door and stuck with him until everybody sat down, egged on a conversation.  He knew she was doing it because he was new; everybody in this room probably already knew each other.  A part of him actually wondered if anybody knew who he was.  “When?”

“Um, he—he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2010,” Brock revealed, stuttering it out.  He knew he’d have to be open at these things – open so people could empathize with him, open so he could empathize with others – but it was still tough for him to do so.  “But he—it’s—it’s not just Parkinson’s.  Two years after he was diagnosed, he was in a car accident and suffered a traumatic brain injury.  In 2017, he was diagnosed with lung cancer.  He beat it but then in June it returned to his liver and chest.  In July, he had a heart attack and his heart stopped beating for 15 minutes.  I was with him and—I—it’s—it’s a lot, as you can imagine,” he tried not to start crying right then and there.  Imagine that – first meeting with a Parkinson’s Society of BC support group and he’d bawl like a baby.

“Goodness me, Brock,” Esther said.  “He has support at home?”

“Um, well, money isn’t an issue now, but when I was growing up my mom worked three jobs to make sure we were all taken care of,” he revealed.  “I’d pitch in too wherever I could, obviously.”

“But it’s been tough for a number of years.”

Brock paused.  It had been tough for a number of years.  It had been really tough for a number of years.  He nodded his head.  “Yes ma’am.  I try to take it day by day.”

Esther nodded as well.  “I don’t know if you pray, Brock, but I know a couple of members around the circle do, and, well – you’ll be kept in all our prayers.”

Brock saw a few people nod their head.  Another older woman, probably his mom’s age, clutching a rosary; a Sikh man dressed in a casual suit; a younger woman, probably in her thirties, with short blonde hair.  He appreciated the sentiment.  He knew that people took prayer very seriously – that people suffering took prayer very seriously.  It was, realistically, one of the kindest things somebody could ever say to you: “I’m praying for you.”  “Thank you very much,” he said, nodding his head once.

***

There was an arrangement of cookies at the end of the meeting.  Even after the 90 minutes of everybody talking about their experiences and emotions, they apparently liked to stick around afterwards as well just to mingle.  It didn’t all have to be doom and gloom, he thought.  It didn’t all have to be about Parkinson’s or about sick people or losing your loved ones all the time.  Maybe some people just wanted to talk about the news.  Maybe some people just wanted to talk about sports.  The weather.  Anything.  Anything to make a connection with someone beyond something so tragic.  

After stuffing an entire Fudge-O cookie into his mouth, he looked up to see a young woman staring at him, holding her trenchcoat in her arms.  She was smiling to let him know she was friendly.  He was embarrassed because he knew she just saw him stuff an entire Fudge-O into his mouth.  “Hi,” he said, his mouth still full of cookie, the sound of his voice reflecting that fact.

“You’re Brock Boeser, right?” she asked sweetly.  “You play for the Vancouver Canucks?”

“Yeah,” Brock couldn’t help but smile.  He swallowed the rest of the cookie even though he didn’t really finish chewing it.  “That’s me.  Are you a fan?”

“My step-brothers are more so than I am,” she said.  “But I’m a fan of the team, yeah.  I’m Grace Gillespie,” she extended her hand to shake his.  “God, they’re not gonna believe me when I say I met you.  They’re gonna freak.”

Brock couldn’t help but chuckle slightly.  “Do you—I mean, do you want a picture?  I don’t mind at all.  I’ll sign an autograph on a napkin if you want me to.”

“Well…it’s a bit awkward to ask you at a Parkinson’s Society of BC meeting, but we could go to the Starbucks down the street and I could buy you a coffee.”

Brock was slightly taken aback at her forwardness.  He shouldn’t have been.  Girls came up to him all the time.  All the time.  And they were most definitely not shy.  But he wasn’t exactly expecting it to happen here, of all places.  A bar, sure.  Out with Petey or any of the other guys, absolutely.  But not here.  “Yeah…yeah sure,” he stuttered out.

“Then we should go,” Grace smiled.  She turned to look behind her.  Brock saw Esther picking up a few Oreos.  “Thank you for leading another great session, Esther,” Grace said.  

“Oh you are most welcome Miss Gillespie.  How is Hamish these days?  You didn’t speak much today.”

“He’s been doing fine lately.  His caregivers have been working around the clock for him.  They just work wonders, don’t they?”

Esther nodded.  “They are angels on Earth.  Anyways – we’ll catch up next week,” she said, leaning slightly on her leg to look beyond Grace and to Brock.  “I hope to see you here again next week, Brock.”

“Thank you, Esther.  See you next week,” he said, realizing he made the commitment before he could even realize what he was saying.

***

“I take that was your first meeting?” Grace asked as she set down the two lattes on the table against the window where Brock was waiting.  

“Was it really obvious?” Brock asked.

Grace shrugged her shoulders.  She didn’t want to make him feel self-conscious.  “It was the stuttering that gave it away, at least to me.  I know I stuttered a lot the first few times I came to these meetings.  I wasn’t the most comfortable talking about my dad’s condition to a room full of virtual strangers.  But within just a few months I realized the people in that room are the kindest, most empathetic, most amazing people that I’ve ever interacted with.  So I became a lot more open.”

Brock was transfixed by every word that Grace was saying.  “So you’ve been coming here a long time,” he said.

Grace nodded.  “My dad got diagnosed with Parkinson’s when I was fourteen.  I didn’t start coming here until I was about eighteen, though.”

Brock knew he shouldn’t ask.  He knew he shouldn’t.  But his brain had ulterior motives, and his mouth – well, his mouth listened to his brain, because it apparently needed to know.  “Is your—is your dad like my dad?” he asked.  “Does he have, like, other problems complicating things?”

Grace shook her head.  “No,” she said softly.  “But the Parkinson’s is enough for him.  I mean he was diagnosed just short of ten years ago and he’s already on puréed foods.  It’s not—I mean, you know as well as I do that it doesn’t regularly develop that fast.  But that’s…I don’t know how you do it.”

Brock didn’t know either.  Some days he didn’t.  “I just take it day by day,” he said simply, just like he said in the meeting.  “If I think about it too much…that’s when it’s bad.”

“I hear ya,” Grace said, taking a sip of her coffee.  “But let’s…not talk about this for too long.  Do you like Vancouver?  Do you find it nice?”

Brock appreciated the change in topic.  “I love it here,” he nodded his head, smiling.  “The city’s great.  The fans are great.  My teammates – I mean they’re amazing.  What do you do?”

“I’m a dance teacher at Goh Ballet – little kids and teens, mostly.”

He wasn’t expecting that.  She was drop dead gorgeous, sure – Brock wasn’t blind – but he wasn’t expecting to hear she was a dancer.  “Do you, like, dance in the real ballet?”

Grace snorted slightly at his phrasing of ‘real ballet’.  “No.  I pursued it only up until a certain point.  I was good, but uh, I stopped when my dad got diagnosed.”

“Why?  Don’t they always tell people like us to have, like, an outlet or whatever?”

“They do.  But I loved my dad more than I loved dance.  And I would have rather spent the time that I was spending on dance with him instead.”

He understood where she was coming from, and he wasn’t there to judge her.  “And your brothers you mentioned, did they help too?”

“Oh no no no.  Sorry – I should have specified.  I’m an only child.  Like, the only child between my parents.  But they divorced when I was six and when my mom re-married I gained two step-brothers, Jasper and Theo.”

“How was the divorce?” Brock found himself asking.

“You ever see footage of a nuclear bomb exploding?” Grace giggled as she asked the question.  It caused Brock to laugh too even though the analogy she was making was dreadful.  “It was awful.  The type of divorce nobody deserves, you know?  I became a pawn, basically, and my parents would only speak to each other through lawyers.  Even stuff concerning me.  It was bad.”

“That sounds horrible.”

“It was.  But it’s the only life I know,” she said.  “He was lucky my mom ended up marrying another rich guy.  I mean, my mom only marries rich men,” she giggled slightly again.  “That’s how Jasper and Theo became my step-brothers.”

“So your family has money?” Brock clarified.  “What’s it from?  Dad a lawyer or something?”

“Not exactly,” Grace said.  “My dad and his brothers own a private equity firm that started like this,” she pinched her fingers together, “and went like…” she continued, spreading her fingers and moving her hands around her like a bomb explosion.  “Gillespie Brothers Investments.  I’m sure as a Vancouver Canuck you’ve heard of them.  I mean they wanted to buy the Canucks before the Aquilinis.”

Brock hadn’t heard of them, but he now knew he’d have to do some snooping when he got home. “I haven’t heard of them.  But I mean – sounds like they were successful.”

“Three billion dollars is pretty successful to me,” Grace quipped.

“B—Billion,” Brock sputtered out.  “With a B.”

“With a B,” Grace nodded.  Brock had no idea he was sitting across from the daughter of a billionaire.  She didn’t act like a billionaire.  Not like Brock knew what billionaires acted like.  He’d never met one before in his life.  Well, besides Francesco.  “But tell me more about what you like about Vancouver.  What about the nature?  I always kind of fine a good long walk along the Seawall or through Stanley Park really clears my mind from all…this.  What about you?”

Brock smiled.  “I find the white noise of downtown clears my mind.”

***

“You want my number,” Grace said as a statement rather than a question as she and Brock exited the Starbucks.  They were kicked out.  They’d been there for so long that they’d been kicked out because they were closing.  Their coffees had gotten cold.  They hadn’t ordered new ones.  And now they found themselves on the deserted sidewalk, jackets put on hastily, and Grace came up with that.

Brock looked down at her.  They’d been able to look into each other’s soul for the past few hours.  “Of course I want your number,” he said.  There was no reason to hide it.  No reason to deny it.  No reason to have to wait until next week to see her again as they sat around in a circle in a community centre talking about their parents.

He took out his phone.  She gave him her number.  He texted his name to hers so she’d have his.  When that dance was done, she looked up at him.  “I’m really glad I met you tonight,” she said, her voice sincere.

Brock nodded.  “I’m glad I met you too.  I—I really enjoyed this.  And I mean—I needed it.”

Grace smiled, nodding her head.  “I needed it too.”

“D’you—” Brock stopped, trying not to get too far ahead of himself.  “D’you need a ride home?”

“Oh no no, my driver is right there,” she motioned her head towards a black Mercedes waiting by the curb.

Brock hadn’t noticed the car until now.  “Chauffeur?”

“Billionaire dad,” she winked.  Brock understood.  She took a few steps back before smiling one more time.  “Call me,” she said, before flipping her hair over her shoulder and walking towards the Mercedes and getting into the backseat.  Brock watched as it drove off, making a right at the end of the street.

He would definitely be calling.

[violet-knox]

heyy :) I saw that your asks were open and of course I read your rules before coming here and I was wondering if you can write an adult snape fic where the reader is a fellow professor that he’s know from his childhood and they start to rekindle thier relationship

thanks in advance and keep up the great work !! <33

Gifts of the Past

Pairing: Snape x Professor!Reader

Summary: Severus thought his week couldn’t get any worse after finding out he’d need to teach his Slytherin’s to dance until Dumbledore announces the arrival of a new Professor joining the staff.

Word Count: 6207

A/N: So when I read these requests, this idea formed in my head and I couldn’t help but merge them (side note: as the first request didn’t specify a gender while the second did, I adhered to the first). I hope both requests were satisfied while also providing a unique piece to the ever growing list of snape x reader stories on here and I hope you enjoy it! Thank you to both anons (I’m assuming you’re two different people) for your asks and your kind words!

Also I know the gif I picked is suggestive but the reader is gender neutral which I’m proud of because it was very difficult to keep it that way with the dancing scenes. I just thought the gif was so beautiful when I found it, just look at that cuff 🤤 but the gif choice doesn’t hint to the reader’s gender or race as it may appear. 

Nothing could have brightened his mood more than the thought of him walking into the Great Hall and finding the entire school deserted. It was really the only way Merlin could make up for the hand he’d been dealt this year and every other year since Potter invaded Hogwarts. This year however, the boy was clearly attempting to test his natural gift to bring trouble as the past three years hadn’t provided him with sufficient danger to prove his talent. It was bad enough he’d brought such a dangerous tournament to the school, but of course he had to go and get himself picked despite being underaged. Severus felt like he hadn’t gone a day without stressing since Dumbledore first made the announcement about the Triwizard Tournament and just when he thought things couldn’t get any worse, the old Wizard had to instruct the head of houses to prepare their students for the Yule ball, as if the schools only Potion’s Master didn’t already have enough on his plate. 

He’d spent the rest of the day sulking after his attempts to persuade the Headmaster someone else should take up the privilege of teaching his Slytherin’s to dance failed. Sleep could barely find him last night as he kept hoping he’d wake up from this nightmare, that the universe would cut him a break, but it was clear as he walked by the tables housing the school’s guests, his eyes shooting Dumbledore daggers as he passed the smiling man on his way to his seat at the high table, that he wouldn’t rest so long as Potter slept under the same roof as him. He slouched in his seat and waited for the day to begin so he could look forward to its end, staring so hard at the table before him, he was sure it would eventually catch fire if food didn’t replace his rage soon. 

Dumbledore stood and cleared his throat to make his morning announcements, Severus finding himself focussing his anger towards him the more he rambled on about the first task and the current status of the tournament. His resentment towards the man only grew as he mentioned the Yule ball until he introduced the new professor who would replace Septima Vector for Arithmancy until the end of the year, a very familiar name washing away all his anger and replacing it with absolute horror. His head snapped to the side as he watched you stand with a smile, waving at the students who clapped for you. Severus’ eyes widened as he forced himself to join them, giving a few shallow claps but finding himself unable to slip out of the astoundment he found himself in. 

You smiled and looked over towards Severus as you sat back down, sensing everyone’s anticipation for breakfast to begin. You caught his eye and saw the shock written all over his face before breaking your stare and shifting your eyes to your lap. At least the expression on his face told you he hadn’t tried to ignore you when he’d walked right past you this morning to his seat at the high table. There were no words to describe how you’d been feeling today. Nervous about your first day as a professor at Hogwarts, concerned about being accepted into the family of staff, anxious to see Severus again after all these years and absolutely heartbroken when he didn’t even acknowledge you as he walked past you like you meant nothing to him.

The food appeared in front of you not long after you sat down, but you could hardly find your appetite as you felt Severus continuously glancing your way every chance he got. You did your best to chat with your new colleagues, keeping up polite conversation as they ate while you picked at your food. You watched Severus chug whatever beverage was in his goblet as he left his own plate completely untouched. He was the first to leave the table, watching with a frown as he slinked away behind some side door with no idea where it led. You let out a small sigh as you sat back in your seat, beginning to wonder if this career choice was a good idea. When Dumbledore approached you, mentioning Severus was now teaching at Hogwarts, serving as Potion’s master and Head of Slytherin, you felt excited. You’d missed him over the years since graduation, finding yourself regretting a lot about your relationship as time went on. But you’d taken this job offer as a sign to reconnect, a second chance to do what you didn’t have the courage for back during your school days.

You were so naive back then, thinking letters would be enough to keep you in contact with him after graduation, that you were closer to Severus than it seemed, but it was nothing more than a silly illusion created by your imagination. Looking back, you’d found yourself always claiming there was no good time to tell him how you felt, that you really liked him as something more than just a friend, but that was just an excuse for the fear you held onto every time you thought of him rejecting you. After seeing how close he was with Lily, how he buried himself in his schoolwork and made new friends when their friendship burned to the ground, you’d tried to push yourself, to be there for him and show him there was still someone in his life who thought he was worthy. But no matter what you did, you felt nearly as invisible as you did now, and perhaps in all these years since the war had ended, nothing had truly changed. 

One by one, professors and students began to file out of the Great Hall and as the room emptied, you slowly began to find yourself in complete distress, unsure of what to do about Severus, about this job and your possible conflict of interest. Pushing through, you tried to ignore your feelings and all thoughts of the Potion’s Master to focus on your classes. The day went by faster than you’d initially thought, each class easier than the last as the students seemed to accept you and your teaching style. Before you knew it, dinner had rolled around and knowing Severus had skipped lunch, eating nothing at breakfast, you anticipated seeing him already seated at the high table when you entered the room. Pausing a moment, you debated on what you should do, but your heart had already decided for you, your feet walking faster than you could process until you found yourself taking a seat next to him. 

“Hi Sev.” You spoke in such a low voice, soft yet reserved, like you were introducing yourself to a complete stranger. It saddened you that you felt so nervous with Severus when you used to be so close once upon a time. He looked back at you with those wide eyes of his and the more you stared into them, the more you felt like you didn’t know him at all. 

“(Y/N).” He stated your name with just a hint of surprise in his tone like his child-self was introducing you to him. He’d spent the day with such a headache thinking about what happened this morning, about you and everything that’s piled onto him. When he thought of you, he remembered the childhood friend who’d stuck by his side, who he’d taken for granted and who he could talk to about anything. But he struggled to feel that way again, to feel comfortable enough around you to open up to you and he wished that wasn’t the case. He needed someone to talk to, he needed someone there by his side these past few miserable years, but he could see now that he truly wasn’t deserving of such a thing, that he’d forever spend his life alone because that’s the card he’d dealt himself all those years ago and he had no right to try and get back what he’d lost.

“It’s nice to see you again.” You smiled, hoping this dense air between you would lighten with a bit of small talk. You wanted to tell him how much you missed him, his friendship and how close you once were. Everything was so much simpler back when you were eleven, still new to Hogwarts and oblivious to the world’s problems. Now, everything was different. You were both grown adults with responsibilities, changed as people and you weren’t even sure you’d mix well with him anymore.

“You too.” Severus happily retorted your attempt at making small talk, desperate to clasp at anything that could restore your lost friendship. Even as food appeared before him, he made no notion of filling his plate, his attention instead lay completely with you. “I-I had no idea you were joining the staff this year.”

You broke your gaze from his eyes and looked down at the table filled with food, your goblet was full and ready to be drunk, every other person in the room already indulging themselves in a well deserved meal. Looking over at Severus’ plate you found it as empty as yours, like he hadn’t even noticed the food had appeared as his eyes continued to study you while you slowly began to fill your plate, feeling less and less hungry as the seconds ticked by.  

“It was a last minute decision,” you said, continuing to avoid his eyes as you began to nibble on a muffin. Severus watched you a moment, feeling comfortable enough to eat for the first time that day as he picked up a sandwich.

“I’m glad you decided to take the job,” he said, keeping his gaze on you as much as he could before munching on his food. His tone sounded so sincere and you couldn’t help but stare at him, wondering how he truly felt about you being here. This morning, you’d felt so hurt by his cold shoulder, almost ready to quit if things didn’t go as well as they did during your first lesson for your classes throughout the day. Now, here he was claiming to be happy you were sitting here beside him, and you so badly wanted to believe that.

“Oh?” you asked curiously, hoping he meant what he said, hoping there was a chance to at least regain your old friendship. “Because it didn’t seem that way this morning.”

Severus’ eyes suddenly took on the weight of the world as he looked down at his lap. You could feel his own disappointment in himself, his shoulders slouching, his hair falling over his face in the same way it always did when you were kids. Clearly things hadn’t changed that much, and you were almost happy to see you still knew him as well as you did. 

“I apologize. I admit, you’ve caught me in a rather unpleasant mood,” Severus stated, feeling guilty for how he’d acted this morning. You were right. He should have said something to you, noticed you before Dumbledore spoke your name or at the very least came to find you earlier in the day to apologize sooner.

“What’s on your mind?” you asked him, relieved his stiffened attitude wasn’t the doing of the fact you’d re-entered his life. You turned your body towards him and began to feel like a child again, meeting Severus outside in the courtyard to talk about your day, to let him unburden his issues on you as you comforted him.

“There was a Head of House meeting yesterday. We were told by the Headmaster the responsibility of preparing the students for the Yule ball lay in our hands.”

You smiled, surprising a giggle as you remembered the night of Slughorn’s party, Severus tripping over his own feet when you asked him to dance with you, though you didn’t blame him for it after he’d just gone through his growth spurt. He had no such excuse now of course, but you could tell he hadn’t danced since that day, that he worried about how a lesson may go with his students, especially after the reputation you heard he held as a professor at Hogwarts. 

“If you’d like, I could help with your lessons,” you offered without a second thought. 

“You would do that?” Severus looked at you in awe, rather stunned by your selflessness after how he’d treated you. He couldn’t believe his luck, how you’d shown up just in time to help him with a secret he’d been dreading would be the talk of the entire school after he failed to teach his students to dance. He could only imagine the loss of respect he’d gain after working so hard to earn it all these years, how the students would make fun of him, how he’d never be able to step foot in the staffroom again without being ridiculed. 

“Of course. Anything for an old friend.” You sounded almost hurt as you spoke, knowing he’d likely see you as nothing more than an old friend. But if the universe had placed you in this new job, pushed you to him, perhaps you were meant to take the second chance and risk your current relationship with him. You were after all being trusted enough to help him develop his dancing skills, something you were sure the scary professor of the dungeons wouldn’t easily entrust to anyone. “Care to begin after dinner?”

Severus nodded with a smile, a look of content settling on his face and for a moment, you could have sworn you saw his eyes twinkle, something you hadn’t seen since the first day he’d stepped foot on Hogwarts grounds. You both continued your meal, Severus feeling calmer as he continued speaking with you, catching up on what you’d been up to all these years. Thoughts of the tournament, the upcoming war, the Potter boy’s knack for finding trouble slipping his mind if not for a brief moment. He allowed himself instead to turn back the clock to a time much simpler than his current life, a time where Lily was still alive, where he still had a friend who cared about him. He’d taken for granted so much of his life as a boy, so much of his younger years spent filled with hatred and resentment towards those he blamed for making him miserable that he’d missed all the good parts he could only hope to regain now as an adult. You were the one constant in his life, the one thing that didn’t complicate his life, the one person he could count on and he’d completely dismissed what you had to offer. He was a fool for focussing on what he didn’t have rather than what he did have, a greedy teenager who should have seen what was right in front of his eyes. 

Finishing off your food, you followed Severus down to the dungeons once the crowd of students had scattered throughout the castle. You walked alongside him, unable to help yourself from smiling at how easily you’d both settled back into your old selves, back to when your only concerns involved grades and who would win the next Quidditch match. You felt oddly nostalgic as you looked around the potion’s classroom, the layout exactly the same as when you were a student. You took your time to look around as Severus wove his wand and cleared some space. Walking up to the desk at the front of the room, you picked up the old quill sitting next to a pile of scrolls in the corner.

“You still have this?” You smiled as you ran the tips of your fingers along the feather, still intact and preserved rather well after all these years. You could still remember the look on Severus’ face when you’d given him the quill set you’d spent the majority of your money on for Christmas in your seventh year; complete shock with a dash of regret that he couldn’t afford something equally as stunning. He’d promised that one day he’d repay your kindness, that when he’d made something of himself, he’d buy you something worth ten times as much as the quill set that had gotten him through his Potion’s Mastery and all his days as a professor. 

As time passed, the memory the quill held began to fade and slowly, he’d forgotten the promise he made. He walked over to you and took the quill from your hand, realizing just how much he truly had to make up for after all these years. He set it back down on the desk and began to wonder if Merlin had sent you here for a reason, if his redemption wasn’t just about protecting Lily’s son, but about reconnecting with those who’d supported him, who he’d brushed away and to take the second chance at a normal life he was being offered. 

“I never thanked you properly for that gift,” he said under his breath as he stared at the quill, now the centerpiece of his desk, a new reminder for what he owed you. His eyes filled with longing, the sparkle you saw earlier slowly dwindling away as he hung his head low. You looked at him with such awe. Life had not been kind to him since graduation, that was clear through the weight he carried. He frowned when you asked him what he’d been up to since you last saw him, flashes of all his mistakes, all his sins passing before him. You could see it and it pained you to know that he hadn’t lived through the dreams he’d once shared with you as a child. 

“You don’t need to thank me Sev, that was a long time ago,” you told him with a smile, beyond touched that he’d kept something as simple as a quill when you knew he could afford much better now. He’d taken care of it, even kept the original nibs that came with the set and the inkwell which no doubt had to take a chunk of his time just to clean it out and refill. 

Taking his hand, you led him to the center of the classroom, turning to face him, gently positioning his hands to begin your first dry run of the dance you would soon share with him every evening before bed. His limbs obeyed you as you took his hand and pressed yourself to him, closer than you’d been all those years back when he’d first danced with you.

“Just, take it slow and let me lead. And then we can switch,” you whispered to him as you began to sway across the floor. The room fell into a soft silence as you led him, his feet struggling to follow yours at first, but he was a quick study as usual. Eventually, you felt confident enough in his movements to let him lead, switching position as you continued to sway in silence, Severus’ eyes lost in yours until the minutes passed by, turning into days. Before you knew it, you’d spent every evening after dinner for the past week with Severus, dancing with him for hours until it was time for bed. 

You’d never felt so close to someone as you did with him now, like that missing part of your soul had finally found itself again. A week had passed, yet you felt like you’d lived here for years as he had. Every time he held you in his arms, your heart slowed to match his even beat, your eyes flickering between his and his lips. You wanted to tell him how you felt about him, how much you’d admired him, how you’d always loved and cared about him even when he didn’t notice you, but every time you tried, your heart collapsed in on itself, stopping you in fear of ruining what you had now just like it had when you were kids. The emotions you felt when he pulled you closer were too much, when he looked deep into your eyes and gave you that smile like he was trying to bring you both back to that night at Slughorn’s party, how different things may have turned out if he’d known how to dance. Perhaps you would have had the courage to tell him how you felt then, kissed him before he’d tripped over himself. Time was such a delicate fragment in the ensembled artwork of the universe, affected by every movement, every word spoken by every human being on earth. 

Looking into his eyes, you saw that same twinkle he seemed to only let shine for you. It had been him who’d insisted he needed to practice again and again every night. It was him who’d always led you to his classroom, locking the doors and even bringing music to keep you both company as you danced the night away. He was as mysterious as the students had said, as lonely as your colleagues had told you, but you didn’t want to believe it. He was still that boy you met in the library in first year no matter the life he lived.

“Severus?” you whispered, his face so close to yours, his hands holding yours tightly. He looked at you with wonder, waiting for your words, for the question he knew you’d kept on the tip of your tongue since the day you'd arrived. He feared it, worried about what you may think of him if he answered it truthfully. He had yet to share everything about his life, how he’d betrayed your memory, his promise to you, that he was to blame for the death of their friend. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

You sounded so nervous, your eyes shifting down to look away from him and his concern suddenly grew. He stopped his motions as he held you still, waiting for the words he feared would slip your tongue. His hand tightened his hold on you, needing you to stay with him, to keep him company. You’d become the only thing this past week that kept him at peace, that kept him alive. He looked forward to your evenings together, the thought of simply swaying through the classroom the only thing keeping him whole. 

“What is it?” he mumbled cautiously, a bit of resentment present in his tone. 

You’d terrified him, you could see your words worried him to no end. You couldn’t tell how he would react if you told him the truth and you weren’t sure if you could handle it. You’d both cherished every moment you had together again, cherished the past, the present and the future you could see alongside one another, but you weren’t sure how much you could bear the days if all he saw in you was an old friend. Thoughts of how happy he’d seemed the last few days roamed in your mind, playing on repeat, bleeding into your childhood memories. You could almost feel your emotions reciprocated as you looked at him, your chest pressed to his as you leaned in, Severus frozen in his place, his mind blank with awe. 

Words could never be enough to describe how you felt, to tell him how much he meant to you. But Severus was never one with words anyways, never caring for them as he always read people better through their actions and as he did so now, he wondered why of all the people in the world, why of everyone you’d met in your life, he was the one you wanted to be close enough to press your lips to his. He wondered what made him so special, why he was so lucky to have you showing your affection for him through the gentle touch of a kiss. Your lips were barely parted, moving slower then he had when he danced with you. He could feel your nerves as you kissed him slowly wither away when he kissed you back. 

Your hands grasped at him, and for a moment, when he felt you pull your hand away from his, he thought the moment had ended, only to be snapped back into it as your fingers were buried in his hair. Your free hand tugged at the ascot he wore, Severus finding himself pulled into you as you walked backwards, your lips never leaving his. You moved your lips eagerly until your back hit the wall, pulling Severus closer as you encouraged him to press himself into you. He moaned into your kiss, his hands wrapping around you, one pressed into your lower back, the other between your shoulder blades. His senses heightened as he tried to memorize the feeling of your kiss, of your figure under his fingertips, your chest against his, your legs entangling themselves with his. 

You were almost disappointed when you both parted for air, huffing as you tried to catch your breaths, but the look on his face was more than worth the loss of contact. He looked as if he was still questioning reality, like he wasn’t sure about your intentions and of course, as before, words couldn’t help him make sense of the situation. Your hand slipped out of his hair instead and cupped his jaw, your thumb swiping across his cheek as he nuzzled into your touch. You could see the weight of the world returning as his smile weakened, his eyes closed as the soft sound of the music filled the room. 

It broke your heart to see him like this, like he found himself unworthy of love, like he thought himself destined to be alone. You began peppering him with light kisses over his cheek, his nose, his jaw, what little skin of his neck you could reach until you finally saw his smile returning to his face. He opened his eyes and held his hand up to press against yours, still nuzzling into your touch as the twinkle in his eyes sparkled brighter than before. 

“I’m not the same person you once knew,” he whispered, his heart breaking with every word, his instinct to push you away overtaking his need to have you as close to him as possible. He could hardly believe you felt this way about him, that after all these years, he’d been blinded by his own hatred to see what was in front of him and here he was trying to ruin what had yet to even be explored.

“Well, I’d be willing to get to know the new you if you’ll allow it,” you said softly, smiling as you showed no interest in running away from the spark between you. 

“(Y/N), there’s something about my past you should know-”

“Sev,” you interrupted him when you saw the hurt in his eyes, the pain he brought on himself during such a sweet moment. You’d waited years for this day, and you weren’t about to let him ruin it when you knew he needed a moment like this. A short period of time to simply exist in the presence of someone that loved him, to forget the rest of the world and live in the moment. “You don’t have to tell me anything now.”

You knew he wasn’t ready, that he was only pushing himself to tell you whatever it was weighing on him because you’d kissed him. But you could wait until he was comfortable enough to share, until the time was right and now was not that time. You’d learned a lot this past week, how truly stressed he was, how the Yule Ball was far from the only thing that had him stressing every second of every day. He needed a chance to relax, to find harmony in his life and whatever secret he wanted to tell you would do the exact opposite. 

Severus smiled as he felt the tension ease off his shoulders, the sound of the music returning to his ears. He reached down and took your hand, slowly stepping away as he led you back to the center of the room, offering to finish your dance, unable to thank you enough for all your patience, for everything you’d ever done for him. You happily obliged and danced the night away once more, looking forward to repeating your new routine tomorrow and the day after that until the holidays finally arrived. 

He couldn’t count how many times he’d danced with you, how many kisses you shared in between, yet this morning felt nothing like the last few weeks. Today, he was to dance in front of his entire house with you, to teach them what you’d taught him and though he was utterly grateful for your lessons, he couldn’t stop the shaking pressure he felt for his reputation and the reputation of his house. He wanted to make you proud today, to help his students excel and to keep the school from spreading awful rumours like it had when he was young. 

Tightening his ascot, he smoothed over his robes and ran his fingers through his hair a few times, sighing as it lay as flat as the pancakes he’d never managed to master whenever he cooked for himself. He held his head up high as he left his chambers and walked down the hall to his classroom, met with the majority of his house already waiting outside his door. You were nowhere to be found and he could hardly wait for this day to end. He let his students shuffle inside as he prepared the room for the lesson to come, minutes passing by as more students passed through those doors, but you had yet to arrive. Time was nearing and he was beginning to worry you had decided against aiding him in this particular lesson. He looked at the clock and sighed as the seconds hand passed twelve, indicating time was up. 

“Gather around,” he commanded the room as silence fell around him, all eyes gleaming at him with anticipation as he felt his heart pounding with fear. “The Yule Ball, is a celebrated event taking place on the night of Christmas Eve; a tradition carried out for centuries and as students of the hosting school, students representing the house of Salazar Slytherin, I expect nothing less than an adequate performance from each one of you when the night arrives.”

Severus spoke to each of his students, walking down the classroom, eyeing each and every one of them. He did his best to keep his mind off of you, trying to stay focused on the task at hand instead, but you’d been at the forefront of his mind for so long and as much of a skilled legilimens as he was, even he wasn’t susceptible to the effects of the love you had for him. 

“Now, the core event of the evening will of course be the dance. As such, today’s lesson will concentrate on the development of your dancing skills,” Severus froze in his place, losing his train of thought as his eyes met yours. You stood there with a smile behind all the students, closing the door behind you. “A demonstration will be presented, and you are each expected to pay attention as none of you will leave this room until you’ve performed well enough to uphold the reputation of your house.”

You pressed your lips together as you watched him address his class, rather taken back by his dominant presence. You couldn’t believe this was the same shy boy you’d met all those years ago, the same one that would rather be left alone than be placed in front of a room like this but you felt oh so proud of him and everything he’d accomplished thus far. “Professor (Y/L/N), if you may join me.”

He held out his hand for you as you stepped forward, the students parting like the sea as they stared in awe. The shock on their faces shouldn’t have surprised you, since you’d had many of them come complaining to you about all the Potion’s assignments they were being dealt, but you’d known Severus for so long now, you couldn’t imagine having any other relationship with him than the one that had blossomed over the last few weeks.

Severus led you to the centre of the room, waving his wand and allowing the music to fill the room before positioning himself waiting for the right moment to begin gliding across from floor with you. His eyes never left yours, his feet moving so elegantly. It felt nothing like the dry runs you’d done with him over the weeks, like he was almost trying to impress you. You missed how close you were to one another as you danced now, eyes all on you. But most of all, you missed the twinkle in his eyes, the smile he wore on his lips as he held you so sincerely. 

“Pair up and start practicing,” he ordered and immediately you watched his students obey. It wasn’t at all like what everyone had said about the Potion’s Master. It wasn’t fear that commanded them, it was the respect and admiration they had for their Head of House that pushed them to follow his instructions without question. You smiled at him as you both continued to dance, the students following your movements, many of whom continued to look over to you as an example. 

“I’m sorry I’m late,” you whispered to him. Slowly throwing your arm over his shoulder to get as close to him as he’d allow in front of the students. “I was looking for this.”

You showed him your wrist and watched him let his guard down if not for a split second. His eyes analyzed the old green ribbon you had tied around your wrist, almost as well preserved as the quill he kept on his desk. He watched it disappear as you placed your hand back over his shoulder, memories of the first time you’d wrapped it around his wrist for good luck when Slytherin was playing Gryffindor in his first year during the Quidditch finals swarming his mind. That was of course, the one and only time he saw his team win the Quidditch cup during his days as a student, his first and only time to have worn that ribbon, giving it back to you in complete dismissal after the game. He’d abandoned you that night, choosing to party with his housemates who he hoped to fit in with over the simple celebration you’d invited him to. You looked so hurt the next day and it took a long while before you spoke to him again. But despite the horrible memories, the guilt he felt now, you’d still kept that ribbon and it warmed his heart. 

“I thought since you were so nervous about today, I’d wear it for luck,” you told him, hiding the fact you’d tossed the ribbon in the bottom of your trunk after he so rudely dismissed you, never to see the light of day until now. You’d debated tossing it out throughout the years, but you could never do it. It served as a reminder for what you’d almost lost, for the love you still carried and the potential your relationship with Severus had.

“(Y/N), I-I’ve been meaning to ask you,” He whispered in such a low voice, you could hardly hear what he was saying, his words spoken for your ears and yours alone. “Would you accompany me to the Ball?”

“Of course, I will.” You happily accepted his proposal as you continued to sway in his arms, your conversation coming to an end as a new song began. Severus stepped away from you, his hair covering his smile as he composed himself to address the class, instructing his students to continue practicing. You both spent the remainder of the evening helping the students, waiting to be alone once more as rumours spread throughout the school of Professor Snape’s dancing and his surprising partner. Many had looked forward to the sight, wondering how he may fare on the dance floor, though no one expected to see the grace in his movements and the chemistry between you. 

He’d spent all those nights with you in the hope’s rumours wouldn’t spread through these walls, but he supposed there was no avoiding it and if talk had to have spread, he was at the very least glad it didn’t tarnish his reputation. You and he would of course never hear the end of it from your colleagues; the first of the Hogwarts professors to have a chance at maintaining a relationship whilst holding a job at the school, many of whom still remembered teaching you as students. None of it mattered to him though. They could all talk as much as they liked, he would forever keep you close to his heart, safe from the rest of the world and cherish every moment he had with you so long as you allowed him in your life. He was utterly grateful for the second chance he was given, the one good thing to appear in his life amongst the sea of never ending darkness and he couldn’t have imagined any better way to combat it than to do it with you.

~

A/N: Can you tell I’m not a dancer? 😅

So this didn’t turn out exactly as I’d hoped. It doesn’t feel as organic as I wanted it to be, but then again, I can’t really expect it to feel organic since the dance lesson wasn’t in the books. Still, it was fun to write and I found myself restraining myself from going on forever with this story. I hope you found it refreshing and entertaining nonetheless. And who knows, maybe I’ll do a part 2 one day with the actual Yule Ball 😁

~

As mentioned previously on my schedule update post, I’m discontinuing my tag list so this will be the last time I tag anyone on any one-shots. Thank you all for sticking with me, your support truly means the world to me and I hope you’ll continue to read what I have planned for the future 💜

@sleepysnapesnake @wanderingtrails @darkthought15 @bush-viper-cutie @fluffymadamina @dracos-mudblood @mitchiesdungeon @severuslovebot @ravenhopeflyte54 @cuddlebunny0330 @flowerdementia

[hangekitty]

hey!!💞 could we get some dating nile hcs? thank you!💞💞

Nile headcanons? Absolutely!

Dating Nile Headcanons

Genre: fluff, a little bit of smut, 18+

Warnings: sex, groping, oral, age gap

Universe: canonverse

A/N: I spoke to hanni-sugar and she specified that this is a f!reader and wanted mostly fluff! I hope you like it 🌸 Listened to ‘On a Clear Day’ by Joe Hisaishi (the Kiki’s Delivery Service) on loop whilst writing this, I know its random but it just kinda feels right haha. I have a lot of love for Nile so don’t mind me. Credit to @sweetfaun for her input 😌

SFW

Just to add a little bit of back story because (why not): It’s been a couple of years since Nile’s divorce with Marie, they split on mutual terms and often find themselves enjoying each other’s company more so as friends. This fortunately means that Nile has no problems in being able to see his daughters whenever work lets him.

This also means that Nile is single and ready to start anew, no more dating and only focusing on his career; that was until you were in the picture

You are the daughter of a black smith, the very one which works with the blades that the Military use for the ODM gear. Due to this partnership, its the commander’s obligation to visit and inspect the storehouse; to see the quality of the blades, any developments and to keep a good relationship with the military’s suppliers.

Commander Nile paid a visit to your storehouse and when he laid eyes on you, he had felt a familiar feeling of butterflies in his stomach. Your father was in the back, working on some blades and you were in the front of the house, where you met the handsome (and nervous) Nile Dok.

To cut to the chase, it was you who propositioned him first, you can imagine how shocked he was at your confidence. You had dated for a couple of months until the both of you had your first kiss; and there we are with those butterflies again!

He is a little traditional, and asks for your fathers blessing to be able to court you; your father was hesitant at first but eventually gave his consent - not that it mattered, you are headstrong and would have done it with or without your fathers permission.

Not going to lie, your father was secretly happy though because Nile is an honourable commander of the military police, basically securing your future; he especially loves to see you happy so its a win win.

Back on track to the dating!!!

This man loves to be touched and to touch! His love language is being able to have his hand(s) on you at any point you’re in the room

Whether this is hand holding, keeping his hand on your back or waist, head pats, hand on your thigh (my guy LOVES your thighs) and just touching or holding anything and anywhere; he loves it.

You are the only person who is allowed to sit or lean on his desk, weirdly enough he treasures his desk and wouldn’t let just anyone use it as a leaning pole or seat.

Nile both loves and worries over how young you are; you are of course old enough to date him but being super hyper aware of your youthful looks, he didn’t want to think that he would just ‘replace his wife with a younger model’. He loves you for you, whether you’re young or not, and you certainly didn’t mind the age gap. Despite his nerves, he finds you extremely attractive and dating you is selfishly a little bit of an ego boost.

Likes to show you off at social events, he loves to spoil you and show everyone how much he loves you. (Think of that one Will Smith picture of him and his wife on the red carpet) that’s Nile with you.

He is usually a grumpy old man, but he has his goofy side that he only likes to share with you. Very mischievous!! Will play harmless pranks on you, just to make you laugh. He is certainly unafraid of being a little weird with you!

Nile very much enjoys music and will often take you to places where live bands perform; whether this is in a tavern or a full on orchestra. If he wasn’t in the military, he would have definitely wanted to become a musician (I don’t know why but I just see it).

Oh boy, if you compliment him, especially on his looks this man will melt like butter. He will certainly stutter and fluster to think up anything other than “you too” or “I-I-I um uhhh thanks I uh love you”.

That being said, he always compliments you. Wearing a new outfit? You did your hair a little differently today? IMMEDIATE compliments and he wouldn’t stop either.

Nile is a little more reserved in public, he has to keep his commander persona but he isn’t shy to be subtle with his affections; as mentioned before he likes to touch you, so in public he would keep his hand on the small of your back or have you hook your hand in his arm.

Don’t ask him about marriage, because there has been many times where he’s considered just proposing to you. Being older, in his mind he would definitely think ‘I NEED TO ASK NOW I’M OLD AND RUNNING OUT OF TIME’ but also being insecure and thinking ‘my first marriage didn’t work out, Y/N will probably leave’. - you wouldn’t but he is a worrier.

Imagine this though, when the two of you dated long enough NILE INTRODUCES YOU TO HIS DAUGHTERS. Like this would be a pretty big step for him, showing you how much he trusts and loves you; also a big gesture to how serious he is about your relationship.

His daughters instantly loving you, asking you to play dress up with them and painting. - just imagine their faces when you paint something beautiful like I can’t even, writing this makes my heart just 😩😭��✨

Nile booking time off work to do a family trip to the park or the city with you; his heartbeats are erratic when he sees you spoiling and being good to his daughters.

Nile’s face when someone asks him if he would have a child with you; a mixture between 😨 and 😏

He already has 3 kids, would he want to go through the worry and stress of more? In short, probably, but only if you wanted them.

His favourite time of day is dinner time; especially after having a long day at work. It’s fortunate that you live so close to the Military HQ (Stohess) that he gets to see you quite often. But if you cook him a meal, doesn’t matter that its not the fancy stuff he usually eats, if its from you then it’ll be his favourite meal.

That being said he loves sleeping next to you when you finally get to share a bed with him; morning cuddles are probably his favourite!

Nile isn’t always the most articulate with his feelings, but he is a hopeless romantic and would do and give you anything to show how much he cares. Dates (when he has time), a fancy dinner (which he said he cooked but it being way too gourmet for his abilities), random gifts of love and his personal favourite; writing letters!

It’s his job to write a lot, so he has really nice handwriting. As he isn’t good at expressing his feelings in speech, he can certainly write them down for you. He may even sprinkle in a little bit of poetry in his love letters.

He would learn how to massage you properly, despite you not being the head black smith, you still do work and after a hard day, Nile would give you the best massages. (The fact that he paid a professional masseuse to teach him how to do it just for you, speaks a thousand words)

Use pet names like “angel, sweetheart and love”. Might get a little spicy and call you a minx when you are flirting - behind closed doors that is

NSFW

Okay so in my opinion Nile in the canonverse is probably a little Vanilla, but with a twist. So he won’t have the whips and chains, but he could certainly get rough with you.

At first he would be very nervous, again mentioning the age gap he probably feels a little rusty/insecure with you. But once you’ve done it once, he gains full confidence.

Because he spends most of the day ordering people around and stressing over work, he will probably prefer to sit back a little and let you take the reins. Not to say he’s a selfish lover, he isn’t, but when he’s had a particularly bad day he’d be just happy to receive a blowjob or have some lazy sex.

Speaking of blowjobs, he loves it if he’s sat up in bed and having you lay between his legs and receiving head; it doesn’t have to be anything passionate or energetic, just feeling you around his cock so gently, is *chefs kiss*

If I am being honest, he would either go from forceful and rough to soft and romantic, there is no in between; but when he’s with you, he sees it as making love.

Is not shy to spanking, he likes to see your ass move under each slap.

Although he likes your ass, he probably is a boob guy. Don’t ask why I just get the vibe. So if you are wearing a pretty dress, or even changing clothes he would be like AWOOGA (but respectful ofc)

SOFT MORNING SEX.

He isn’t one to call you names in bed, but if he does it’ll usually be something like “Dove, Kitten or whore” so when you hear him say any of those, you know you are doing a good job

If Nile has had a particularly bad day, he will eat you out as if he’s a starving man. His favourite position is when you are sat on his desk and him sitting in his chair, eye level and lavishing you.

Desk sex is rare (in case of getting caught) but the ego boost that this man would feel would be...lets just say he gets more confident and rougher so expect a few marks after.

A/N: That’s it for now! I may have to elaborate more on Nile NSFW headcanons on another posts 🤔 OR may even write ABC’s for him! So if you want to see more of Nile, or any other character just let me know! I hope you enjoyed!

[evangeline-perry]

Their parents reaction to their sons' girlfriend being immigrants

A/N: This was a request I got on my Wattpad profile and I thought I’d post it here too. if you like, you can go follow me on Wattpad also @ Evangeline_Perry :)

masterlist

------------------------------------

Neil

Neils parents: rude AF

·      You and Neil met in the theater during the auditions of A midsummer night’s dream and hit it off rather quickly

·      It didn’t take him very long to ask you out

·      But it also didn’t take long for Mr. Perry to hear about his son’s relationship and his commitment to the theater from one of his colleagues whose child was also part of the theater group

·      When he first heard about it, he was furious

·      Firstly, because his son was doing a play behind his back

·      Secondly, because his son had a girlfriend behind his back

·      And third, because he’d heard this girlfriend was not a born and raised American

·      He’d read about immigrants, mostly those who’d fled their homes for America during the Second World War, but none of those news outlets showed these people in a positive light. As a result, his views weren’t positive -or at the very least sympathetic- either

·      Because of this, Mr. Perry came bursting through Neil’s bedroom door, and seeing his son on his bed with his arms around that girl, his rage only grows, and he demands Neil break off his ‘relationship’

·      What Mr. Perry didn’t anticipate however, was his child’s reaction. Neils arms tightened around the girl he loved as his expression hardened. ‘No’, he states firmly.

·      ‘What?’

·      ‘No’, Neil repeats, ‘I am *not* breaking up with (Y/N) and you do *not* get a say in who I love. You need to leave, right now.’

·      With a small but stern shove, Neil removed his father from his room, closing the door in his face and turning the lock, preventing Mr. Perry from re-entering

·      A short tense moment later, Neil turned around, his angered expression softening into a smile once he laid his eyes on his shocked yet relieved girlfriend

Todd

Todd’s parents: awkward

·      You and Todd were reading in his room. One of his arms around you and your legs entangled while sitting on the bed

·      Both of you jumped when suddenly the door opened to reveal Todd’s parents

·      Seeing his son with a girl in his bed, caused both to stop in their tracks as well

·      Todd jumps out of bed, standing up and coming face to face with his shocked parents

·      After another long tense moment, Todd’s father was the first to break the silence. ‘well, Todd, would you please introduce us?’ he asked somewhat awkwardly.

·      Todd froze, unable to speak as his entire body tenses up. Instead, you stand up, reaching you hand out for Mr. Anderson to shake: ‘I’m (Y/N). Nice to meet you, sir.’

·      Mr. Anderson shook your hands after a moment’s hesitation

·      Todd’s parents both seated themselves on Neil’s empty bed and motions for his son and his girlfriend to do the same. ‘I’m going to be honest with you both. I did not expect you,’ he motioned at Todd, ‘to be getting a girlfriend, especially not one who’s clearly-‘ he caught himself, ‘-especially not since you’re not the most social boy.’

·      With this he turns his attention to you: ‘Do you go to school in the area, young lady?’ You noted that you do. This is where the still awkward smalltalk begins, though most of it is Todd’s parents asking you questions as your boyfriend only occasionally chimes in, which you don’t mind, you’re just glad he hasn’t completely frozen up in the presence of his parents

·      The smalltalk goes on, until it finally reaches the topic of parents: ‘and, if I may ask, what do your parents do?’

·      ‘well, my father is a teacher, and my mother is a housewife’, you tell them.

·      ‘And.. uhm… may I ask where-‘

·      ‘where I am from?’ you ask, trying to sound as neutral as possible, ‘Well I am from (American State) …but my parents were born in (country that isn’t in north-/south-American). They moved here during the war.’

·      The parents simply nodded in understanding before sharing a look and standing up, causing both you and Todd to follow suit.

·      The parents shook their son’s hand and yours one last time before bidding both of you goodbye

Charlie

Charlie’s parents: surprised but chill ft rude Welton teachers

·      Both of you go to different schools so one of you always had to sneak out to the other’s school.

·      But this time a professor walked in on you and Charlie when you were kissing behind the Welton building

·      The professor, of whom you didn’t know the name, was beyond himself with rage, dragging both of you to the headmaster’s office

·      Headmaster Nolan sat behind his desk, shot both of you a look of annoyance and disgust and simply informed you he’d called both pairs of parents.

·      With that he motioned you to sit in the chairs in front of his desk.

·      You both sit there in silence for a while until both your parents arrive

·      When you both turn to face your parents, you can clearly see a short flash of shock come across Charlie’s parents’ faces as they lock eyes with you parents

·      The reason for that was all too familiar to you, you weren’t even surprised

·      Once the parents were seated next to their respective children, headmaster Nolan relayed what had happened until you noticed something;

·      ‘So, Mr. and Mrs. (L/N), your daughter had sneaked out of her school domain without permission and convinced one of our boys to abandon his schoolwork-‘

·      ‘excuse me sir’, your father’s voice suddenly interrupted, ‘but it seems to me that it takes two people to kiss. You are sitting here blaming my daughter, when I am sure this young man was more than willing to put his schoolwork down.’

·      You blushed at your father’s blunt statement and after you saw Nolans shocked face you had to do your best to conceal your giggling

·      You shoot a look at Charlie only to see he was blushing and holding back laughter also

·      The meeting was concluded shortly after that with Nolan demanding both of you get detention for at least 2 weeks

·      With that you all leave his office and lead your parents to the exit of the school. Charlies parents say their goodbyes to their sons, after scolding him one more time, telling him to behave. They also shoot you a friendly nod and both fathers exchange a handshake.

·      After a short moment, your father turns to Charlie: ‘you seem like a smart young man. You treat my daughter with respect and there’ll be no problems. Alright?’

·      Leaving Charlie to stiffly nod before shaking your father’s hands.

Meeks

Meeks’ parents: patronizing

·      Unlike most of his friends, Steven Meeks told his parents about his girlfriend before they could hear about it from someone else

·      Meeks had let you know they’d invited you both to dinner one evening. You were a little nervous since you knew Meeks’ family was full of doctors and professors and they might think you’re not good enough for their son

·      And your fear turned out to be true. The evening was filled with passive aggressive questions with a patronizing undertone. But you just smile, linking your hand with Meeks’ under the table, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

·      ‘so (Y/N), how are your grades in school, Meeks is a straight A student.’

·      ‘yes Ma’am, I know. So am I’, you say smiling.

·      That statement was caused an annoyed side-glance to be shared by the two parents.

·      The night goes on like that, yet your smile never wavers as it is clear you exceed all their expectations (much to their annoyance)

·      At the end of the evening Meeks dropped you off at the school gates, while giving you a hug he apologized for his parents’ behavior

·      ‘It’s alright’, you tell your boyfriend, giving him one more peck before re-entering the schoolbuilding

Pitts

Pitts parents: very nice

·      Like Meeks, Gerald Pitts told his parents about his girlfriend before they could find out from a third party or before you and he got caught sneaking around each other’s campuses.

·      And thus, one night you got a phone call from your tall boyfriend inviting you to a coffee date with his parents.

·      You knew he was going his parents about you, but you were nervous none the less.

·      Pitts seemed to notice this in your silence: ‘don’t worry. They are going to love you. I promise.’

·      His kind words put a smile to your face as you accepted the invitation as you began to count down the days until you got to see your loving boyfriend again

·      That day soon came. You walked into the coffeeshop Pitts had specified and scanned the room looking for his familiar face.

·      You soon found him, his face lighting up when he saw you. A soft blush spread across your cheeks

·      When you arrived at their table Pitts scooted over so you could sit next to him after pecking you on the cheek.

·      His parents smiled at you before introducing themselves

·      As you all sipped your coffee, Pitts parents asked you many questions, one of them being: ‘how did you meet our son?’

·      You told them the story of how you’d met after bumping into him at an assembly of your school and his and had kept in contact ever since

·      At the end of the ‘coffee date’ Pitts’ parents offered to drive you back to school, all the while commenting on how they were so glad their son was seeing such a nice girl.

[manggaetteokkie]

So what are your top 5 favorite BTS songs and then top 5 favorite BTS videos?

Then what are you top 5 favorite Jikook moments? Lol Haaaard questions

Gonna combine these two cause I think these are from the same anonie, who I’m starting to think likes to make people suffer djfhskdh (if it’s not from the same person, then big rip) 

Sorry this took so long, I was really trying to narrow it down to top 5 and I think I still ended up failing... I actually do this with my friends but usually, we’re a little bit more generous by narrowing it down to stuff like: top 5 title tracks, top 5 rap-line, top 5 vocal line, top 5 albums, etc... Asking me top 5 songs from their entire discography is absolutely savage.

For my top 5 BTS songs (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER BECAUSE I BARELY NARROWED IT DOWN TO FIVE, YOU CANT MAKE ME RANK THEM):

Blood Sweat & Tears: the monarch, the goat, putting it simply, the absolute best. I honestly remember when the Wings short films started dropping, my friend and I panicked HARD because we were like “WTF IS GOING ON WHAT IS THIS”. And then the teaser dropped, and it was so different from the “typical” BTS we’ve been getting, so we were even more confused. But then... The MV dropped and that was honestly just such a massive turning point for everything. Also, as an ARMY with a Jimin bias, I almost didn’t survive it.

Attack on Bangtan: okay this is honestly just such a fun hype song that never gets old no matter how many times you listen to it? It’s honestly a classic and whenever it plays on Run BTS, I know I’m either about to witness an epic moment or it’s gonna send my ass on the floor from laughing. (Also, let us never forget Tae’s “Nico nico niiii~”)

I Need U: okay this was The song that got me learning all their names and holy shit, I’ve listened to this song so much, it’s currently 5th most played song (out of nearly 2k songs) in my iTunes with 1,338 plays. When one hears “Fall...”, one does not simply resist the urge to belt “EVERYTHANG” with feelings. Also, funnily enough, the one that first caught my eye was Yoongi, there was something so eye-catching about the way he rapped in such a despondent manner at the start of the mv. 

House of Cards: I definitely need to put this one because I’ve listened to this song a total of 2,104 times, if you add the Prologue (short) version total (861) to the full length one (1,243). This was my “hoe” anthem long before My Time was born. I deadass fell in love with the song 10 seconds in, there was no saving me and you cannot stop anyone from doing emo bodyrolls when it comes up. Jikook’s bridge? I can’t sing to save my life but you can bet your ass I’m lipsyncing to that shit every single time.

I HATE THIS. I HATE PICKING THE LAST ONE, I WANT TO FIT THEIR ENTIRE DISCOGRAPHY INTO THIS LAST SPOT FFFFFFF.

And now, the last one... can I cheat and throw Euphoria, Serendipity and Seesaw all at my 5th spot? Cause I REALLY can’t pick one out of these 3 skjdhfkshdkf I have such an emotional attachment to Serendipity and Euphoria at this point (DJ Swivel remix of Euphoria? Hello?? I almost cried??? You are me, I am you?? HMMM????), and Seesaw just really surprised me. I absolutely was not expecting it, but holy shit, Seesaw slapped and it slapped hard. At this point, I’m like, anything Yoongi touches turns to absolute gold, I can’t resist him.

Okay I have so many other faves (Spring Day, Baepsae, etc.) but since you only asked for top 5 and not, like, top 100, I have to stop myself here, but I also very curious about your top 5s if you guys wanna share!! Let’s see how well you do, only narrowing it down to 5.

For my top 5 BTS videos (I only counted Bangtan Bombs and live performances, excluding MVs, since you didn’t specify. Otherwise there are too many... just thinking about how many Run BTS episodes I could fit otherwise lmfao):

Perfect Man: I’m a Jimin stan. What did you expect, me to not include this masterpiece??

As I Told You: Good lord, Jungkook was so fkn attractive in a hockey jersey of all things. I honestly loved it so much, I can listen to the live audio as is.

2018 MMA - IDOL Intro Performance (3J focus): Again, I am a Jimin stan. But seriously, from Hobi hitting every. single. beat. while dancing on a raised platform, to Jimin’s fan dance (I streamed the show live and I couldn’t focus on anything else after), to JK lounging like the absolute king that he is, what’s not to love?

It’s Tricky Bangtan Bomb: oldie but goldie, honestly. All of them were babies but holy shit, if their casual dancing didn’t absolutely make me fall in love with them all over again. It honestly never gets old no matter how many times I watch it.

BTS Carpool Karaoke: I have to admit, I honestly got stuck picking the last one so I went with this one because I feel like this is a really really good video to introduce others to BTS to. From their amazing acapella vocals (JK belting Finesse lives in my mind rent free) to how they were so perfectly themselves? You had Hobi’s sunshine smile in the middle, Baby Mochi, Jin’s “I don’t know what he said, but let’s laugh ha ha ha ha”, etc. 

Okay I have to admit something, I probably forgot like 90% of their videos so if any of you guys mention a video, I might go “AH SHIT I FORGOT ABOUT THAT ONE SKDJFHKSH” so take this list more as a “bangtan videos you should 100% watch” :^)

For my top 5 jikook moments (you absolutely devil, how could you ask me such a question), in no particular order because, again, I actually cannot physically bring myself to rank them:

Jimin comforting a crying JK during LY: (6:05) the way Jimin ran over as soon as he saw Jungkook bent over, facing the backstage. My heart. And he kept JK company for a bit, making sure he was fine before leaving. This whole thing just makes my heart melt into a puddle no matter how many times I think/see about it because it’s like, the timing is just? Anpanman barely started and he just looked over, saw, and ran over. Jesus Christ.

That Jikook moment during SY Seoul Finale: Just how much comfort Jimin must represent for Jungkook to let the dam free once again just seeing his face aghhhhhasgdahj I literally made an entire post about that moment because of how incredibly soft it gets me. I’ve linked it but it’s also my pinned so it’s very easy to find. 

“Are you guys dating?”: (start) holy shit okay so this moment is so sdjkfhkdshkfdhks the way both of them were so giggly? It never fails to make me laugh how absolutely done Joon sounded when he said “push quickly!” Also, just how soft did Jimin make his voice when he asked “are you ready”? and how JK, the single most competitive member of BTS, was just giggling the entire time and didn’t even try pushing Jimin before Jimin ended up eliminating himself. Not to mention how JK couldn’t into Jimin’s eyes and only finally made eye contact with at the very end :^)

MMA 2018: lmao okay so I’m just gonna throw this entire fkn night into the mix. I still remember how it was the wee hours in the morning for me when I started following the live stream and damn, they were literally inseparable the entire time. My TL was exploding in Jikook content and between watching them through the official broadcast and watching the fancams, I was BUSY. They did everything: whispering to each other’s ears, slinging their arms around each other’s shoulders, JK massaging JM’s nape, JK pulling JM down to sit... phew.

GCF in Tokyo: Okay so this is one of those things that the more you think about it, the more you can’t believe it’s real. I couldn’t not include this simply because of how meaningful the whole thing was. There’s so much about it that makes me ????? because JK really booked a two-person trip to Tokyo for Jimin’s birthday. And Jimin genuinely had fun on that trip. The whole thing just shows how comfortable the two of them are with each other because they’d never had gone on a trip together elsewise. I recently saw a Korean movie director’s reaction to GCF and the whole thing didn’t have any subs, but the two reactors were like “ohhh... these two... these two must be really close” (they’d reacted to BTS MVs before, but they’re not familiar with how the members are outside of that). From my limited Korean understanding, the movie director then commented “Because the model and the director are so close, it’s very natural” (if I’ve gotten any Korean followers, I’d love to get confirmation on the words said because my Korean understanding isn’t perfect and I don’t want to be spreading crap around). GCF in Tokyo is also the first video posted under the GCF label, with JK editing the whole thing himself. He filmed, he directed, he edited. And his main actor was Jimin.

I was this 👌🏻 close to adding LY lap sitting and Rose Bowl moments but I had other faves to include so I thought I’d go with something else :^) GCF forced its way into my list, I had no say in it.

Okay so I hope this was enough skdjfhkdshfs this post got really long cause I couldn’t help myself from giving reasons for why I included the ones I did, I’m sorry sjkfhdks Please feel free to share you’re own fave songs/videos/jikook moments!!

[bnha-scenarios]

Okay, so, first thing first. The second half of September and the whole October has been a wild ride.

Apparently this game blew up on TikTok (and probably some other platform or something?), and now I could see that there are tons of you who downloaded the game. That's just... so... unreal, at least to me. I didn't think this project would get so much attention. Even now, I’m still waiting to wake up from this dream 🙃

Anyway, if you’re new here: welcome! Sit back and relax, ‘cause this is gonna be a long ride!

I want to take this opportunity to say that due to the amount of comments, especially on itch.io page and my Tumblr, I won’t be always replying personally one by one to everyone anymore. I'll still try my best to answer questions and all, but I think by now everyone's common questions should already be answered in the FAQ page. So, moving forward, questions I have already answered inside that page will be ignored.

Still, I want you to know that I do read and treasure every single one of your comments. Thank you so much for your encouraging words, support, and suggestions! I'm sorry I can’t reply to those writing in languages other than English and Indonesian. While I can throw simple comments into Google Translate, every now and then the translator butchers long sentences and gives me garbled translation which I can't understand 😥

  ☕️ Special Thanks ☕️ 

I'd like to also take this chance to say, many, many thanks for the coffee, you all amazing, generous people:

M.L. | Dominique | Genki | Sara | 1 Anon

Even in this hard time, you’re all so kind. Again, I can’t really do much, but as my way of thanking you, your names will be put under Special Thanks in the game ♡ 

Alright, now, to the real essence of this post: progress update.

My work had been pretty demanding nearing the end of this month, and it made me get really sick of doing coding in general. Still, there is some progress on the game, and that’s good enough for me!

More details below ↓

Character Sheet: You / Player / Main Character

Before I get to anything else, let’s talk about ‘you’ first, shall we?

Although the main character's name is changeable, if you don’t wish to pick a name for them, ‘Suzuki Kaede’ is set as the default name.

Why Suzuki? I figured I would just take from one of the most common Japanese surnames.

Why Kaede? I chose it because I wanted a common Japanese unisex name, because the main character themselves is supposed to be gender neutral. So, the name came up as one of the results in Google, it has a somewhat nice and neutral meaning (maple), and I find that it sounds pretty nice, I decided to use it.

To reiterate, throughout the game, I try my best to not mention any physical characteristics and avoid elements which leans heavily to a specific gender in the story. All the characters in the game will also call you with your last name, and only neutral suffix (-san) is used at first. But you could get an event where you would be able to pick how the love interest will call the player, starting from that point in the story (on top of neutral options, there will be choices with gender-specific suffixes which you could pick if you want to). Other than that, all characters will always refer to the MC as ‘they/them’.

Now, moving on to the thing which people has asked about -- the player's Quirk. Here's a text version in case you couldn't see it in the image above for some reason:

What happens when a woman with Enhanced Learning quirk and a man with Camera Vision procreates? A child with exemplary learning ability and a pair of exceptionally observant eyes, apparently! The hereditary Vision you got from your father enables you to focus or scan an object or landscapes. With all the cues and information from your eyes, it seems that you're able to analyze and 'see' particular details of your object of interest in the form of numerical data. Due to the mainly passive nature of your quirk, you have to rely on the traditional weapons for offense, which might not be useful at all depending on your opponent's quirk. It's a plain and nonoffensive ability which isn’t so suited for a hero according to most people, but whatever - you’ll show those noobs the power of a gamer!

In other words, the information in 'Stats',  ' Weapon Proficiency', 'Special Moves', and even the 'Affection' meter, are actually part of the MC's Quirk. This also means, the more you hone your Quirk, the more it could affect your gameplay. I'll talk about that on the Gameplay section below.

There is one thing that’s kind of related to the MC's Quirk and I wanted to clarify. Bakugou did call you this in the demo, and yep, you might have guessed it: “crosshair eyes”. Reticle, crosshair, whatever you want to call it -- it’s that symbol you usually see in the center of your screen whenever you play FPS games. This is the only physical feature of the player's character that I specified (and yes, canonically, Hatsume has a pair of similar looking eyes in the original work). In relation to this, the icon for ‘activating’ your Quirk matches the same symbol.

Gameplay

Introducing: Stats, Special Moves, and Video Games!

Stats

There are 5 basic Stats for all of the characters in the game (brownie points if you recognize where they're taken from!): Speed, Technique, Power, Intelligence, Cooperativeness.

Your own Stats start off low, but you will be able to increase it by doing various activities, such as studying, playing games, winning on Heroics lessons, going to certain places, etc. Different activities raises different Stat, and you're free to choose which particular Stat you want to develop.

What are Stats being used for?

Certain Stat will increase a certain character’s affection, though it won’t be as much as if you hang out with that character.

There are certain places which you can only unlock when a specific Stat reaches a certain point. I’ll talk about hang out places and characters’ schedules in another post.

Weekly one-on-one training matches in Heroics lessons will test a specific Stat or Special Moves each time. Depending on who you chose to become your opponent, that specific Stat will determine the outcome of that match. On one hand, winning these matches can increase your Stat, but on the other hand, there are also special events you could possibly unlock when you lose. Again, I’ll probably talk more in detail about this in another post, since I still don't have the coding part down, so things might change.

Special Moves

Every hero has a Special Move in this universe, and so does the player’s character! While they might not be as flashy as All Might’s iconic United States of Smash, some of your Special Moves will have a direct effect on the gameplay. For example, a certain Special Move could unlock more answer choices for certain scenarios. Another Special Move could be activated to give you hints on how many affection points will be added to a character for the available choices.

You have a total of 5 unlockable Special Moves, and it will be up to you to use this feature: do you spend your time trying to unlock all of it in hope to make your gameplay easier, or ignore them completely in favor of balancing your Stats while pursuing the affection of your chosen love interest? It’s your choice!

(More brownie points for you if you got the reference in that picture lol)

Another use for Special Moves would be in the Heroics lessons, seeing as it might test how your Special Move fares against the opponent you picked.

Video Games

I would say that this particular element plays quite a big role in this game, since the MC learns and develops themselves by playing games. While you do have a set of games which you’ve owned, you’re able to purchase new games from the Video Game store. I would recommend doing this, as there are some neat ones which will help you greatly in your playthrough. But if you're not interested to explore them, that's fine too!

Each video game has a different effect, and it’s up to you to discover them! Or, perhaps, you could unlock a Special Move that allows you to know what effect each of the game has? 😉

What are Video Games being used for?

Most games will only increase specific Stat(s), but there are also others that can unlock Special Moves.

There is one game which helps you to unlock Stats or Special Moves of your classmates, which you can use in the Heroics lesson to pick a suitable opponent based on your current Stats.

In addition to all that, there are 2P games which require more than one person to play, and you could play them with your romance target when they’re available. On top of building your Cooperativeness, choosing the right answers during the gaming session will increase that character's affection.

Others

The basic functions behind some activities like studying, buying video games, and playing video games are done. I will probably move on to code the functions handling the Heroics lesson’s battles and the behind-the-scenes of when the player chooses to go to certain places.

I've also finished the two main custom screens, which is the Quirk and Games page. If I have time and the motivation, I'm guessing I'll be adding the two other additional screens I had thought of doing. We'll see.

Assets

This part is my nightmare, because I’m a perfectionist who’s far too picky when gathering resources…

But no assets = no game, so I did find several assets which I did like. This includes backgrounds, audios, background musics, and some sprites I was planning to use for developing the phone call function. I’m not going to list down all the things I found here, because I don’t think any of you would be interested in a long-ass list, but here’s an amazing background picture which I stumbled upon searching the dark abyss that is the internet:

Full credits to the artist: https://arsenixc.artstation.com/

Writing

I would have to say there isn't too much progress on this side yet, but I did decide on some story elements I want to insert into the game and scripted in a few scenes for the first day. I also managed to code in the dialogs for some common activities / places, like the video game store and a small part of school lunch time.

Honestly, I should probably create a sheet to identify how many scenes I would have to write? So all of us know the progress for this part of the development? ..... Let's see how it goes when my OCD flares up...

Disclaimers

All assets included in the devlogs are not mine, and credits to the asset owners / websites will be included in the game! My Hero Academia / Boku no Hero Academia ⓒ Horikoshi Kouhei

[moviegroovies]

so i know i’m breaking like, this unspoken vow of silence re: the movie by making this post but this IS a movie blog and i did watch the last airbender. and can i just say. holy fucking shit.

y’all know i like a lot of bad movies. knowing that, take me seriously when i say: this is a BAD movie. and not in a good way. i went into it with no expectations except morbid curiosity and i was STILL let down. i wanted to hate watch it, and yeah, i hated watching it, but it wasn’t even fun to hate. i just hated it. 

don’t watch the last airbender.

if you’re like me and you just wanted to know exactly how bad it was, please benefit from my mistakes. read my fun funky rant and then never think of that movie again. put it out of your mind. rewatch boiling rock. love yourself.

anyway.

pretty much the one and only thing i knew about why it was bad going in was that it was whitewashed; that’s like the only thing anyone ever mentions in conjecture with this movie, when they mention it at all. knowing this, going in knowing full well that the casting department did crimes against humanity, i was still shocked and disturbed at the sight of white katara and white sokka. literally... that casting choice was a hate crime. look them up (or check out my last post) if you need to see it for yourself... it’s bad y’all. somehow i had braced myself for white aang, but before i saw it with my own two eyes i couldn’t believe that they would actually whitewash katara and sokka, And Yet. the really stupid thing is that it’s not even “””justified””” IN UNIVERSE; most of the members of the southern water tribe are played by asian actors, meaning that they didn’t even pull a pan and make the WHOLE southern water tribe white, they just made sokka and katara mysteriously “special” in a spectacularly poor judgement call.

actually, that’s another thing. outside the northern water tribe (which is also mostly white... i’m wondering if sokka and katara are white because gran gran--a white woman in the movie--is from the north? anyway it’s a moot point either way because none of them should be white, there are NO WHITE CHARACTERS IN THE SHOW AVATAR, jesus FUCKING christ), most of the extras and background characters are played by actors of color, particularly asian actors, which would be accurate to the show’s canon. maybe m night shyamalan or someone else involved in the making of this shitshow of a movie thought that this would somehow absolve the whitewashing of the main characters, but in reality i’d argue that it makes it even worse; by having characters mostly played by people of color continuously being saved by three little white bitches, the movie goes HARD on the white savior trope, and also just generally uses these actual, living people as exploitative, orientalist set dressing for this 1 hour and 43 minutes of special hell.

with one notable exception: prince zuko is played by an actor of color--specifially, dev patel. (who is himself miscast, considering how zuko and the fire nation are japanese-coded, but the second they opened on that veruca salt looking ass bitch calling herself katara any hope that the makers of this movie gave any consideration to the racial coding avatar introduced went right out the window.) which adds Another layer of racism to this already inconceivably bad fuckup of a movie; how strange, that the movie’s racebending made all three heroes white, but the primary antagonist (as well as the secondary antagonist, zhao, and the mostly-off-screen-but-still-present ozai) is a man of color. what an odd coincidence. hmmmm.

i hate this movie. i do want to note, though, that dev patel’s inclusion was the only thing that actually got me through the whole thing; i have no idea why he was in this film (he’s FAR too talented for the content he was given and no one else in the entire cast went even one sixteenth as hard as he did) but he was its one saving grace. still, though, even he couldn’t save it. he was so cute and he did his damn best with probably the worst script in the history of film... but he was still in THIS film. since the release of this movie, patel has spoken out against his role in it and the world of hollywood blockbusters in general, and to that i say... good for him. 

i was going for zuko though. this time it was like YES baby CAPTURE that avatar. full stop.

so yes, it was horribly miscast, whitewashed to hell and back, and went with a racist white hero/villains of color cast as a backdrop. all of these things, in themselves, are enough to completely condemn the movie, and my work here might as well be done... except to end it there would be to leave one million other glaring flaws unexamined. and i refuse to let any rock be unturned.

because, like, it’s NOT just bad because of the whitewashing. the whitewashing and the other racist elements are huge PARTS of why this is a bad movie, but even if this movie was made with an accurate and un-whitewashed cast, it would STILL be a bad movie, and i need you all to know this. 

starting from the top: they ruined katara and sokka. 

well, they ruined them the second they cast them the way they did. but again, let’s say they cast someone else. let’s say they cast appropriate actors for the rolls, but the level of acting skill and the script they used was the same. even in this case, they would have RUINED katara and sokka. none of the characters in this movie are 100% recognizable (and i’ll keep repeating it: the casting DID NOT HELP), but katara and sokka got hit the hardest and the worst. the things that sokka should have brought to the table (his goofy attitude, his intelligence) were erased, and the “sokka” we were given instead was a jerkass buzzkill who might have occasionally been the butt of a joke, but was never actually intended to be funny in his own right. reflecting on the series, it’s kind of as if we got his characterization from the first episode (before sokka got any development and was, i guess, kind of a jerkass buzzkill) and never strayed from that, which would be bad enough, but i think even episode ONE sokka was more fun and dynamic than White Sokka™. mistakes were made.

but it was even WORSE for katara. katara’s righteous anger was all but erased. SOKKA was the one who broke the avatar out of the ice, and only because they accidentally happened upon him--katara didn’t get to be angry at sokka’s jerkass sexism and unconsciously fuck up an entire iceberg. katara NEVER got to be angry. in fact, most of katara’s moments were taken and distributed between aang and sokka; aang, for instance is the one who inspires the earthbenders to break out of prison. we don’t even see katara train with master pakku, and SHE was the one who actually became a waterbending master when they went to the north pole. in this movie, katara mostly existed to talk about ~hope~ (very ember island players, lmfao) and hug aang when he went into the avatar state. 

by the way, that prison? it’s not the metal platform in the middle of the ocean we got in the show. it’s just... an enclosed village. surrounded by dirt and earth. and the earthbenders never tried to break out until aang came along and told them to? hmmmm.... 

Unfortunate Implications™, but what did you expect. 

other than that, idk. the writing was so fucking bad, y’all. a significant chunk of the plot relies on the “as you know” trope, in which characters have an expository discussion about something everyone present should already be aware of and wouldn’t need to get into. this normally wouldn’t bother me THAT much, if i noticed it at all (exposition is essential, after all, and you only have so much time in a movie, so i guess it makes sense when you’re trying to compress an entire season of a show into one), except like... it’s ridiculous. i couldn’t ignore it, they just hit the hammer so hard. “as you know, this is what the avatar is. as you know, zuko was exiled after fighting an agni kai with his father. as you know...” 

bleh.

after that, i guess all my complaints are a little more pedantic. some smaller things that made the movie unwatchable: the bending motions were super weird and i think sped up? there were perfectly good martial arts moves right there waiting for them, and shyamalan fucked even THAT up in an effort to... what? make it look more “mystical?” bitch i’ll kill you. also, for reasons completely unfathomable to me, some of the names were pronounced oddly despite being said one million times in the show. “aah-ng” “ee-roh” “soh-ka” “ahvatar.” literally... why.

i’ve been thinking “soh-ka” in my head for like two weeks. hideous.

and one last thing, which really DOESN’T matter in comparison to what they did to the human characters, but like... what fucking happened to appa?? why did they do that to him?

don’t watch the last airbender.

[time-is-a-pain]

Bella Is Not Impressed: Part Three

Part one, Previous, Next

The day her uncles arrived Miss Bustier assigned the class a group project. There were 4 people to a group and they had to pick a celebrity to make a presentation about. Bella ended up in a group with Alya, Alix and Nino. They decided to each suggest a favorite celebrity and then they’d pick a random one out of a hat. In the end they picked Nadia Chamack, Alya’s second choice after Ladybug. Bella had wanted to do Ley-Ley, partly because she was petty when she wanted to be and it would have been a good time to introduce the class to her celebrity and disproove one of Lila’s lies, but mostly because Ley-Ley was actually her favorite celebrity. But that got vetoed when Miss Bustier specified that it had to be a celebruty well known in France, and unfortunately Ley-Ley wasn’t really.

For the first few days it went well, then the three in Bella’s group started glaring at her and distancing themselves from her. Bella frowned at it, but they still got their presentation done and handed in before the deadline so she decided to leave it be. After that it was back to hanging with Marinette and her uncles until one day when Bella was sitting alone in the courtyard, smiling at her phone.

She was startled and angry when someone snatched her phone out of her hand. 

“What’re you smiling at Miss Rose? Find someone else to push around?”

It had been Alya who asked the question, but it was Alix who snatched the phone and was now reading through her messages with Azzy. All of which were about the excellent little restaurants he’d found and rediscovered and the audacity some people had, trying to buy his books.

Bella took a deep breath, fighting the urge to just snap her phone back. “What are you talking about Alya?”

“I’m talking about you and Marinette bullying Lila! What else would I be talking about?” 

“Do you really have full conversations with people without unlocking your phone?” Alix cut in when she reached the top of the message history.

“Yes I do. Can I have my phone back now?”

 “Tell us why you’d bully someone as good as Lila first!” Alya took the phone from Alix and waved it Bella’s face, “After all that girl’s done for us and everything she has to deal with because of her conditions, why would you go out of your way to make things worse for her? And-”

“Where’s your proof?” Bella cut in.

Alya stuttered to a halt, “W-what?”

“Your proof,” Bella repeated calmly, making sure that nothing about her question could be taken as hostile. “Do you have any proof that Mari and I have been bullying Lila?”

Alya blinked and traded looks with the others who had joined her in confronting Bella.

“Well, no,” Nino said slowly.

One by one they all realized that they’d never actually seen any evidence of the things Lila claimed happened.

“Well you must be doing something!” Alya cried, “Lila wouldn’t just accuse you of something that never happened!”

“What is she accusing us of anyway?” Bella asked, genuinely curious, “You never got around to naming the offense.”

“She said Marinette stole some of her designs and you shoved her in the hall,” Alix spoke up, crossing her arms.

Bella crossed her arms and frowned thoughtfully. “Well, there was once when I accidentally bumped into her, maybe a few times I nudged her out of my way, but I’ve never outright shoved her. Also, you all know that Mari hates taking credit for other people’s work right? Why would she deliberately do something that goes against what she believes is fair for some designs that she could do herself?”

The three of them blinked. Even Alya had to admit that purposefully stealing something someone worked hard on was something Marinette would never do.

“Look, why don’t you go ask Lila which designs Mari stole? If it turns out Mari really did steal them on purpose I’ll do whatever you want for two days and then we’ll leave you and Lila alone.”

Alya narrowed her eyes at Bella and held out her hand. “Shake on it and it’s a deal.”

“Give me my phone back and I will.”

Alya placed the phone in Bella’s open palm. Bella shook Alya’s hand and watched as the group walked off, the crowd they had gathered dispersing as well. Bella sighed and used the rest of her time before class stared planning the next meal she wanted to try making for Mari and Azzy. After a moment she took out her phone and texted Mari about what had happened, giving her friend a heads up.

[takeontaron-blog]

Personal Assistant - Chapter One

Hey, everyone. A request for a threesome one-shot turned me wanting to write a multi-chapter story, so here it begins. Will become NSFW rather quickly. Please leave feedback, and thank you for reading!! <3

Taron x Reader x Richard

You inhaled deeply as you stepped out of your car, straightening your skirt before striding towards the door. Today was your first day as a personal assistant to actor Taron Egerton’s PA. His fame had risen so rapidly within the past few months that his PA, Connie, had decided she needed some extra help, and you two took to each other immediately in the interviewing process. You hadn’t met Taron as of yet, but you were sure you would soon enough, and as you stepped into the elevator that would take you to Taron’s suite where Connie and the rest of his crew were this morning, you tried to calm your nerves. First days are always nerve racking, this would be no different but just stay quiet, do as you’re told, you’ll be fine, you told yourself repeatedly in your head. You stepped out of the elevator and knocked on the specified door, and Connie herself opened it with a smile. 

“Y/N! Come on in, thanks so much for being on time.”

“Oh, of course!” you smiled back, stepping inside as Connie closed the door. She quickly motioned around the room, casually introducing you to the rest of the crew, who all welcomed you warmly. Good, this was going well. Not as stressful as you had imagined it might be. You followed Connie to a large sofa and sat down beside her, being careful to keep a respectful distance as you perched on the edge of the sofa. 

“So,” Connie began as the rest of the crew went about continuing their work and talking amongst themselves, “here’s your work phone.” She handed you a shiny new cell, the latest model of its kind. “Everyone you’re working with in this room has already had their numbers and contact info put into the phone. This will be on you at all times, night and day, never silenced. You will only use this phone for work purposes, and you can contact me at any time on it.” 

You nodded as you took the phone from her. “This is what we need to have finished by the end of the week.” You were handed a few sheets of paper. “Everything is pretty cut and dried, I need you to book all these rooms and events. The people you’ll be calling have already been notified by me that we’ll be in touch to confirm reservations. That’s your job for now. Also,” she dug through her folder and pulled out a ticket, “I need you to pick up Taron’s dry cleaning as well as his tailored suits that are waiting for him downtown at Armani. On your way back, you’ll grab a coffee order for everyone, I’ll text you what to order in just a bit. Also, this is your credit card, which you already know is solely for business purposes. If there’s any unexpected charges that come up when you’re going to, for example, pick up the suits and the cashier has an extra fee for something that was not paid for originally, go ahead and use this card, just always keep the receipts and bring them to me. Okay?” she smiled, and your head reeled a bit. She had just given a lot of information in less than a couple minutes and she didn’t even seemed fazed. You smiled back as you accepted the ticket and credit card. “Got it.”

“Perfect. So I’ll let you get on with your work. Always know what time the stores close that you’ll need to be stopping at, and other than that, work on your own time, as long as we get all those reservations confirmed before the end of the week.”

Seemed easy enough, you mused. “Do you mind if I go begin my work at that table over there?” you nodded towards a glass breakfast table that sat in an upper corner of the room by a ceiling-to-floor length window. It was bright and a little ways away from the rest of the group. 

“Oh, yeah, just make yourself at home.” Connie waved her hand in a casual manner as she immediately went back to the paperwork she had been working on when you had arrived. You moved yourself and your work to the table, tucking the credit card and dry cleaning ticket into your wallet before scanning the phone list where each entry had a company name, person to ask for/speak to on the phone, as well as multiple numbers for each contact. You took a breath and dialed the first one.

********************************

A couple hours later, you decided it was time for a break from phone calls and stood up to stretch. You weren’t sure if you should interrupt Connie to tell her you were going to head out to pick up the clothes and coffee, as she was in deep conversation with someone and they seemed to be having a disagreement and you didn’t want to get in the middle of that. Instead, you decided to quietly slip out and opened your phone, sending Connie a quick text saying you were getting the clothes and to send you the coffee order when it was convenient. You were stepping out of the elevator in the lobby when your phone chimed, and you sighed in relief when you saw Connie’s text: “perfect, thanks. :)”

********************************

The coffee shop Connie had told you to go to was a couple blocks down from the hotel, which wasn’t the end of the world except you were struggling to carry all the heavy clothes draped over one arm, the Armani bag hanging from the other, and two coffee holders full of hot drinks in each hand. You somehow maneuvered yourself into the elevator, pressing the floor button with your hip, and exhaled happily when you reached the door to the hotel room, “knocking” on it with your foot. One of the crew, Michael, opened the door for you, taking the coffee holders from you as you gratefully thanked him. 

“Uhm, excuse me,” you said softly, “where should I put the clothes?”

“Usually Taron likes to look at them before they get hung up in the closet, there’s a display rack right inside the bedroom.” He pointed to the door, and you thanked him, heading that way and finding the rack Michael had mentioned easily. You hung up the dry cleaning and began pulling the suits out of the bag to hang them up on the empty wooden hangers to the left of the rack when you were startled by a voice behind you. 

“Oh, thanks so much!”

You turned around, still holding one of the suits. Taron’s smile greeted you, and you begged yourself not to say or do anything stupid. “Oh! Hi, yeah, no problem.” Okay, that wasn’t that bad, you told yourself as you went back to hanging up the last suit. 

“You’re Connie’s new assistant?” Taron asked, coming to stand next to you. 

You smiled. “I am, yes.”

He extended his hand. “Taron.”

You shook it. “Y/N.”

“Very lovely to meet you, Y/N.”

Just then Connie popped her head around the corner, knocking on the wall to announce her presence. “Hey, Y/N, emergency.”

You nodded, attempting to finish putting the hanger into the coat of the suit when the wooden piece fell from your hand. Fuck. It wasn’t a huge deal, you knew, but it still irked you, especially looking clumsy on your first day and in front of both your boss and Taron. You felt the coat being taken away from you gently and looked up to see Taron nodding towards Connie. “You’re busy, I’ll take care of the suit. Thanks so much for picking everything up, Y/N.”

“Oh…of…of course,” you stammered, following Connie out of the room, willing your face not to flush. 

“Hey,” Connie said quickly, beginning to explain the issue at hand. Something major had come up and she would end up needing your constant assistance tomorrow and the next day, and so she needed the reservations to be completed before midnight tonight. You eyes grew wide the tiniest bit, but you didn’t want her to think you weren’t able to get handle it. 

“Done,” you said simply. 

Connie smiled in relief. “You’re doing great. Be here at 6 am first thing tomorrow. Text me if you need anything.” With that, she turned on her heel and hurried back to the sofa to her work. 

You suddenly felt a little uncomfortable in this room full of strangers, and you approached Connie quietly. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but would it be alright if I finished the phone calls elsewhere?”

‘Yeah, that’s fine. Just get it done.” Connie did her little wave thing that basically meant “whatever, just leave me alone.”

************************************

You hung up the phone, sighing loudly as you glanced at the clock. 11:54 p.m. You had made it, you realized with relief. Every reservation confirmed. You checked off the final one on the list and groggily stood up to get ready for bed. 

*************************************

You woke up at 4:30 a.m. to the chiming of your work cell, blinking back against the bright light as you glanced at the screen. “Coffee order enclosed, the shop opens at 5:30.” You groaned at the text from Connie, wanting to get some more sleep especially since you had gone to bed so late, but you knew you wanted to look your best for work and it took a good thirty minutes to drive to the hotel where you had to be at, so you forced yourself awake as you read through the coffee order and padded into the bathroom, hoping a hot shower would stir up the senses a bit. 

An hour later, you were the first in line at the coffee shop. You still felt exhausted but your excitement for the second day of work was helping you push through. You had worn your favorite baby blue skirt suit today, which made you feel pretty, and you glanced at your reflection in the window of the shop, tucking a loose hair behind your ear as you picked up the drink carriers and began your two block walk to the hotel. 

You made it up to the room, knocking on the door using your foot again. Silence. Confused, you set down one of the carriers and looked at your phone to see if Connie had changed the meeting place, but upon not seeing anything, you sent a quick text. “I’m here.” You pressed send as you knocked again, this time with your fist, then picked up the second coffee carrier again. Your phone chimed at the exact moment the door opened slightly, and you were taken aback by seeing a half-asleep Taron peeping through the crack. You both stared at each other for a moment, confusion taking over, but then he opened the door a bit wider as he laid his head sleepily on the doorframe. 

“Y/N.” He smiled, his morning voice breathy with a hint of rasp. 

“I, uhh, I’m so sorry, I thought I was supposed to meet Connie here.” You stumbled over your words as you glanced down to notice he was only wearing a pair of sweatpants, and you forced your eyes to stay on his face, embarrassed. Your phone chimed again. 

“Here,” Taron took one of the coffee holders from you, chuckling. “I bet that’s Connie panicking that she forgot to tell you she would be at a different location.”

You looked at your phone. “I don’t see you?” the first text read, followed by, “OH shit! I’m so stupid, I forgot to tell you that we’re meeting at my place this morning!” As you finished reading the second text, a third one came in with an address, followed by a fourth. “So freaking sorry, Y/N. Don’t knock on the door at the hotel, you’ll wake Taron.”

“Too late?!” you wanted to text back. Instead, “On my way,” you typed quickly, then looked apologetically at the half-naked, half-awake man standing in front of you. “I am so sorry,” you began, reaching for the coffee. 

Taron chuckled again, running a hand through his hair. “Not to worry, you woke me from a shit nightmare anyway.” He smiled. “I’ll see you later, Y/N.” He began closing the door, then paused before completely shutting it. “Nice suit.”

The door shut and you heard the lock click in place. You thought you might start crying or raging or….just….something. Okay, just get the fuck to Connie’s place and everything will be fine, you told yourself, basically running back to your car, carefully placing the drink holders in the floor of the back seat to negate any spills, as you sped to the correct destination, the image of Taron burned into your mind and making you not really want to think about anything else. 

Connie had been insanely apologetic when you had arrived, and you tried to act like it wasn’t a big deal, making sure to avoid any mention of waking Taron. You figured Connie wouldn’t actually be upset about that, since it had been an honest mistake, but she already seemed stressed out and on-edge this morning so you didn’t want to push your luck. There were twice as many people at Connie’s place as there had been at Taron’s the day before, and you found out that he and Richard Madden had decided to work on a short film together with the plan to premiere it at Cannes the following year, and so Richard’s crew was busy planning and working out the kinks with Taron’s crew. You were quickly introduced to all the people you hadn’t met the day before, and work began. 

Two hours, a few dozen emails and phone calls and a large black coffee later, you rubbed your temples and tried to breathe. This was absolutely crazy. You didn’t know all the details, as you were just there to cover what Connie didn’t have time to, but basically it seemed that Richard and Taron had planned this last-minute and there were issues with funding and the studio having sufficient stage room, etc. It was all overwhelming and since you were super green when it came to how films were made, you tried not to think too much about it and just focus on your work. 

Richard’s PA stood up, loudly announcing he had news. “Richard’s plane is landing in forty minutes, and he wants to be involved in talking to the execs and helping us get things pushed through. Connie, would Taron be game to join?” Upon seeing her nod, the PA said he’d confirm the meeting place and would send texts out accordingly. 

A little while later, everyone was back at the hotel where Richard had booked the largest suite the building offered to accommodate everyone who needed to be present. You settled on the end of one of the sofas, wanting to stay out of the way of those who were leading the meeting. Richard had opened the door for everyone upon arrival, and even though you hadn’t met him directly, he smiled kindly at you as you had stepped inside, making eye contact for a second longer than you would have expected. You tried not to stare, of course, but for some reason you were mildly fascinated with the way Richard’s hair had a silver streak in it - 

“Hello again!” a cheerful voice brought you back to reality. Taron sat down on the couch arm right next to you, smiling cheekily. Your heart skipped a beat, both from surprise and also from embarrassment from earlier that morning. 

“Hi,” you smiled shyly. You hadn’t seen him come in, so you assumed he must have been in another room when you arrived. 

“I’m about to make some tea, would you like some?” Taron offered. You weren’t exactly sure what to do, since technically you were the one supposed to get drinks and snacks when people wanted them -

“Don’t overthink it.” Taron broke through your thoughts, winking at you. “It’s just tea.”

You let out a small laugh. “Yeah, alright, tea would be great. Thank you.” Taron headed to the kitchen area, and you realized you’d never been in a room this large and fancy before. You leaned back into the sofa in an attempt to relax a little when you noticed Richard on the other end of the room, staring at you. You shot him a small smile before your eyes went to stare at the carpet, still aware of his soft eyes looking your way for a moment longer before being distracted by his PA coming over to talk to him. Taron returned, handing your cup to you. 

You sipped the warm liquid as everyone began settling down to start the meeting, Taron choosing to remain next to you on the sofa arm. 

“I’m, uhh, sorry again,” you said softly, referring to earlier that morning. 

“No harm done.” Taron lightly traced a finger along the seam of your suit that connected the arm to the shoulder. Your eyes followed his fingers before looking up at him, and his eyes met yours. “This really is a beautiful color on you, Y/N.”

[fyrapartnersearch]

About Me: Morgan, 28, female, Central time zone

Email: legitblackchick@gmail.com *I RP over email or Google Docs. Chatting can take place over email or Google Hangouts. We can chat over Discord if you’d like (ask me for it), but I won’t RP over that platform because the post limit is annoying.

Style: Third person, past tense, paragraph form.  *I tend to average three to four paragraphs a post, but depending on what is happening, I write more. I enjoy long post, both reading and writing them, so if that’s not your jam, you should probably look elsewhere.

What I’m Looking For:

*A partner of any gender over the age of 21. *Partners who can reply at least 3-4 times a week. I aim to write a post at least once a day or every two days. *Partners able and willing to play several characters (though not all the time) to help create the world and the scenes. I don’t “double”, so please don’t ask. I play OC characters and expect the same of my partner. *Extensive world-building depending on the plot. I love world-building and I’d love it if you did too. *M/F or F/F pairings. I can play male or female, but some plots listed may have my preferred gender to play because I already have a character drafted. *Mature themes. Swearing, smut, and violence will feature in my RPs, but let me know about limits/triggers and we’ll work something out. Making sure we’re both comfortable is important to me. *Communication and open-mindedness. I love brainstorming and fleshing out plot-lines. Also, if you are no longer interested in plotting or RPing just tell me, no hard feelings. Ghosting is a major pet peeve of mine, so please don’t do it. *Face Claims. They're not necessary but I like using them. You don't have to use them, but I most likely will. I also like adding other visuals to the RP: buildings, outfits, special gadgets, etc. I really like sharing visuals, but I do add descriptions to the RP as well. 

Please introduce yourself in your initial contact with me and what plot interested you the most. I most likely won’t respond if you don’t specify a plot or plots you would like to try. If none of my plots interested you but you feel we would be a good match, please send me your plot idea. Let’s see what we can come up with!

 Plots:

{Sci-Fi. Cyberpunk. Heavy World-Building. Slash Optional.} My character (female) is the captain of a small scavenger crew. While on an expedition searching an old space station, the crew stumbles upon a lifepod on its last leg. A lifepod with a person still alive inside (your character)! More plotting required; not really sure where I want to go with this.

---

{Historical Fantasy. Heavy World-Building. Slash Optional.} A nation of mages (your country) find themselves losing a war against a longtime enemy. In desperation, they ask for help from their traditionally isolationist neighbors (my country). The nation agrees to help and they form an unlikely alliance. This plot will mostly likely feature an arranged marriage between the rulers of the nations. I have a few ideas of how to grow this plot, but nothing is set in stone.

---

{Fantasy. Historical OR Modern. Light World-Building. Setting. Character Driven.} A travelling circus that features the talents of actual mages and magical creatures. No real plot for this, could just be the inner-workings and relationships of the different people in the circus. Playing multiple characters is required, though not necessarily at the same time. 

---

{Fantasy. Historical OR Modern. World-Building. Setting. Character Driven.} Cruise ship full of Mages. A mysterious benefactor invites a number of big name Mages to spend a week (or more) on a cruise ship. Curiosity gets the best of Mages from all around the world and they decide to see who’s behind the invitation. Shenanigans ensue. Playing multiple characters is required, though not necessarily at the same time.

 ---

{Post-Apocalyptic. Fantasy.} Magic has come back into the world with devastating effects. A vast majority of people without magic (Mundane) are dead, technology is fried, and the world is left primarily to the mages. Now they are left in a world that is being reclaimed by magic and the creatures that had once been myth are returning.

---

*Medieval fantasy is my main craving right now. 

[lonesomealley]

A Short Hike - In Depth Analysis and Review SCRIPT

POSTER'S NOTE: This script may have been slightly edited when doing the voice over for the video. Apologies about any inaccuracies.

A Short Hike - Indepth Review

By Count_

Big spoiler warning right off the bat with this video, I do not know how to talk about this game without spoiling either massive parts of what the game is trying to convey to you or what the game wants you to experience. I know this sounds really cheesy but this game works at its absolute best when you know nothing about it aside from the surface level screenshots. If you want a spoiler free overview of what the game is, it’s an open world exploration game that’s essentially a walking simulator. The game contains no real “gameplay” like fighting or difficult platforming, it is a casual experience. And you absolutely should not be going into this game expecting it to be something more than that. My overall opinion for this review is that this game is an absolutely fantastic experience that you should play. The only actual gripe I have with the game is that the price point is going to be a little too high for some people’s standards, especially if you like to get the most mileage out of your money. I would say the best way to legally get ahold of this game would be to subscribe to Humble Monthly and pick this game up from the Humble Trove. You essentially get access to this game for free alongside all of your Humble Monthly games, so getting it through this service is probably the best way to go for most people. Okay that’s all the spoiler free information I can give away, I highly recommend you go play this game before you watch this video because I will be spoiling what the game wants to convey and how the game goes about doing that. This video will not be going anywhere, have fun.

At the core of A Short Hike, the game isn’t even about the hike. The title straight out lies to you. The game begins with a dialogue between the protagonist Claire, and her mother as they drive out towards where Claire, and the player, will be residing for the rest of the game. Claire then appears outside of her cabin amongst a bright and sunny day, where the first character you meet: Ranger, or Aunt May will inquire about why she has been inside all day. To which you, the player, will promptly learn that you’re expecting a phone call, and there’s no service on any part of the island, except for the summit of Hawk Peak. And from there you’ve been given your first quest, get to the summit and get your phone call. Just as a little break off, it is possible to wholly avoid this part of the game by simply diving into the ocean and going the opposite direction. However, assuming you take the natural progression path, when you begin walking down the pathway and receive a small tutorial dialogue on how to glide, you’ll find Jen sitting by the beach. Talking to her provides you another quest: bring back 15 sea shells. Now sea shells aren’t hard to find, you just need to scout out the beaches until you’ve collected enough of them, however there’s a catch and I think you know where this is going. By going out to collect these sea shells you will stumble upon new things to explore and new people to talk to, and those people are also going to give you new quests or tasks to do.

This is the foundation for which the game is built on, because before you know it, in an almost Skyrim-like fashion, you will be far off from the main quest doing all of these different little side gigs. And what started as a short hike, turns into a one to two hour adventure where you do everything else except the hike that you’re told to do. The game even meta-mentions that this would happen by having one of the characters ask Claire if she feels “lost and directionless,” and then give you a compass. There’s two other ways to interpret this off the top of my head: one, is that this is just a joke to introduce the compass, and yeah that’s pretty much it. Or two, which can be tied to the end of the game, so we’ll come back to this. But through these little micro quests, you are actually experiencing the game the way that it’s intended to be played. You run around, meet all these people, do all these tasks for them, go fishing and gliding, and look through binoculars to see if you missed anything below, and this all has a narrative purpose.

You’re never told why you come to this island besides just, “It’s nice to get out of the city.” And you never learn anything about that as you continue playing the game, just that you’re waiting for a phone call. It’s a well wrapped scheme of omission that aims to recontextualize, the entire game. Because when you get to the summit of Hawk Peak, Claire finally gets that phone call, at what couldn’t be a more convenient time. Claire has actually forgotten that this was supposed to happen, and she has a heartfelt conversation with her mother where you learn that her mother has gone through surgery and that she wasn’t told anyone about it until after the fact. It’s never specified when this surgery happened, how Claire found out, or how long she has even been on the island, you just have to assume that she’s been there long enough that people know her name. But that information isn’t important, what’s important is that Claire’s mom probably brought her here to make her forget about the surgery or the worries that encompass it. The player is never told this information because the game wants you to feel the same way Claire does where you can just forget about your worries and have fun. It’s quite obvious how this information is introduced and then very quickly swept under the rug with no impact as you travel the Hawk Peak updraft back to your cabin. You’ll also speak with Aunt May and Claire will tell her that the surgery went okay and that things are fine, and then Claire will recount the experiences that both her and the player have gone through during the game. And that’s where this final interpretation of the line “lost and directionless” comes in because that could be Claire’s mental state in response to the news about the surgery. The hike is a metaphor for getting over worry and you don’t need to know that because it’s not relevant to the player’s overall experience.

That’s where I was primarily impressed with this game, the writing is almost too good for a Humble funded indie project made by one guy with help from a musician. And I’ve dedicated three paragraphs just to talk about the writing and I could write so much more about the animal crossing styled characters and humor, the side stories that these characters have that you can actively follow. On my first playthrough I came across these guys climbing up some play rock walls and I was told to acquire a golden feather and come back, but when you get a golden feather you’re already told how to climb and so I did just that. I climbed around and used my feathers for jumps and forgot about those guys back there. But they actually have dialogue if you come back and climb up these walls, infact through doing this you learn that they’re actually training to climb Hawk Peak and you’ll be able to spot these guys climbing the mountain later on through triggering this dialogue. And there’s so many more examples of this throughout the game like an artist suffering from creative blockage, or someone’s relative wanting you to remind them to hydrate themselves and take breaks. It all makes the world feel really expansive and it’s actually packed so full of content that even though I was pretty thorough in trying to explore and do everything I could, I still missed stuff. I didn’t even get the achievement for collecting all of the golden feathers, and when my girlfriend played she’d tell me about things that I had forgotten about or outright never found and experienced. It’s an exploration sandbox that leads to everyone having their own journey with the game. And that ending? You can complete that as early as you want, the speedrun for this game is 3 minutes and they completely bypass the minimum recommendations that the game gives you. You don’t even have to explore the world outside of just getting enough golden feathers to get to the peak. In a way it’s a game that feels personalized for everyone that plays it.

*ugh* I haven’t even gotten to the gameplay, graphics, or music. The biggest elephant in the room here is the retrograde graphics. Pixel art as an artform is often overdone in indie games because, let’s face the facts, many indie developers are not artists. Well actually Adam is, but we’ll get back to this. There’s something different about the way that the pixel art is incorporated in this game. You can tell because you’re able to swing your camera around in the game and the only way this would be possible is if everything was actually modeled and some form of pixelation was thrown over the visuals. Which means that this art style is entirely deliberate, and actually means something to Adam, the developer. A different art style could’ve been used for this game and still would’ve achieved the same general effect. In fact, the game features a cheat code that completely removes the pixelation, and it looks great! Some of the models are a little scuffed and everything is generally low poly, but with a little bit of polishing this art style could’ve worked. It turns out that this pixelation effect comes from a Unity package called GBCamera which essentially renders the visuals of the game at a small resolution, and has optional bit coloring, classic to the gameboy. At first I thought this was a mere visual effect just put over the game because the Itch.io description isn’t too descriptive on how it actually works. So I decided to ask Adam himself, and I also asked why he decided to use pixel art as the pivotal piece in his art style. And I actually got answers. GBCamera is essentially just a renderer that is capable of rendering in small resolutions that then can be blown up to the resolution of the player’s monitor. For why he used this for his game, he said he simply likes pixel art and that it allows him to make assets faster.

But something caught my attention with the way he worded his response, he thinks the art style is interesting and unique. Now while pixel art in of itself is not at all unique as it’s been pretty common throughout the history of gaming in many different forms, it’s not been quite used in this form before where a fully 3D game is pixelated. The only games that really cross my mind on this is Devil Daggers and DS games. Yeah you heard me right, DS games. The DS, much like A Short Hike, was capable of rendering 3D environments and models, the problem was that the DS had a limited resolution meaning that everything on screen was always very pixelated unless the assets were already based on pixel art. And that, in a way, drove the artistic direction that many DS games took. If things were small, they had to be distinguishable. If things were a fully detailed 3D world, it had to be simplified to avoid being noisy or ugly. The best overall analysis I can give of Adam’s opinion on the style is that he thinks games that are proactively retrograded is unique, and I have to say I agree. It’s a fresh breath of air, and Adam even had the foresight to include an option in the game to select how much the game is pixelated, because it can be an eyesore. My only gripe with this style is that there’s no option just to turn the pixelation off. There’s all of these other options like shadows, color corrections, image quality, etc. but there’s no option to just turn it off. As of the date of this video going up, it has been commented on that Adam has at least thought about adding this option, and if it is in the game by the time this video goes up I’ll leave a little message on the screen. It should also be noted that Adam has used this style in some of his other games, notably You’re Dead in Space and The Night That Speaks so clearly Adam has experience with this art style and he likes it enough to continue using and innovating on it. The somewhat ironic thing here is that You’re Dead in Space is very comparable to Devil Daggers in the sense that they are pixelated hoard shooters where you are expected to eventually die.

Let’s take a couple steps back to when I said that Adam was an artist, and the biggest piece of evidence that I’m going to use for this claim is Adam’s upcoming “Untitled” RPG. Comparing this RPG to Adam’s other games, even A Short Hike, immediately gives off the vibe of, “This was not created by the same person.” But when I sent Adam some questions, one of those asked if Adam was the leading artist for A Short Hike and if he was the lead artist for his upcoming RPG. Basically, he said that yes, he does most of the art assets, most because he does get help from some of his friends. And I just want to point out just how good his upcoming RPG looks. It appears pretty based on Paper Mario but it seems to be adding some more depth to that art style. It looks really good, and so does A Short Hike, and Adam should get the credit that he deserves.

Something else that is really good is the gameplay. Outside of just walking around and jumping, as you progress through the game you will earn the ability to sprint, do multiple mid air jumps, climb, dive, glide, speed glide, and you’ll find special feathers that give you the ability to jump higher and use less stamina while climbing. All of these features make the game feel much like a metroidvania and after you spend a couple hours in the game you’ll be jumping halfway up the map and doing speed glides everywhere you want to go. You’re given all the tools you need right from the beginning and everything you pickup is just upgrades that let you use those tools better. And you’re given a lot of freedom and versatility with those tools. And I would chalk that up to the world design. Everything is very compact and close together, and sometimes just stacked on top of each other in a way that makes traversing the island simple, time efficient, and just exciting. You don’t need to spend five minutes walking in one direction to get to a certain area when everything is pretty much just right next to each other with shortcuts, bounce flowers, and even an updraft to make traversing even easier that will continually get easier as you play the game. An example of this is the, what I’m going to call, Breath of the Wild climb that Claire is suited with. You’re able to climb up any slope or building granted that you have enough feathers left, collecting more feathers or even collecting the silver feathers allows you to climb for longer. The same goes for your jumps, collect more feathers to do more jumps, collect silver feathers to jump higher each time.

Another central piece of Claire’s moveset is her gliding ability and the potential you have for drastically improving how you use it. There’s a hidden island you can travel to that will teach you how to dive into a speed glide, and when you get the technique down you find that the game becomes very open. Your methods of travel will basically revolve around using speed glides to travel the longer distances around the island because it is just that fast. And while we talk about openness and speed, we should talk about speedruns. It’s natural for a game that can be completed at any time to be easy to speedrun, but speedrunners have, naturally, found a way to beat the game with less than the recommended amount of golden feathers. This is because of two methods, one being a bug and the other a feature. The first one is, what I’ll deem, chest jumping where you jump off of a chest while it’s opening animation is playing. And the other is these bouncy flowers that you provide water to in order to unlock shortcuts around the island. Whether intentional or not speedrunners have been able to use these methods to cut the game’s length down to less than three minutes. That might not sound like that incredible of a feat, but it highlights just how many different ways you can play and navigate A Short Hike. If you don’t want to be on your feet for the duration of the game, then you don’t have to. If you want to play the game by finding and doing the least amount of things possible, then you can even if it may defeat the purpose of the game. In these ways A Short Hike is comparable to a sandbox in the way that the game is very open with very little limiting rules or mechanics and in fact promotes the free use of what it provides you. That is what makes the gameplay effective at allowing the player to access the contents of its game.

Finally, I want to address the music, and I’m not a music guy so I can’t provide very complex insight on it, so it’s all going to be pretty basic. And in just one word, the music is good. The soundtrack contains exactly the type of music you’d expect from a game like this, while having a somewhat Celeste-y vibe to it as you progress up the hiking trail. I contacted Mark Sparling, the composer, and asked him some questions about what direction he was given and what his inspirations were. He actually gave a pretty drawn out answer to my questions which I can summarize down to: Adam and Mark discussed what type of music to use and reminisced on similar music that had the same tone such as Animal Crossing, Legend of Zelda, studio Ghibli’s music, as well as music artists and bands such as Sufjan Stevens, Punch Brothers, and Nickel Creek. Mark then produced Beach Buds along with an assortment of different tracks. However Beach Buds ultimately stuck and the rest of the game’s soundtrack fell into place.

The game features a simplistic, yet dynamic music system where certain parts of music tracks or different tracks altogether play in corresponding areas that gives the game a sense of progression. It should be noted that this was Mark’s idea. This system works well in correspondence to how varied the music is and how the music has been produced in the way that one music track holds different “stages” of music. As a system designed to derail players from feeling like the music is too monotonous, it’s pretty good at doing just that despite its simplicity. There wasn’t one time where I thought, “Man I don’t want to listen to this anymore,” over my three playthroughs.

It should also be pointed out that the music is well diversified. It’s a mixture of banjo, chiptune, electronic beats, piano, synth, etc. that’s played in an order throughout the game that is all about something that you don’t understand until you’ve beaten the game. And that’s Claire and the emotional baggage she carries throughout the game as you climb up her personal mountain. Music adds so much to video games, especially ones like this, that people often don’t think about or fully comprehend. And it’s important that the music is done right and it fits the settings and encourages players to be immersed in their experience. Just imagine if the game had no music, or... [rock music] But seriously, I can surely say that the music for A Short Hike does exactly the former, it’s simple yet effective in doing what it needs to do while adding and strengthening the narrative and setting. And while this video isn’t a review for the soundtrack, five dollars nets you the game’s music that comes in long and short versions so that you can listen to either the commercial releases intended for listening audiences or experience the full amount of effort that went into the music.

A Short Hike is a game that tells you everything you need to know right in the title. However it’s a game that’s simultaneously about a short hike while also not being about the hike at all. This is one of those, “It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey,” kind of games because the way that it’s structured ensures there will be distractions among every step of the way. Whether that’s being asked to find an item, collect a certain amount of feathers, even just being exposed to the beautiful scenery of the game and wanting to see more. A Short Hike is about taking your time to explore and climb a beautiful, lively environment full of inhabitants that might just remind you of certain games you’ve played in the past with retrograde graphics comparable to the DS days. Barring external factors such as pricing, length, distribution platforms, etc. If I had to give a review score for this game, it would easily be, at the lowest, an 8/10. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, and if you’re willing to put $8 down for the game I’d highly recommend purchasing it through Steam or Itch.io.

Thank you for watching.

[thecandywrites]

Zorroku and Peaches Part 5

And here is part 5! Because I just couldn’t wait to post it tomrrow. @royale-skeleton-key hope you like this just as much as part 4. 

Part 5

But by the next morning, you were woken up by the sounds of Fang and Claw screaming as they circled above the village.

“What the hell?” You groused as you got up and opened your tent and glared at the sky before you groaned as you realized Shuzug was already here before you purred and called Fang and Claw to you as you wrapped your arm in a blanket before they dove down to you and landed on your arm.

“Oof, good morning to you too,” You greeted them sleepily before you heard Ori stir and put the pair on the stand with Razor and went and got your cloak on, that was still too big on you but you kind of liked it being that big, and your shoes on before you bundled Ori up and put her under your cloak with you and invited the birds out and told them to find Shuzug before you followed them to the gate of the village where the guards had stopped Shuzug who was arguing with them to let him in as all three eagles came and landed on the mane of his horse.

“Hey! He’s with me, let him in.” You ordered them.

“You know him?” They asked you.

“Yes, that is Shuzug, youngest son of Warchief Khagra of the Black Wolf White Rock Clan, who is coincidentally also your warchief’s nephew, Warchieftess Yotul and Shuzug’s mother Warchieftess Bula are sisters, and he’s my friend, I’m sure the rest of the family is only a few hours away, let him through.” You vetted before they let him through before his horse practically pranced through the gate as you could see a few somethings squirm in his large bag across his chest.

“Did you really ride all night to get here?” You asked him as he strode his horse over you before he got off.

“Yes, I couldn’t wait, I left the moment the crow came back, the rest will be leaving right about now.” Shuzug answered before he noticed you were holding a baby under your cloak

“So who’s this?” He asked curiously as he peeked inside as he gave you gentle hug so as not to squish her.

“Kinda sorta my daughter?” You giggled as you opened the cloak up more to show her to him.

“Aw, how did you manage that?” He asked curiously.

“Dude, how did you manage that?” You asked as you gestured to the bag before three wolf pup heads popped out, a white, a gray and a red wolf pup before it continued to squirm and two mountain lion cubs who were the same age poked their heads out too.  

“Well hello there!” You cooed to them as you pet them as they sniffed you.

“It’s a long story.” He ducked his head as you noticed he also had some fresh wounds on his head.

“May the gods have mercy.” You snickered. “Come on, my tent is this way.” You nodded as you started walking back to your tent.

“Wow, this is really nice! You get this all to yourself? When the crows said ‘big tent’, I didn’t think it would be this big.” Shuzug praised as you let him in and he looked around after he put the pups and cubs down to explore your tent.

“Thanks and it is all mine, this little girl’s father got it for me.” You answered with a twinkle in your eye as you took your cloak off and hung it back up.

“Holy shit, what happened to your boobs?!” Shuzug asked as he noticed the change in them before you smacked him upside the head.

“Really?” You deadpanned before you got back in bed just as Ori started to stir before you unceremoniously took out a breast and started nursing her.

“What the hell Bella?” Shuzug asked as he watched on in surprise.

“Dude, pull up a chair, do I have an epic tale for you.” You began before you got comfortable and propped up by all the pillows on your bed and started telling him everything that happened from the moment you left his sight until that moment in time as the wolf pups explored your tent as Shuzug listened and watched you nurse Ori with awe as the pups and the cubs ate the already dead rabbit carcasses at the base of the eagle perch as Razor, Fang and Claw also ate rabbits too.

“So any idea of who you might want?” Shuzug asked you.

“Well, that’s a tricky question to answer, because clearly, I’m connected to Zorroku, and come to find out, he has no other wives, how does the first born, that handsome, his age not have like five by now?” You asked rhetorically.

“I mean yeah I see where you’re coming from.” Shuzug nodded.

“My only other viable option is the youngest Nar, not to be confused in anyway shape or form with Yar, he’s 12, just now getting some whiskers and facial hair. He has no wives, no kids, and he’s young enough that I might get him to myself for a little while at least and he’s a lot like you and we get along pretty good but I’m still getting little brother vibes, like I really gotta push myself to view him romantically.” You shrugged.

“Well have you talked with any of them about what they want from you and what you want from them and see if you’re compatible or can come to an agreement or an understanding?” Shuzug asked.  

“Not yet, I’ve only been here for two days, I’m hoping once everyone is together and once all your sisters and your mother especially gets to meet all of them and gets feels for them, they’ll give me some insights.” You hoped.

“So are they really treating you well? Like really really?” Shuzug asked a little skeptically.

“Dude! I have more freedoms and rights here than I do at home, I am servant to no one, no one bosses me around and I basically get to do whatever I want which is actually cook because I want to not because I’m expected to which is odd but really nice and I’m cooking with joy instead of fear and I’m finding myself wanting to make everything I make really good instead of feeling like I need to or else I’ll face the consequences. Like if Yotul and Crowthu aren’t calling me Peaches they’re calling me daughter and they really mean it. Like they have completely adopted me and accepted me and it really is like one big happy family that I’m a full fledged member of, like I’m on first name or even nickname basis’ with everyone, like the moment I came into the village, Crowthu introduced me as his new daughter before I even got to his tent and practically showed me off to the whole village who greeted me respectfully and just accepted me with open arms and ease and have no issues with me at all and it’s weird but really nice and they have all completely upheld their half of the oath but it’s not that they have to really try or work against themselves and their own nature to uphold it. It’s like that oath and those conditions are just the way they are and it was a given that they’d be good to me even the little kids call me Auntie Peaches and adore me just as much as I adore them. Which the ‘Peaches’ thing took a little to get used to but Zorroku made a really good point on how it’s a fitting name because I’m sweet when I want to be but I’ll be a poisonous killer like the peach seed itself when I want to be too cause I’ve gotten to hunt and fish since I’ve been with them so that was actually a really nice compliment.” You explained with a bright smile.

“Wow, I mean, yeah that makes total sense and you kind of look like a Peaches too.” Shuzug teased you and you playfully stuck your tongue out at him.

“So no creepy rape-y vibes then?” Shuzug asked.

“Well, there is still two of your cousins that give me the creeps, Silug and Winug, but as long as I stay away from them, I’m good, otherwise, there’s three that are trying really, really hard to woo me and it’s...again, weird.” Is all you could say with another giggle and a shrug.

“And which three are those?” Shuzug asked.

“Zorroku, obviously, Yalak and Nar. The oldest, a middle and the baby.” You specified.

“Is there any you like back?” Shuzug asked.

“Yeah.” You sighed but a bit wistfully as you looked down at Ori and her baby blue skin and when you looked back up Shuzug was just grinning ear to ear.

“Well I’m happy for you, relieved mostly but happy for you,” Shuzug grinned.

“Thanks, well when everyone gets up I’d imagine at least three of them will want to be your new best friend and honestly you and Nar would be like brothers from different mothers, like he may only be two years older than you but he’s literally the same size as you and his personality is really similar, did you get a chance to read my message about bringing the book of riddles?” You asked.

“Oh you mean this book?” Shuzug grinned as he reached into his other satchel and pulled it out.

“Yay!” You cheered.

“Peaches? You ok? Who’s in there with you?” Glasha asked as she woke up and heard talking and didn’t recognize the male voice coming from your tent.

“Yeah I’m ok, come over and meet your cousin,” You invited. “Well kind of, she’s not a blood cousin, she’s the eldest daughter from Crowthu’s first wife, Sharn the Magnificent of all women and Glasha is awesome, she’s my best friend here.” You murmured to Shuzug as Glasha came over.

“Be careful, don’t let the pups or the cubs out.” You urged as she carefully came in and noticed three wolf pups and two mountain lion cubs chewing on what was left of their individual rabbits as all three eagles stood regally on the perch.

“Good morning, sorry to wake you up.” You offered as she came in and made sure the flap was closed so the pups and cubs wouldn’t escape.  

“Hi, I’m Shuzug.” Shuzug introduced himself as he held out his hand for her to shake as she did.

“Hi, I’m Glasha,” she smiled brightly as she shook it before she sat on the bed just as Ori got done lazily drinking her breakfast and finally woke up for the day before she rolled over and noticed Shuzug.

“Well good morning Ori.” Shuzug cooed to her as she gave him a look that clearly said ‘I don’t know you, who are you and why are you talking to me?’ that cracked all of you up before she looked at you questioningly.

“This is...your uncle Shuzug.” You cooed to her as Shuzug nodded in agreement to that before you sat her up so that she laid against your stomach with your thighs and breasts propped her up kept her sitting up as you made sure she was completely covered up so she wouldn’t get cold as you still laid on your side, propped up yourself. Shuzug got down on his knees next to the bed to get closer to her.

“She’s really small for being four months old.” Shuzug noticed as he reached out and gently let her reach out to take his hand before he got his face next to hers and started playing with her and cooing to her and trying to make her laugh.

“Well that’s because her birth mother died giving birth to her and she didn’t get her first milk and started nursing from my half brother’s wife who already had a six month of her own and the milk is different as babies grow.” Glasha explained from her spot next to her niece on the bed as she sat by your feet.

“And she’s super sensitive to onions and garlic, and they eat those with every single meal here and Rek, Yalak’s wife and the one who was nursing her, didn’t want to give them up for Ori’s sake so I told Mama Arob, Warchief Crowthu’s mother, the sorceress, that I would nurse her if I could and that I was willing to give up eating those things for Ori’s sake and that’s when Mama Arob made me that special drink and boom, huge milking boobs just to nurse her and that’s how I’m kinda sorta her mom now.” You explained.

“She’s allergic to onions?! Also you’re not kinda sorta her mom, you are her mom.” Glasha affirmed and you found yourself grinning and nodding along with that.

“Yeah I guess I am, but she’s so sensitive to them she’s borderline allergic to them and would have been for life.” You explained gravely.

“If you hadn’t stepped in.” Glasha realized. “Well thank you, very very much for stepping when you did, I know Zorroku especially is very thankful and grateful you did.” Glasha thanked you graciously.

“You’re welcome, I’m happy to help and she’s a sweetheart, obviously.” You gestured to her.

“Which before you came along all she did was fuss, poor thing, now that she’s drinking milk that’s not making her sick and not hurting her, we finally get to see her for herself. She’s never been so happy and content before.” Glasha praised.

“Well Bella has always been great with kids, she’s a natural mom and obviously a very good one.” Shuzug praised with a wink to you which got you to smile appreciatively back. “I wonder if Mama Arob would have a special spell or something for Yar since she was able to do that to you.” Shuzug wondered as he gestured to your bosom and you and Glasha both burst out laughing as he couldn’t help but laugh a long too.  

“You told them didn’t you?” Shuzug laughed.

“I may have gotten a little drunk, tipsy at least and may have let a few family secrets loose and I swore them to secrecy.” You playfully accused as you nudged Glasha’s back with your foot.

“You did, I’m sorry,” Glasha admitted.

“It’s ok, I’m not mad, I was just hoping there was something out there because he’s done nothing but mope and complain about how he’s lost his chance of finding anyone to help him on his quest. Because ‘you were the only one who understood him and sympathized with him and was his only friend and he’ll never find that again’.” Shuzug snickered, imitating his older brother.  

“Oh gods,” you groaned as you rubbed your eyes tiredly which got them to laugh more. “You mean I was the only one with enough patience to put up with him and his bullshit. I’m not going to ask Mama Arob for anything for him, it’s ridiculous and not worth her time or energy, like I don’t even want him to know she’s a sorceress just so that he’d leave her in peace. Not unless he learned to be more than his appearance and his muscles and be nice just for the sake of being a nice and good person and not because he’s being a manipulative piece of shit. If he wants it so bad, he’s grown, he can ask himself.” You spat.

“Hey! Look at you speaking your mind so freely!” Shuzug congratulated you. “This place must be good to you if you’re being yourself so much.” Shuzug smiled proudly.

“It is.” You nodded with a grin as Glasha beamed so happily, she nearly became sunshine herself.

“Peaches?” Zorroku asked as he noticed a regular horse tied to a tent pole outside your tent and heard a male voice he didn’t recognize.

“Come on in Zorroku, just be careful not to let the pups or the cubs out.” You invited him.

“Pups or Cubs?” Zorroku repeated in confusion before he came in and saw wolf pups and mountain lion cubs on the ground and stared in shock and a little bit of horror that they were so close to you and his daughter.

“It’s ok, they’re babies, they mean no harm, close the tent flap.” You reassured him as he closed it and carefully came forward as Shuzug got up and turned to face him.

“Hi, I’m Shuzug, I came early ahead of the rest of my family.” Shuzug offered as he shook Zorroku’s hand.

“Oh, hi, welcome.” Zorroku greeted warmly back before he sat down in the chair and noticed all three eagles before the wolf pups came over and sniffed his legs before he felt inclined to bend over and pet them as the mountain lion cubs climbed up the bedding that was spilling off your bed.

“Well hello there, aren’t you such pretty kitties!” You cooed to them as you kept them close to you and your face rather than going near Ori as you pet them like they were normal kittens and started purring to them and nuzzling them as they curled up with you happily as Zorroku picked up a wolf pup and held it and started petting it, marveling at how soft the fur was and how adorable the pup was before one of the others went over to Glasha as she picked it up as Shuzug got the third as you all continued to talk as Zorroku and Glasha got to know Shuzug more before there was another tap on the tent flap.

“Peaches?” Nar asked curiously as he eyed the normal sized horse curiously.

“Come on in, it’s a party in here.” You laughed before he came in and saw everything.

“Meet your cousin Shuzug, Shuzug, meet your cousin Nar, again.” You introduced as he came over and sat down next to Shuzug on the ground before you handed him one of the mountain lion cubs.

“Oh my gods it’s so cute! And so soft!” Nar gushed as he held it to his chest and neck as he nuzzled it and pet it as Shuzug told the story of how he stole these baby animals from their dens and you just shook your head at how positively foolhardy it all had been as Zorroku watched your reaction to Shuzug’s story closely, greatly amused by your reactions.

“Ok so my question is why did you do this? What could have possibly possessed you to do this?” You asked him when he was done.

“Well I wanted to surprise you with gifts.” Shuzug tried smile charmingly as you just narrowed your eyes.

“No gift to me or anyone else is worth your life Shuzug, you, very easily, could have died, you didn’t take my advice and actually run any of this by anyone did you?” You leveled and he ducked his head a little out of embarrassment.

“No.” Shuzug admitted and you clasped your hands together like you’re praying as you squeezed your eyes shut as your face showed a very wide range of emotion.

“Are you actually praying?” Shuzug asked in a chuckle.

“Yes, for the gods to give me strength not to strangle you right now because of how short sighted you’re being.” You said through gritted teeth as Zorroku, Nar and Glasha snickered a laugh before opening your eyes and fixing Shuzug with a look. “Shuzug, there are no cows here, not even goats or sheep or even pigs, there is nothing to milk here, where would I get the milk to nurse them? They may be eating some meat now but they’re still young enough they need milk still. And I sure as hell am not going to be nursing them, all my milk belongs to Ori and I am not going to be having her share it with anyone or anything. You’re going to have to take them home with you and do what you can with them. Because you are trying to give me a gift I can not sustain.” You pointed out as Zorroku blew out a breath of relief as he had worried about that.

“Oh,” Shuzug realized. “Well my family should be bringing those with them.” Shuzug said hopefully.

“Yeah and they’re still, by my estimate, seven hours away, these babies should be needing milk now, it’s not like I can take a wheel of cheese and miraculously turn it back into milk.” You argued.

“Well we could try to milk the horses.” Nar offered as Shuzug lit up at that.

“Yeah!” Shuzug agreed.

“Ok fine, go try, just try not to get kicked to death and mares have two teetes, if it only has one, it’s a stud and do not feed whatever comes from “milking” that to anyone.” You teased as everyone laughed at that before Shuzug and Nar got up and left the baby animals with you.

“Great, now I’m a mother of six.” You sighed tiredly as you put the mountain lion cub back on the floor with it’s litter mate before finally sat up and put put Ori against your bent legs as you played with her a little.

“Your uncle is driving me so crazy, yes he is! Because he doesn’t think things through, no he doesn’t! He is so sense stupid yes he is!” You cooed to Ori who cooed as you tickled her and laughed back at you as Zorroku and Glasha chuckled too as you felt around Ori’s tummy to see if she still had any issues and was surprised when she didn’t have any at all, but you’d still be feeding her more medicine today just in case just like you had done the day before.  

“She looks so much better now that she’s with you. Her cheeks and limbs are getting chubby now.” Zorroku praised as he watched you softly as his heart swelled with so much pride and love and affection. His dreams and visions of you washing over his mind again as his instincts were to climb into bed with you and hold you and Ori.

“Well it pisses me off that once Rek found out Ori’s sensitive to onions and garlic that she wouldn’t give them up for Ori’s sake. Like she flatly refused.” Glasha admitted.

“Oh me too,” you agreed as you played with Ori.

“Wait, what?” Zorroku asked, not having known that.

“Yeah, when Peaches found that out first and asked, very nicely if Rek would give them up for Ori’s sake Rek outright refused and said that Ori would just have to get over it and get used to it like every other baby does.” Glasha informed her brother as his eyes went wide while his jaw clenched as did his fists. “And then after you gave her your medicine, and Mama Arob was finally able to give her a good once over and really inspect her like she should have months ago, Mama Arob agreed and said that Ori was so bad that she’s practically allergic to them and that if she had continued to nurse from Rek and Rek continued to eat them, Ori would have been allergic for life.” Glasha revealed and Zorroku’s stomach dropped as his anger and rage began to boil.

“If not- probably would have died because she was not wanting to eat at all because she couldn’t stand the milk.” Zorroku realized as he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and ran his hands over his face before looking and catching your small nod of confirmation and he just felt like going on a rampage he was so angry. His sister in law had been so selfish and so opposed to being inconvenienced she would have killed his daughter.

“Hey, Zorro,” you softly pulled him from his dark thoughts so that he looked at you instead of at the ground. “It’s ok, the good news is, Ori’s ok, Ori’s fine, see? Sure she’s a little small now, but she’s doing better today than she was yesterday and leaps and bounds better than she was the day before that. Three days ago was the worst she’ll hopefully ever be and as long as I draw breath, I’ll take care of her. I know you’re angry at Rek, I am too, but I’m not going to dwell on the past or torture myself with thoughts of what would have happened to her if I hadn’t intervened, thank the gods I was able to come and help, your grandmother said that the gods and that the fates themselves wanted me here, and I believe her and it’s because I believe I was brought here for Ori’s sake and I’m perfectly happy and content with that. She’s obviously a wonderful baby, she’s happy and she’s getting healthier and healthier and better and better every day and I’m happy and grateful and thankful for that and you should be too. So don’t think about Rek, life has a way of giving selfish people what they deserve, I mean you’ll be meeting the epitome of that in Yar later tonight. So let it go, it’ll do you no good making a fuss about it now. There are some orc clans out there that if any wife gives a son of the warchief or heaven forbid the actual warchief daughters, the daughters are immediately given to the other families in the clan, the lowliest families of the clan and the mothers never even get the chance to give those daughters their first milk or get to hold them at all and if they put up a fight and actually want to hold, let alone keep their daughters who they spent ten months carrying, they’re instantly demoted and replaced within seconds, to the point their fathers fuck their new replacements in the very same room right next to the birthing bed, as their former wives are still birthing the afterbirth or if their husbands don’t want to demote their wives for wanting to keep the baby, the fathers then smash their daughter’s head in so that there is no daughter and it’s announced that it was a son that was still born to “save” the family honor because daughters are seen as a dishonor. That is truly horrific.” You informed them as Glasha and Zorroku looked so horrified they could throw up.

“What clans do that?” Glasha asked.

“The Infamous Hand Clan, The Beserker Clan, and the Nightmare Mammoth Clan, that I know of and those three clans are actually run by a set of triplets and the Infamous Hand Clan was the original clan and the warchief’s other triplets formed their own clans and none of them have warchieftesses, all their kids are sons from slaves who are kept on literal chains, it’s horrific, even my warchief Khagra will have nothing to do with them and they invited him and his sons there for an alliance and once Khagra and his sons saw the conditions there, they immediately backed out and that’s what started a the last war, Khagra’s eldest two sons died trying free those poor slave girls and save the baby girls because they had been invited to a birth and that’s what happened because the slave could not be demoted any further and so when she weakly pleaded for mercy, the warchief killed her by smashing her own head in after he smashed his daughter’s head.” You revealed sadly.

“Oh I’m going to be sick.” Zorroku groaned as he held his stomach as Glasha wiped her tears away.

“Yeah, so I’m just eternally grateful you guys are nothing like that. I mean it’s a pretty good sign if the warchief himself is playing with his own granddaughters.” You allowed as you kissed Ori’s cheeks before pretending to eat her little neck as she squealed in delight and giggled.

“Is that what you thought we were like though? Before you came?” Glasha asked carefully.

“Honestly I didn’t know, granted I’m one of those ‘hope for the best but prepare for the worst’ kinds of people and three days ago all I knew, all anyone in the Black Wolf White Rock Clan knew of the Thunder Herd Clan was that you were especially fierce in battle and that you rode draft horses, that’s all, no one knows your customs, your eating habits, your traditions, nothing. Khagra has an old book, it lists all the original orc clans and he updates it every time there’s a new alliance or we hear news of new clans forming or old clans getting decimated and all that’s in the book is a list of your conquests and where all the other clans estimate your lands to be, that’s it, there’s not even a list of warchief family lines in it. So I had no clue what I was walking into. And come to find out, you’re literally the best clan I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing and actually family. So hey, it’s worked out great.” You smiled brightly which got them to nod and smile in return as you continued to love on Ori and got her to continue to coo and babble at you as she reached out and grabbed your face and tried to ‘kiss’ you back which was a very open mouthed slobbering kiss to your cheek as you laughed so hard as the feeling of her little tongue licking the apple of your cheek as Glasha and Zorroku watched on, their hearts warmed and their spirits lifted again as they took comfort in knowing how good they really had it and how downright lucky they were to have you.

Zorroku was making plans in his head, you were deserving of at least four horses for adopting his daughter as your own. He wanted to give you everything he owned, you deserved even more than what he could ever give you. You deserved to be completely and unreservedly and unconditionally loved and adored and if you chose him, as his one and only wife, you would be- especially as warchieftess. you absolutely would be loved and adored by the whole clan before he realized what he should be giving you but it wasn’t his to give, yet.

He left your tent wanting to give you space to get dressed as he went to the herds and went through all the horses he had, noting how Shuzug and Nar were trying to milk a mare who was not having it before he picked out four of his best horses along with his wife’s two favorite horses, that were his gifts to her when she found she was finally expecting before he realized that one of them was actually a very fitting horse for you, it was a black horse with a white mane and tail and considering you were from the Black Wolf White Rock clan, he couldn’t help but smile at the correlation as he brought them over to your tent just as you were leaving it to go about your day.

“Hey Bella,” Zorroku called out which got you turn around and then blink in surprise when he was carrying six lead ropes with six huge draft horses behind him.

“You know you almost make me nervous when you use my name like that.” You tried to point out to him in a slightly teasing tone but smiled nonetheless.

“Well, you didn’t ask to be called Peaches, you just rolled with it because you didn’t think you had a choice in the matter and I want to make sure you know you have choices and that you shouldn’t go along with things just because you think you should or you feel you have to, you should have a say in everything, you need to make sure that your voice and your opinion is heard and understood and accepted just as much as mine is. So since you’ve chosen to adopt my daughter, and that she is now just as much yours as she is mine, you deserve the reward that comes with that. Now you don’t have to accept any of these but if you want them, they’re yours. In particular this one, because you are from the Black Wolf White Rock Clan, I thought a black horse with a white mane would be fitting.” Zorroku explained, having rehearsed that in his head so many times and muttered it to himself to make sure he emphasized the right words the right way as he gestured to that particular horse as you had to cover your quivering lips with your hand even as they spread into the widest smile as your eyes glazed with tears because of how moved you were by not just his gesture but especially his words before you closed the distance between you until you were looking up at him with so much adoration it bordered on love and you just wanted to kiss him.

“Ok, I’ll level with you, I like the way you say ‘Peaches’ when you talk to me. And this horse is, absolutely perfect and it’s a perfect fit and I can only hope he’s as nice, gentle and tame as he is beautiful and the rest of them are outstanding I want all of them but I don’t want to take them if you feel you have to give them to me because I’m now the mother of our daughter. But I don’t want to disrespect a tradition if that’s what you’re following when you give them to me either.” You explained.

“Then consider them string free gifts, because I want them to be yours, they’re the best that I have and I’ll always want to give you my best, no matter what, even if you don’t end up choosing me because being Ori’s mother means just that much to me.” Zorroku returned and you just wanted to kiss him even more because a part of you wanted to them to have strings and you wanted to tie those strings so that you were tied to him both literally and figuratively.

“Then I will happily accept all of them and I wouldn’t say no to a few strings at least.” You grinned mischievously as his heart soared with hope. “Could I walk with you back to the herd?” You asked before he nodded and you walked side by side with all the horses following you.

“Can I ask you a question and could you please answer it as honestly as you could and not give me the kind of answer you think I want to hear?” You asked bravely.

“Anything.” He invited.

“How many wives do you want in total?” You asked and he nearly choked on his spit because you just went right for it.

“One.” He answered.

“Why only one?” You furthered.

“Because Yotul and my mother fought all the time and were constantly in competition with each other for my dad’s favor and attention and trying to one up each other and when he favored one it embittered the other and only after my own mother died after birthing the twins and Yotul became warchieftess and my dad didn’t take on any more wives- did he finally know peace in his own house, but I want a wife who likes me for me, not because I can make her warchieftess. I want peace in my life and in my home and I have yet to meet a warchief who has that. It’s like our lives are destined to be plagued with war and we can’t escape it, ever, there’s always conflict wherever we go and I’m hoping that with the right woman, that’s possible.” Zorroku explained. “My first wife, Sharog, she had a very, very hard time becoming pregnant and lost a few babes before she could even get half way through her pregnancies but I never blamed her for that, it wasn’t her fault that her body was like that even though she blamed herself for it and pushed me to get another wife or even two or three more, ones that would give me more sons than I had fingers but I didn’t want that, I only ever wanted her and I just wanted her to be happy. She had to be in bed for the whole pregnancy and my grandmother had her on a very special diet to keep the pregnancy going but it was too much for her and she still died pushing Ori out because she just bled and bled and bled like it was just a river of blood and it was horrible.” Zorroku revealed and your heart completely melted and you felt it wanting to leap out of your chest to go to him.

“So if I chose you, how many kids would you want?” You asked as you tried to keep your grin from becoming too scheming because you sensed he was really telling you the truth and you realized that was offering you what you really always wanted and this was literally a dream come true.

“Well we already have one, I’m good and happy and perfectly content with just Ori. Besides, you may be strong but I know everyone has limits and I also feel that children are gifts from the gods themselves but if your body can’t handle carrying that gift, that’s fine, like you said, ‘no gift is worth your life’ and I would never ask you or want you to give up yours just to give me a gift you think I want.” Zorroku explained and you never thought in a million years that he would have used your own sentiment like that and part of you wanted to pin him down to grass itself and fuck him hard and fast yet slow and savoring and give him so many sons, he would run out of fingers and toes trying to count them all.

You were about to kiss him before you heard Shuzug get kicked by a horse which got both of you to recoil and turn to see Shuzug on his back, trying to get the air back in his lungs.

“Hold her, I gotta make sure he doesn’t die before his parents get the chance to kill him themselves.” You sighed tiredly as you handed Ori to Zorroku and walked over to Shuzug before turning him over to his side to help him breathe again.

“And what did you learn?” You asked him as you crouched down next to him as he gasped and recovered as Zorroku and Nar both snickered a laugh.

“Not to milk that one?” Shuzug winced.

“Ok first of all, did you just pick a random mare and try to milk her or did you look for one with a nursing foal?” You asked before Shuzug and Nar gave each other a look that told you the answer to that was ‘no’ and it just made you groan again.

“Now you boys should know that only when a mother has a nursing child will she produce milk, otherwise, the milk dries up and she won’t produce it anymore because her body doesn’t have to. Or did you forget that detail?” You asked before they both looked away guiltily.

“Really? Ok, I’m going to have to just do this myself.” You huffed before you marched back to the garden and got a bunch of apples in your skirt before you marched back to the herd and snatched the bucket from Shuzug and found a mare who was nursing it’s foal.

“Come on, you’re gonna help, take the apples, you two are gonna feed the mare the apples as I milk her.” You said as you gave Shuzug and Nar the apples from your skirt before the four of you went over to the mare, you greeted the mare first, cooing and petting it and making sure it felt at ease with eat least your presence before you had Shuzug and Nar both kept feeding the mare apples as you gently stroked it’s sides as you made your way back to where the foal was still nursing before you started milking from the other teat as you prayed to all the gods you knew of to help you and once the foal was done the mare side stepped away from you and you didn’t try to milk her anymore, instead you pet your side and back up her body while praising her and thanking her for her help.

“There, I think I got enough milk for either one cub or one pup. Now you two know the process, Shuzug I know you know how to milk livestock, repeat to process.” You ordered them before you handed the bucket back to Shuzug and took Ori back before you and Zorroku left the field together.

“You’re amazing you know that?” Zorroku praised you as you passed his brothers that were carrying their saddles out to their horses in the fields.

“Where are you guys going?” Zorroku asked.

“To get Peaches some livestock.” Yalak beamed and your stomach dropped because they were dressed for raiding, they were going out to steal you some livestock and that’s not what you wanted.

“What’s wrong? Why are you making that face?” Zorroku asked you, expecting you to be happy about that as were his brothers.

“I prefer bought or fairly traded livestock and if you really wanted to please me, you see that idiot with Nar? That’s Shuzug, your cousin, ask him why he’s trying to milk mares right now and when he’s done telling you that, he’ll tell you where to go to get the best livestock on the continent that’s even relatively close by. People do better business and have better and long lasting relationships with clans who do that and you won’t loose your lives. Because no gift to me is worth your lives, your lives are worth more to me than livestock or anything else you can imagine giving me. So go talk to Shuzug then take off your raiding armor because you won’t need it and get proper funds from your treasury. You guys want to be known as The Great Thunder Herd Clan? That’s how you earn The Great part of it by those around you. If you trust Mama Arob’s words about me making this clan greater than it’s ever been, then heed my words now. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have breakfast to make and you all should eat breakfast before you go. You can’t do business on an empty stomach.” You excused yourself as you marched through them with your head held high as they stared after you in awe.

“Anyone else have any lingering doubts she won’t make the best warchieftess this clan has ever seen?” Zorroku asked with a beaming proud smile once you were out of earshot as his brothers nodded no.

“Ok let me get my saddle and I’ll join you, we’ll take Shuzug and Nar after they do what they gotta do and see what else we can learn about her from him.” Zorroku ordered like the natural born leader he was as the other brothers went and put their saddles on their horses before they greeted Shuzug and got to talking with him before they walked back to their tents to take off their armor but still kept their battle axes and their swords just in case and Shuzug helped advise him on how much money to take after they met with Yotul and Crowthu and Mama Arob who took on the wolf pups and the mountain lion cubs for Shuzug as everyone gathered around the table to have breakfast again.

“Can Shuzug ride one of my horses please? His poor horse has been through enough for one day already.” You requested of Zorroku who agreed as Nar volunteered to let Shuzug borrow his spare saddle since they were similar in size as Shuzug was so happy they were being as welcoming and friendly as they were, Shuzug took all three eagles with him, and once they were gone, you used that moment in time to pull Mama Arob aside into your tent.

“So, I have a really big favor to ask of you. My heart has chosen Zorroku already and I wanted to see if I could trade or purchase a special blessing from you.” You began feeling a little nervous.

“What kind of blessing?” Arob asked as she beamed with so much happiness at your decision.

“Is there a blessing that will allow me to have good, healthy pregnancies, good, non complicated births and for my body to be able to take in all of Zorroku’s manhood comfortably? And if there is, I want you to go through my tent and take whatever you want for it. I talked with Zorroku this morning about his first wife and how she died and if I’m going to be with him, I don’t want him to have to worry about me, because I’ve seen blended families and sometimes the human women can handle it and some can not and I want my body to be able to handle it and handle it very well.” You proposed as you gestured around to your tent and Arob was so touched by your thoughtfulness and your noble heart and intentions and even your own sense of honor that she was near tears. You were such a treasure because of it.

“Of course, now I’m sensing you have some “medicine” that is in reality peach whiskey, give me one of the jugs of that and I’ll make you a blessing that no other witch or sorcerer or sorceress will be able to top.” Arob proposed and you immediately got the best one that had been aged longer than you had been alive, the best one you had and gave it to her and Arob was touched even further that you’d gladly give up the best of what you had for Zorroku’s sake, that was a very good sign.

“Ok, now, we go to my tent.” Arob said and led you to her tent where another cauldron was sitting over the fire pit and you nursed Ori and sat down patiently as she put in what she needed and wanted to put in before she ran her fingers through your hair to catch the loose ones to throw those in to it.

“Come and see,” she invited you before you saw a vision of Zorroku granting you your freedom from the oath sworn by his father and yours and Khagra and yet that would only make you more dead set on him and then it showed yourself laying with Zorroku and how your womanhood would take his cock to the hilt and how you would always reach your satisfaction every time you laid together and how he would always be gentle and reverent when you wanted but give you the bone rattling, earth shattering slightly rough sex you could crave without ever hurting you and you would bear him child after child with ease and even a few of sets of twins easily and how great of a mother you’d be and how he’d make the best father and he would never strike you or mistreat you in any way shape or form. Even your own parents and siblings would be there with you and how they were taken into the family and recognized as equal members of it which got you to cry and how Zorroku would never stray from you and how you’d always have all of him, his whole mind, heart and soul and his loyalty and fidelity and love and devotion and how happy you would be and how your children would be the most beautiful and handsome of their generation and how you would make the Thunder Herd Clan known as The Great Thunder Herd Clan and how you would be flocked to and your clan village would become a great city and your garden would be famed and how your lands would prosper and your village would become so advanced because you embraced the new and it would become so fortified that it wouldn’t be possible to be laid siege to and how you would make sure all it’s citizens were in good health and educated and happy and prosperous and peoples of all kids would stop calling you warchieftess, but rather, the queen in your old age and how you would help Zorroku retire from being Warchief at forty and his eldest son would take over and you could get him to 78 years old. The oldest male orc in memory and that you would both die together, holding each other tightly in your sleep, satisfied and happy and that neither his death or yours would hurt. And how all of your children and their spouses would share the same fate.

“Sold.” You giggled through your happy tears before you rewind-ed it to the point where he gave you your freedom and you paused it and noticed a blue dot in the corner.

“What does that blue dot mean?” You asked as you pointed it out.

“It means you have an idea about it, press it and see your idea play out.” Arob invited you so you did and you saw yourself telling Crowthu and Khagra your idea that was just now springing into life in your head once Zorroku asked for your freedom that very night then you saw what would happen if they said yes as you and Arob gasped as you saw what would happen and looked at each other excitedly as you saw just how the Thunder Herd Clan would have the means to become a city.

“OK, can we show this vision to Khagra and Crowthu again when Khagra and his family get here?” You asked hopefully.

“Oh yes. But I’ll blur out Zorroku so that they still think all their sons have a shot and I’ll say it’s blurry because you haven’t made up your mind and that it’s open still.” Arob grinned mischievously.

“Perfect.” You mirrored her grin before you hugged her as tight as you could while still holding Ori and once you let go of each other you picked Ori up above your head and cooed to her and promised her that you would be the best mother to her that you could be and that you would always love her forever which made her so happy she squealed and kicked as you also noticed she really did start filling out nicely already as was starting to get some rolls on her limbs, which most orc babies looked like they were mostly fat rolls and so round, they were often just as wide as they were long at a few points in their babyhood before major growth spurts.

A very strong, lasting happiness then came to you and refused to leave you and you had a smile you could not shake off the rest of the day, even as you took the cocks and balls off the horses killed for the noon meal and the feast at dinner and started to prepare a special soup with them just for Yar for when he would get there at dinner time because you knew he’d appreciate it as you told your ‘sisters’ in the kitchen about the food tastes of their cousins and family before you helped put up a special dining tent with enough tables and space for not only both of the warchief’s family but also your own since Shuzug told you they were coming too and you knew that today was the last day your own family would ever be viewed as servants, that they would be getting their freedom tonight too. You just wanted to kiss Zorroku until your lips would fall off, it’s because of him and his love for you and his support that you’d be able to do so much. You’d do all you could to please him that very night if you could get away with it. Lazgar got done with with a few of your outfits just after lunch and you spent the afternoon with Yotul and her daughters and daughters in law again in the bath, getting your hair specially braided with beads and ornaments in your hair just like Yotul and the other girls and women did as you all got dressed in some of your best outfits.

Zorroku and his brothers returned shortly before Khagra and his family did and when they returned you surprised them and yourself by kissing each of them on the cheek in thanks for listening to you and giving them a happy pleased smile that seemed to wrap most of them around your fingers and were delighted when they told you about how they, thanks to Shuzug, told the cattle baron that these cattle and other livestock were for you and how you insisted that they buy the livestock and what had happened between both clans and what had happened to you because of it, the baron gave them the best deals he could with the promise that if you ever needed anything livestock wise, you would go to him first and that the Thunder Herd Clan would now have an alliance with him to never steal his livestock which they agreed to. Shuzug agreed and promised for you which you readily agreed to as well before Shuzug took you aside and told you that the whole way there and back had did nothing but tell all of them all he could about you before he sidled up to Zorroku and gave him the best insights and information for you and what your favorite everything was and how to best woo you and make you happy, which you greatly appreciated before you gathered to officially greet Khagra and his family.

Once you caught sight of your eldest brothers though and the rest of your family you couldn’t help but run to them first, hugging and kissing them and crying happily as you held each other as Yotul and Bula were in the same state, hugging and crying before they went around and introduced all their kids to each other as you introduced your own family to your daughter, the granddaughter of Sharn the Magnificent, that you adopted who your family, especially your mother, fell in love with, all of them taking turns holding her before your mother outright took Ori and playfully refused to give her back which Ori didn’t mind at all, Ori thought your mother was awesome and so entertaining.

However Zorroku and his brothers noticed that back in the dining tent it was your family that took the lowliest table, having thought that table had been set aside for the little kids who could eat on their own, thinking that you and your family would be sitting with the rest of them because you all were Marfu to them after all, weren’t you?

Zorroku shared a look between his brothers as they were seated at their table, for the men while the wives and the daughters took up another table while the little kids got their own but your own baby sisters weren’t sitting there, instead you guys got the little table in the corner, all of you squeezing tightly around it as you talked a mile a minute with everyone in your own family’s native tongue. And as the meal progressed, Zorroku and his brothers and especially his sisters noticed how Khagra and his family still requested you and your family members, especially you, your mother and your twin sister Grace to go get them refills on their wine or beer or whatever throughout the meal. Yar especially seemed smug that you made him his special soup just for him and Zorroku and his siblings found themselves not only embarrassed but offended. They agreed that you and your family were their equals.  Thankfully, Glasha took the lead in correcting this behavior.

“You know Aysha, since we, the Thunder Herd Clan are really your hosts, we should be getting this for you. Bella and her family have traveled really far too to see Bella again and since they are Marfu to us after all, which means, to us, that they are equal members of our family, they are not our servants so we really shouldn’t expect them to be such especially while they are our guests with us too.” Glasha insisted, and while she was smiling there was a bite to her words and a fire in her eyes that was shared by her whole family as they all grinned to their Black Wolf White Rock Clan counterparts in such a way that they were daring them to argue before Glasha insisted that you and your family sit with them before Zorroku and his brothers readily got up and had your father and your brothers sit with them while Yotul and the rest of her daughters and daughters in law readily got up and brought your mother and your sisters to sit with them while Rek made sure your baby sisters got room made for them at the kids table.

“Honestly we really didn’t need a fourth table did we?” Yotul reminded her sister Bula as she and her daughters and daughters in law blinked in surprise before their cheeks burned in embarrassment before Crowthu grinned as he put your father on the other side of him, Crowthu himself being between your father and Khagra protectively.

“You know I was just curious, what does the term Borgan really mean anyway?” Zorroku asked as one of your twin brothers sat on the other side of him before giving a meaningful look to his dad who repeated the question directly to Khagra.

Khagra cleared his throat before he quickly cast a slightly worried glance over at Bula who did her best to appear as calm as she could despite her own nerves starting to fray a little before Khagra humored Crowthu and gave the theoretical definition of the word for fear Crowthu and his sons would take offense otherwise.

“Oh that’s good! I’m really happy you view them in a similar light that we do.” Crowthu grinned before he turned to your father Micha. “Now I’m not going to put you on the spot by asking if that definition goes into real life practice but since you are, free to choose, I want to give you and the rest of your family the same invitation we’ve extended to Bella, because she has been an absolute delight to have but she has missed you, she hasn’t said as much but when you care about someone the way we all care for Bella, we notice these things, so here’s our situation, my sons, upon Bella’s request made an alliance with Baron Gonk and he has sold to us so many cattle I couldn’t hope to count them, and since Bella has informed me that your sons are the best of the best at keeping track of herds, making sure there’s no inbreeding and keeping them healthy and well taken care of and since Bella has been so generous with us so as to share your absolutely delicious whiskey, really the best I’ve ever had in my life with all of us and that I understand you are a professional at making it and wine and other spirits and that your wife is a master gardener and while your daughter has started a garden here, she really wishes she had her mother’s expertise, that your daughter Grace is a medicine woman and healer and that your youngest daughters have every opportunity to be whatever they want to be, I would be a fool to not offer you and your family an equal spot here, doing whatever you’d like even if it’s not the gifts I’d mention and my family and I would even love to escort you back to your home and help you get everything you wanted packed up to make sure you’d move back here safe and sound. After all what kind of clan would we be if we didn’t embrace our next warchieftess’ family as our own?” Crowthu explained and nearly everyone from the Black Wolf White Rock Clan, even your own family nearly choked on their spit except for Shuzug who just beamed proudly.

“What?!” They all asked in astonishment as everyone form the Thunder Herd Clan beamed proudly.

“Here, let me show you.” Arob invited as she levitated her own cauldron through the room and set it over the fire pit which got everyone in the Black Wolf White Rock Clan to breathe in sharply as they realized the old woman was actually a sorceress before she took what would normally be on the surface of the clan and brought it up to show on the tent wall as you turned around in your seat next to Glasha as the two of you held hands.

“Now this is why we came and got Bella, because she shows up as this when you look at her through a magicked lens on the magical plane.” Arob explained as she showed you the vision of yourself, being made out of treasure with a mountain of treasure behind you and an even larger mountain of glory, honor and food behind that. “And she will turn our clan from this to this.” Arob then explained as she showed what the clan was three days ago and turned it into the great sprawling city she had shown you earlier.

“Now I see two blue dots, you see them in the corner, it looks like one but that is because if Zorroku will voice his idea and you all accept it without qualms or questioning or arguing with him, that Bella herself will get an idea because of it that will bless everyone. But she has to hear Zorroku’s idea first. So Zorroku, I’ve given you all night to bring it up and you are officially out of time, so speak now.” Arob invited before everyone looked to Zorroku.

“Well, uh, my idea was that since Bella brought our family together like this and since we are now sister clans, that Bella and her family should be given their complete freedom that Bella especially is free from the oath father and Warchief Khagra has pushed onto her. She deserves that much, as does her family who raised her.” Zorroku finally spoke up and you still cried tears of joy just hearing him say the words with your own ears before Zorroku’s blue dot faded and your own blue dot seemed to glow so brightly it cast everything in a blue glow.

“So, Warchief Khagra,” you called out once you wiped your tears away.

“Yes?” He immediately answered you, his tone much more respectful now.

“If you will honor your word and give my family the whole meaning of Borgan which you yourself just dictated and if my family will be free to decide whether or not to be free persons here in the Thunder Herd Clan with me or they can choose to be completely free persons and stay back in the Black Wolf White Rock Clan, I mean I would prefer them here with me but they’re free to decide that themselves, I have an idea that will give you and your family and the Black Wolf White Rock Clan, your fair compensation for us either way.” You proposed as you stood up and let your hand hover over the large blue glowing dot, the outline of your hand cast over the tent’s other wall.

“I will,” Khagra immediately answered, his own curiosity killing him before you pushed the dot and a giant pile of treasure appeared, so large it went from the floor of the tent all across the roof it was so big.

“My idea is to help unify both clans and how we do that is in a months time, we invite every clan we have an alliance with to the celebratory feast of our two clans becoming sister clans in honor of our warchieftesses. But here is where the treasure comes in. If both of you will officially recognize me as a daughter, I will go to every witch, every wizard, every sorcerer, every sorceress, every magical practicing person that has ever blessed me which there are over a dozen of them, all of them will show the vision of me being made out of treasure with the mountain of treasure behind me with the mountain of glory, honor and food behind that and they can show the potential of all your own daughters as well if you want to include them in this or not and they’ll be free to choose whoever they want too if they want to that is. We then hold the biggest gamble ever, each clan can bring as much or as little of their loot as they want however we show them what I’m capable of, what my real true worth is first and then let them place a bet or a bid in for me and let whoever from the clan who wants me will write down what they are prepared to give me if I choose them, your own sons included since I still have yet choose any of them but none of them will show their written bids- which will all be numbered- to anyone until at the end of the feast and the entire feast I will spend talking and getting to know all the clans and give them a chance to woo me and I will make sure each of them has an equal chance. That’s the only way we will get away with this but I will only talk to them after they meet with both of you as warchiefs to make newer, better alliances that can not be undone or gone back on or less they will disqualify themselves and they forfeit their token treasure that they’ve brought and put into my treasure pile. We will make a really big deal about the fact that I’ve been blessed by 15 magic practicing people who will compile a list of all the blessings that have been bestowed upon me, we will add that I’m a certified virgin by Warchieftess Bula, Warchieftess Yotul, Mama Arob, Mama Borba and Mama Gak as well as my own mother if you want to to really sweeten this deal. At the end of the feast, I will then take each suitor up on stage and have them put their written bids in front of them and I’ll read each bid out loud, and the crowd can cheer as little or as loud as they want after I read each bid and I’ll go down the line and read them all and then I’ll pick my favorite which I can guarantee you all- will be someone in this room right now so don’t worry about that. But I will make sure that none of the magical practicing people will show that, all they’ll allowed to do is show potential as well as give as many blessings to individuals as they want which will mean guaranteed business for them and we will use Baron Gonk’s livestock to feed everyone and make sure each clan enters an alliance with him too so he will have guaranteed business and guaranteed protection as well. Then after I make my decision and everyone goes home. I will split my treasure pile evenly between you Warchief Crowthu and your family and clan, you Warchief Khagra and your family and clan and then of course my own family since they will be equals in all this too and in one night, we will all get more wealth than we ever would have using the old ways of pillaging, stealing, raiding and war combined. And that is how both clans will then have the term Great in front of it and it’s with those funds that we will lay the foundations for the great city that will stretch from the furthermost eastern edge of the winter grounds of the Great Thunder Herd Clan to the western edge of the lands of the Great Black Wolf White Rock Clan’s land and all that will separate us when the city is complete is a single road, us on one side, you guys on the other and everyone will be free to move throughout the city as they please.” You proposed.

“Hell yeah!” Everyone cheered, Zorroku, Nar, Shuzug and Grecko doing so the loudest.

“You know, we’ll help you move too, you really should be with your daughter, thank you so much for all you’ve done for us, really.” Warchief Khagra very graciously said to your father who laughed and graciously accepted that offer and agreed to move there which relieved everyone in your family as everyone else came up to hug you in congratulations for your brilliant idea that had filled in as you talked, showing it all, Arob making sure she blurred who was on stage and who you would chose completely but that everything else was completely clear before the twins brought out their dancing drums as you all engaged in the traditional songs and dances of not just the Black Wolf White Rock Clan and the Thunder Herd Clan but of The Great Storm Breaker Clan too. Bula and Yotul dancing together like they had when they were really little and even some Silver Snow Clan songs and dances too that you and Glasha and Zorroku knew along with songs and dances from your own heritage. Shuzug being the only one who spoke your native tongue and knew the songs and dances only because you had shown him, Yotul and her daughters and daughters in law also learning these too. That night however you pulled Mama Borba aside.

“Ok, could you please pull Zorroku aside privately and tell him all the ways to please me sexually without actually putting his cock in my pussy? Because I can already tell it’s going to be one hell of a long month because I want to lie with him right this second for giving me my freedom but you can not tell anyone about this. Please.” You pleaded desperately as you walked around the tent in one of the dances.  

“Yeah I saw the way you looked at him all night as opposed to anyone else. And as my gift to you for being sister warchieftesses with my own daughters because I know you’ll be good to them, I will use the utmost discretion and you have my word I won’t tell a soul, I’ll take this to my grave.” Mama Borba swore and you breathed in relief before hugging her tightly just as the dance ended.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” You thanked her before she used the next dance and started coaching you and giving you tips on how to please Zorroku with your body except for pussy although she did give you tips and tricks about that too, all of which you took to heart and committed to memory before she also went to Zorroku for the midnight meal and made it sound like she was giving him ‘how to run a clan’s funds’ advice but in such a way that Zorroku knew exactly what she was talking about and listened with rapt attention.

That night you let Ori fuss a little so that Zorroku would come to you under the guise that he would be coming to settle his daughter down and you practically pounced on him. The moment he was in your tent, you had put Ori to your breast to nurse before jumping up into his arms. Zorroku caught you with ease and finally got a chance to really kiss you the way he had wanted to since he first laid eyes on you.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, I love you too,” you whimpered so softly that only he could hear you.

“You’re welcome, how did you know?” He rumbled back as he held you as tight as he could without squeezing his daughter between you too hard before he carried you to the bed and extinguished your fire until it was only embers so that there wouldn’t be shadows cast onto the walls before laying you down reverently onto the bed before he kissed and stroked down your body before he gently pushed up your nightgown and bent down and licked your slit with his tongue and you nearly had to bite your lip in half to not cry out in pleasure as he seemed to push between your folds and whole body seemed light up.

“Because only someone who loved another would want each other to be free. There’s a saying that, ooh, that goes, a free bird will always come back to it’s roost while a caged one will always fly away if ever let out of it’s cage. And from this moment on, you’re my roost.” You explained before you couldn’t help but let a soft moan leave you as Zorroku’s hands went to your ass and squeezed it and kneaded it along with your hips as your legs spread as wide as they could before he very carefully pushed in a single finger, his pinky, careful not to tear your maidenhood but you were so hot, and so tight and wet. He didn’t know how he was going to not fuck you senseless tonight but he had to try.

“But, oooh, you can’t...say anything, it has to stay...” You tried to tell him.

“Between us, I completely understand.” Zorroku rumbled into your sex which you felt the reverberations which only added to your own pleasure as Ori looked at you a little curiously.

“I think your daddy’s done this a time or two.” You whispered to her as you smiled brightly at her as she smiled back before she went back to nursing.

“Nope, first time for everything but that Mama Borba knew what she was talking about.” Zorroku chuckled before he curled his finger and found your g-spot and your whole pelvis rose to try to get more of that touch.

“There?” Zorroku whispered as he pushed into it and got the same reaction from your body which tried to writhe on your bed.

“Uh huh,” you nodded emphatically as you tried to keep your gasping breath as quiet as possible as your free hand that wasn’t around Ori- went to his hair and ran your fingers through it before grasping a pretty good chunk of it as Zorroku sucked on your clit while his finger tapped and rubbed and pushed into your G-spot until your whole body tensed as your pussy clenched around his finger and fluttered and even more of your delicious essence flowed into his mouth from around his finger as you silently screamed your release, your pelvis riding his face as his own tusks were planted on the junction of your thighs and center but in no danger of scraping your delicate flesh and by this point Ori had fallen asleep so you carefully put her in the little bassinet next to your bed.

“Your turn,” you purred and pulled him up. “I can’t fuck you the way I want to just yet but you could fuck my tits if you wanted to.” You offered before he kissed you and groaned.

“Gods you turn me on when you talk dirty to me.” Zorroku grinned as he got his cock from his pants and got into position. His cock was large, even for an orc and thick and heavy but thanks to your now ample cleavage he reached down and gently pushed your breasts together over it, the underside rubbing against your breast plate as the head nearly hit your jaw. “Fuck this next month is going to be so fucking long.” Zorroku growled as he looked down at you in awed amazement because even in his dreams, he never hoped to dream this.

“Tell me about it, so much to do, but it’ll be worth it.” You whispered as your hands stroked up his huge strong thighs before scratching down the outside of them as you watched him with lidded eyes. His whole body looked sculpted from blue marble. He was even more magnificent up close.

“Come on Zorro, I want your seed around my neck like a necklace.” You purred as you reached under his balls and gently fondled them before you gently and carefully scratched them and that was enough to do him in and much faster than he wanted to cum, he came, and unloaded so much, it was like someone dumped a can of opaque white paint on your chest and neck.

“Fuck, you gotta be careful with that mouth of yours, I usually last much longer than that.” Zorroku tried to explain, embarrassed by how quickly and easily you were able to finish him.

“Oh I know, when we really get a chance to lie together, I’ll go easy on you.” You winked up at him and giggled as you both wiped up the mess he made. “I just needed to finish you quick tonight before we got caught.” You whispered as you sat up as he moved off of you before kissing him sweetly again.

“Well, yeah, that would suck.” Zorroku nodded in agreement. “Thank you Bella, for everything.” Zorroku murmured gratefully before he tucked you and Ori into bed and left your tent to go to his own again.

But the moment he left your tent, Glasha was waiting at the entrance to her own tent since her bedroom space was right next to yours to the point that if she were to put a door in her own bedroom space and yours she could walk from your room to hers in a single stride.

“Oh no.” Zorroku breathed when he saw her and knew he was caught.

“Hey, I didn’t see or hear nothin,” Glasha whispered as she put her hands up in surrender but winked before she went back to bed.

[illustrious-rocket]

A Matter of Void

It’s here, the super-ultra-mega post in which I go full madman and lay out my theories for Void, Zero, Dark Matter and how they all tie together.

First, we need to lay out some basic assumptions this post will be working under. These subjects are especially conjecture-based, so in order to communicate my ideas clearly I want to explain how I’m approaching certain areas.

The four types of matter described in one of True Void Termina’s pause screens, Dream, Dark, Heart and Soul. Some of these are more specified in canon already, but to give a clear picture of my approach: Dream Matter and Dark Matter are, effectively, opposites. Dream represents all positive emotions, Dark all negative emotions. Soul Matter is what makes up the undead Soul forms of living things. Heart Matter is the most unclear, but for me, I believe it may represent what the special weapons (ex: Star Rod, the Love-Love Stick, the Crystal Gun, etc) are made of.

Also for the purposes of this post, it is assumed that Hyness’s insane rant in the climax of Story Mode is, in fact, true.

Anyway, let’s get started.

This begins in the era of the Ancients on Halcandra, before the planet was destroyed. At that time, the planet’s civilization was ruled by technology and science. There was a cult of individuals who rejected this and instead worshipped an astral being, and were exiled from society for their beliefs. One day, the demon who would later be known as Nightmare attacked this planet as part of a larger campaign; the Ancients’ battle against Nightmare would be referenced by Hyness in the future as the “nightmare of a galactic crisis.” Out of desperation, the Ancients turned to the cult for help.

The cult summoned their god, Void, a lifeform that continually reincarnates based on what surrounds it when it is born. At the time it was in a form made of Dream Matter that resembled Kirby, which for brevity’s sake we’ll call “Void Dream” for this post. Void Dream battled Nightmare, but lost and was destroyed. Worse, when it reincarnated, the chaos and despair of Nightmare’s war caused it to take on a Dark Matter-based form. Now a force of destruction, it annihilated Halcandra and tore the planet apart. This led to the Ancients calling it “Destroyer of Worlds” and naming it Void Termina. Ultimately, the Ancients managed to stop the war by forging weapons out of Heart Matter: the Star Rod, which was used to seal away Nightmare, and the four spears they used to seal Void Termina in the Jamba Heart. The Ancients also recovered Void Termina’s crown, which they placed under the guardianship of Landia, whose nature as a collective lifeform with multiple parts allowed it to control the crown’s power. (This is, incidentally, why Magolor could not control the crown and was possessed by it: as only one mind, he lacked the power and ability to keep its latent powers in check.)

The Ancients were ultimately forced to abandon their ruined planet, but to punish the cult for Void Termina’s actions, the Ancients exiled them to the edge of the universe. While the Ancients would eventually fade from history, Hyness - who would became the cult’s leader if he wasn’t already - grew obsessed with Void Termina’s raw potential for destruction. Desiring revenge against those who turned their backs on him and his followers, Hyness repurposed the cult into worshipping Void Termina and sought to summon it to act on his wishes.

At first, however, Hyness did not know how to summon Void Termina from the Jamba Heart. As an alternative, he began working with Dark Matter, attempting to forge a new Void Termina out of the element. His work ultimately produced two flawed, broken copies: Zero and 02. Hyness was able to copy Void’s appearance to some degree, but Zero and 02 lacked Void’s powers; instead of manifesting an actual body to protect them like Void could, Zero and 02 could only form masses of Dark Matter with a similar appearance to themselves. These masses were the Hyper Zone and Dark Star, and the “living” Dark Matter split from them also loosely resembled Void. Over time, the prolonged exposure to the negative emotions of Dark Matter caused Hyness’s character to warp, resulting in his going insane and becoming abusive and distant to the Mage-Sisters, his loyal followers.

However, Hyness’s goals also became warped as Dark Matter affected his mind. Remembering that Pop Star was where Nightmare was defeated and sealed away, he sent a scout (Dark Matter Blade) to the planet, before launching a full-scale invasion by sending Zero. However, Kirby thwarted Dark Matter and Zero using the Rainbow Sword and Love-Love Stick, two weapons crafted from Heart Matter. Enraged, Hyness dispatched 02 to Ripple Star, hoping to obtain the Crystal, a Heart Matter weapon, for himself. Kirby ended up interfering once again, however, and 02 was ultimately destroyed within the body of Dark Star.

With this approach having failed twice, Hyness decided to instead find a way to unseal the Jamba Heart, leading to the events of Star Allies’ Story Mode. When he managed to complete the Jamba Heart and unseal Void Termina, though, his mistakes led to it manifesting in a corrupted, weakened state. This is why it ended up pulling itself from its body and dying without reincarnating once it was defeated. Void Soul came into existence naturally thanks to Soul Matter, and was destroyed just as naturally.

The Soul Melter EX version, however, is different. The Void Termina seen in that mode is the real, fully powered one, hence the title “The True Destroyer of Worlds.” It’s the Void Termina that Nightmare’s influence created, that annihilated Halcandra, and that Hyness wanted to summon. Perhaps ironically, this is also why Void’s reincarnation only occurs here - Story Mode’s Void Termina and Void Soul were corrupted versions and thus lacked the abilities of the “real” one. True Void Termina possesses its full, unchecked power, so when its first three forms are defeated, “Void Termina” is defeated and dies, with its remains producing a new body for it as it reverts into Astral Birth Void. The outcome at that point is already clear - Kirby destroys Void Termina in much the same way Nightmare destroyed “Void Dream,” then exposes the newborn Void to the positivity of Dream Matter, allowing it to once again live as Void Dream. A dream of friends reunited.

Void, Zero and Dark Matter... in a way, Void is Zero, but is also not Zero. Because Zero was created in a failed attempt to recreate Void, Void could be considered the “true form” of Zero - hence why the Astral Birth Void splash screen is the Hyper Zone. The names Void and Void Termina (and in Japanese, Nil/End Nil) can be seen as interchangeable with “Zero” and “Absolute”/”Final” Zero; furthermore, “Void Termina” can be seen as calling it the “Void” that “terminates” (in Japanese, the “Nil” that “ends”), this context suggesting that it would have different names in other forms besides the Dark Matter form. As for Dark Matter, the “Dark Matter” we knew before Star Allies is not the entire species, only what Hyness gave life to when he created Zero and 02.

This leaves me with only one thing left to figure out: where Dark Nebula, aka “Dark Zero” in Japan, fits in. Does it even fit at all, given the way the description of the Dark Matter Invaders from the 20th Anniversary book seems to have been retconned by Star Allies introducing Void Termina and the associated lore?

[earlyandoftenpodcast]

(Left: Governor Samuel Ward. Right: Governor Stephen Hopkins.)

As Rhode Island develops and grows throughout the 18th century, it becomes divided by a struggle for dominance between the two largest cities in the colony, leading to the creation of an early two-party system with many features that would be emulated in the early American republic.

>>>Direct audio link<<<

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Transcript and Sources:

Hello, and welcome to Early and Often: The History of Elections in America. Episode 29: The Ward-Hopkins Controversy.

Last time, we talked about the political history of Massachusetts from the 1710s to the 1750s. In particular, we focused on how the introduction of paper money in order to pay for the wars against Quebec led to periodic economic crises and a divide within the colony between opponents and supporters of increasing the money supply. Eventually, thanks to considerable pressure from the British government, the experiment in paper money was ended altogether.

Today, we’re going to look at the political history of Rhode Island over roughly the same time period.

Now, let me give you a quick summary of the events we’ll be talking about today, just so you’ll know what to look out for. I’m covering a lot this episode, and I don’t want things to get too confusing. Okay, so a few years after the Dominion of New England fell, a man named Samuel Cranston became governor of Rhode Island. He served for almost 30 years straight, until 1727. Needless to say, this was a time of considerable stability. But after his death, Rhode Island spent the 1730s divided over concerns about paper money, just like in Massachusetts.

Then an alliance of two men, Richard Ward and William Greene, dominated politics for about 15 years. There were still some divisions, but mostly things were stable. But in the 1750s a new political faction arose, led by Stephen Hopkins. While the old faction was based out of the town of Newport, this new faction was based out of Providence, a rising city which wanted to dethrone Newport and become the leading town in the colony. These two groups battled it out for the next decade and a half, forming what were basically political parties, in what’s known as the Ward-Hopkins controversy. That’ll be the main subject for this episode.

Right, so that’s the basics, let’s dive in.

Rhode Island, you’ll recall, was founded by a bunch of outcasts from Massachusetts, religious and political dissidents like Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson who had been forced into exile one way or another. There hadn’t originally been a single colony of Rhode Island, just a small number of towns scattered about. But eventually the towns were joined together into a single unit, which remained a haven for non-conformists, and was looked down upon by the Puritans in the rest of New England. But despite the derision of their neighbors, they managed to keep their independence -- at least until the Dominion of New England, anyway. But after the Dominion was overthrown they emerged with their charter fully restored, like Connecticut.

Both Rhode Island and Connecticut were still small and vulnerable, though. They were both rural and poor, with much smaller populations than Massachusetts, and in principle their charters could come under attack at any moment. So they both adopted a policy of appeasing England as much as possible, while strongly pushing back against any attempt to weaken their charters.

So when the governor of Massachusetts was given instructions to take over Rhode Island’s militia, the Rhode Islanders resisted strongly. But that didn’t mean that Rhode Island was unwilling to help with the British war efforts. Quite the contrary. They wanted to keep the king happy, to show him that Rhode Island would be cooperative, so that there would be no need to raise challenges against their charter in the first place. This strategy proved pretty successful, in that they kept their charter.

However, just like in the other New England colonies, there were still those in Rhode Island who were pushing for greater royal control, sometimes just out of a personal grievance against the government or something like that, rather than for any ideological reasons.

In any case, one of the issues these royalists used to attack the current government was piracy and privateering. (If you’re not familiar with the term, privateering is when piracy is authorized by a state. So the English government could give pirates a license to legally raid French shipping in time of war. That would be privateering. It was a common tactic back in the day.)

Well, Rhode Island had been intimately involved with pirates and privateers for a while now. Even more so than the other New England colonies, Rhode Island had a maritime focus. Their main contribution to the wars against Quebec was authorizing privateers to plunder French vessels. The royalists, however, said that Rhode Island had gone too far, that the colony had given pirates licenses to privateer under dubious pretexts, and even turned a blind eye to full-on piracy.

And honestly, the accusations were probably somewhat true. After all, lots of other colonies were guilty of the same thing. Why would the colonies do something like that? Well, money mostly. Piracy could bring in a lot of cash, and that was extremely useful in a poor colony like Rhode Island. Without that cash they would’ve had trouble paying for needed imports. So you can think of piracy as an alternative to the land bank or other schemes for printing money. And just like the land bank, piracy was strongly opposed by the English government.

Anyway, the piracy issue indirectly led to the resignation of the governor, Walter Clarke, in 1698. His replacement, Samuel Cranston, who happened to be his nephew, would go on to be elected as governor for the next 29 years straight, longer than any other governor of any colony or state in American history.

Cranston had been a sea captain and he was married to the granddaughter of Roger Williams, one of the founders of Rhode Island. He had also been kidnapped by pirates himself when he was a young man.

Now that he was governor, Cranston came under immediate pressure from English officials to get his colony in order. He did what he could to placate them, taking stronger actions against pirates and so on. He also made sure that Rhode Island did its fair share for the war effort.

So with Cranston in power, Rhode Island settled down into a long period of stable development.

Its government became more centralized. The law code was rewritten, organized and expanded, a process which took the better part of two decades, given how confused and haphazard the legal system had been.

The economy kept growing. Slaves were imported in considerable numbers, by New England standards. Paper money was introduced in 1710 and industries like shipbuilding started to take off, which helped the colony become more of a trading center. A small economic elite formed, although they were less elite than the elite elsewhere.

Massachusetts had done these things much earlier, but Rhode Island was a laggard thanks to its small size. Anyway, like the rest of New England, Rhode Island was finally becoming a normal member of the British Empire, as its cultural distinctiveness slowly eroded. They even started showing plays, although that was quite controversial.

And as the economy grew, so did the population. From 1700 to 1750 the number of settlers in Rhode Island jumped from 7,000 to 36,000. A quarter of the population lived in towns, which was high for the time.

Like in Massachusetts, this growth meant that the towns themselves changed. For instance, most of the common land was sold off or divided, so town governments became less concerned with land use per se, and more concerned with regulations and building roads, that kind of thing.

Also like in Massachusetts, the number of officials elected in each town shot up dramatically. Sydney V. James gives the example of Portsmouth, which in 1738 elected 52 officers, including “three overseers of the poor, three assessors, six field drivers (to capture stray livestock), a pound-keeper, three viewers of hemp and flax, two corders of wood, two cullers of clapboards and shingles, a sealer of weights and measures, a sealer of leather, a packer, an auctioneer, a town attorney, and a committee of auditors.”

The town meetings were also more closely regulated by the General Assembly. Elections had to be held at certain times, the meetings had to be held four times a year, there were limits on which items could be put on the meeting’s agenda, the requirements for what constituted a quorum were specified, and so on.

And whereas before the towns had been free to choose who could move into their town, the General Assembly now mandated that they had to allow in anyone, as long as they owned £50 worth of land within the town’s borders. So just like in Massachusetts, the era of the independent town was already ending, thanks to the growth and economic changes within New England.

The growing population also meant that it was time for Rhode Island to finally split its legislature into an upper and lower house. That happened in 1696. Both the upper and lower house were elected. Connecticut also made its legislature bicameral in 1698. That meant that all of the colonies now had bicameral assemblies, although Pennsylvania wound up switching back to a unicameral assembly later.

And the legislature became more professional over time as well, as delegates accumulated experience in governing.

Rhode Island remained religiously pluralistic. There were no town churches like in the rest of New England, and there was no formal religious discipline. No way to force people into conformity. Nor were there many trained ministers in the colony, for that matter.

The result of this freedom was a rapid shift away from anything resembling traditional Puritanism. All sorts of heresies flourished, and Quaker missionaries had considerable success in converting the settlers. In fact, the Quakers had such success in organization that they rather dominated the government by the late 1600s.

The other main religious group was the Baptists. Baptists in this case meaning those who rejected infant baptism while accepting adult baptism. That’s a common belief among many Protestant groups today, but at the time it was very controversial. These Baptists were the sort to take the Bible very literally, and they tended to have regular schisms over Biblical interpretation, even over minor issues like whether the Sabbath should be on Saturday or Sunday.

This was a preview of America’s religious future: different denominations endlessly fracturing and struggling with each other to gain converts. I guess it’s not surprising that this would happen in the first colony to really embrace tolerance. One way in which Rhode Island was surprisingly modern, despite its late start.

So that was what Rhode Island was like under Governor Cranston. I don’t think there’s any need to get into the elections during that period. The same man remained governor for three decades, after all, so it’s not like there were any big turnovers of power. There were no big issues to contest, and in general people were happy to see Rhode Island slowly develop. Or if there were big issues, they were kept in check for the time being.

But Cranston died in 1727. And after his death, it didn’t take long for Rhode Island to become divided by factions. One of the main divisions was over the currency. For instance, in 1732 the hard money governor lost reelection thanks to voters who wanted looser money and more inflation.

But that initial burst of factionalism had died down by the end of the 1730s. The 1740s saw the ascendance of the Ward-Greene alliance, based out of Newport. It was led by Richard Ward and William Greene, who together controlled the governorship for 13 of the next 15 years.

It seemed like Rhode Island might be returning to normal, after the moderate strife of the last decade, but alas, the 1740s were also the decade of King George’s War, the next big war with Quebec. The war caused fiscal problems for Rhode Island, just like in Massachusetts. The government tried to stay on top of its debts, but the treasury and the courts were both inefficient and overworked. The government simply didn’t have the administrative capacity to handle it. Nor did it have the money to pay its debts without further depreciating its currency.

These money problems led to unhappiness in the colony, which led to another burst of factionalism. Presumably Rhode Island was divided along familiar lines, with rural farmers vs. urban merchants and so on.

In 1745, in the middle of the war, the current governor, William Greene, was thrown out of office and replaced by one of his opponents, a Quaker with the excellent name of Gideon Wanton. Wanton was a proponent of paper money. Not only that, there was massive turnover in both the upper and lower houses of the General Assembly as well. However, the year after that, things were reversed, and former Governor Greene managed to take back his office, before losing to Wanton again the next year, only to win again the year after that.

So there was some back and forth, but this was a brief war which only lasted four years, and it didn’t take long for politics to calm back down. The Ward-Greene faction returned to its position of dominance and the factionalism over paper money evaporated as the immediate crisis ended.

So with the end of the war had things finally calmed down for real this time? No, of course not. There’s always another fight just around the corner. Paper money wasn’t an issue at the moment, so what was the issue? Well, now the issue was a growing rivalry between the two largest cities in Rhode Island, Newport and Providence.

Newport, which was on the coast, was the largest city and the most important port in the colony. Actually, it wasn’t just important by Rhode Island standards. Newport had become one of the five largest ports in the colonies. And it became a center of economic activity in general. Naturally, the city was politically dominant as well. The Ward-Greene faction was from Newport.

Providence, on the other hand, was further inland up the Narragansett Bay, which actually made it a better spot for a port. However, Providence had gotten a later start than Newport and so it remained smaller and less important. That was slowly starting to change. Thanks to its superior location, Providence slowly gained ground relative to Newport and by the 1750s Providence was strong enough to challenge Newport, both economically and politically.

If you’re familiar with ancient Greek history, this may remind you just a bit of the rivalry between Athens and Sparta which led to the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC. According to the Greek historian Thucidydes, “What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta”. Well, I wouldn’t take the analogy too far -- no one in colonial America was particularly Spartan -- but the basic setup is similar. Two cities, one rising relative to the other, and only one of them can reign supreme. It’s a natural recipe for conflict.

Partly it was a question of patronage. Who would get government jobs? Who would be given approval to become a privateer in times of war? In which city would the new college get built? Who would get the money to improve infrastructure or build schools? Who would gain from new taxes and who would lose? Who would be granted a monopoly in a given industry? There was a lot riding on such questions, and sometimes only one group could come out on top.

But mainly, it was that the merchants of Providence would make more money the faster Providence grew, while the merchants of Newport would lose money if their city were eclipsed. Not only that, the farmers living near Providence would make more money the faster Providence grew, and vice versa for the farmers living near Newport. So this wasn’t just a fight between two groups of merchants. The whole colony had a stake in the rivalry. Farmers and merchants from the north joined together, as did farmers and merchants from the south, although both factions were led by men from the merchant class, not farmers.

The Ward-Greene faction, which was based out of Newport, had been running Rhode Island for the last fifteen years. They were still in power, but Richard Ward had been replaced by his son, Samuel Ward. Samuel Ward was in his 30s, likeable and smart, and generally a good politician. He had already served a few terms as a deputy in the legislature.

In Providence, however, a new faction was forming around Stephen Hopkins. Hopkins was from rural Rhode Island, but he had moved to Providence to better himself. Eighteen years older than Ward, Hopkins was also smart and well-read. He had risen up through the political ranks, for a time serving as a member of the colony’s Supreme Court.

By the early 1750s, Hopkins and his group were about ready to take power.  William Greene was still serving as governor, as he had for most of the last decade.

I should mention that in 1754, a new war with Quebec broke out, just 6 years after the last one had ended. This conflict was known as the Seven Years’ War, or as the French and Indian War in America. I’m not going to talk about the details of the war just yet. I’ll save that for later. For now, the important thing to know is that the English were finally successful in conquering Quebec, and that they managed to force the French off of the continent altogether.  

But the important thing to know for Rhode Island is the government once again started piling up debt. So not only was there the rivalry between Providence and Newport, there were disagreements about money as well.

Anyway, in 1755, the year after the war started, Stephen Hopkins won the governorship, narrowly defeating Governor Greene. Hopkins won reelection the next year, but his second reelection campaign against Greene didn’t go so well.

Samuel Ward, the son of Richard Ward, was naturally backing Greene against Hopkins. Ward wrote a pamphlet accusing Hopkins of corruption and arrogance. Hopkins was outraged and he sued Ward for libel, demanding a ridiculous 20,000 pounds in damages. However, he not only lost the court case, he lost the election. Greene was back in office yet again, thanks to Hopkins’ overreaction. But, Greene died after less than a year in office. The Assembly chose Hopkins to replace him for the rest of the term, so he was right back where he was before.

With Greene dead, the young -- well, 43 year old --  Samuel Ward was left in charge of the Ward-Greene faction, which was really just the Ward faction at this point. But now, the stage was set for a much bigger escalation between the two factions. So far, the fight between the two had been pretty tame. They were just doing politics in the normal New England way, which is to say, it was very low key and disorganized. But with the personal rivalry of Ward and Hopkins plus the regional rivalry between Newport and Providence becoming more and more acute, both sides began to organize.

Both Ward and Hopkins created what were essentially political parties in order to fight the other. All of a sudden Rhode Island politics took on a completely different character as both factions rapidly figured out how to compete in a democracy. Much of this was carried out by people with a direct stake in the elections. Men who stood to win big should their faction win. That was the driving force behind polarization: patronage.

They handpicked candidates to run for office. They literally carried the elderly and the sick to the polls in order to vote. In the words of Sydney V. James, “The opposing parties waged their campaigns with vigor and cash to pile up the vital majorities in elections. Candidates and their backers made speeches, printed broadside appeals, and inspired useful items in the newspapers. The Hopkins side helped launch the Providence Gazette to gain an outlet for its views. The political managers treated voters with food and drink. They hired men either to earn their gratitude when the ballots... were cast or to keep them busy when the voting was in progress. They rigged spurious land transactions to get poor men admitted to the suffrage. They paid the undecided to vote for their own slate and paid the dedicated opponents not to vote at all.”

The factions also provided their own preprinted ballots. Now, normally in New England at this time ballots were just blank slips of paper. You would write the names of the candidates you supported on it and then hand it over to be counted. There were no preprinted ballots with all the candidates listed, as today. That made voting more inconvenient and it also provided an opportunity for the factions to compete.

Each faction would print out their own ballots with only their own candidates listed. So the Hopkins ballot would have Hopkins and his men on it, but not Ward or Ward’s men. That made it much easier for voters to support just one side or the other. You could simply hand a preprinted ballot in without having to write anything down. You didn’t have to do that, but you could, and it was oh so much easier. Naturally, many voters wound up voting entirely for one faction or the other. Some two-thirds of voters consistently sided with one faction or the other over the course of the Ward-Hopkins controversy. In some towns almost no one changed their votes year-to-year. That was unusual behavior for the time. Back then people often changed their votes with each election, rarely supporting the same set of candidates.

But not only did the parties print out their own ballots, they even went so far as to print deceptive ballots. For instance, the Hopkins faction might print out a ballot with Ward at the top of it, but Hopkins men for all the other offices, and then distribute that ballot in areas which supported the Ward faction, in the hope that supporters of Ward would just notice the name “Ward” at the top and assume that the rest of the ballot was full of Ward faction men without bothering to check. Then they would hand in their ballot not knowing they were mostly voting for Hopkins men.

So we’re talking some pretty sophisticated trickery here. It didn’t take the Rhode Islanders very long at all to figure out how to work the system, once enough of them were determined to do so. And many of these practices, such as each party printing out its own ballots, would become standard practice in America for like a century to come. So in Rhode Island here, we’re definitely seeing a preview of American democracy after independence. It wasn’t necessarily the case that future generations were copying from Rhode Island, but the pressures of mass democracy were similar. There were only so many ways to get people to vote after all.

And these methods did prove pretty effective. Before the start of the controversy, turnout had been in the standard 25% range, but during the controversy, turnout for the gubernatorial elections remained above 40% for a full decade. And after the controversy ended, turnout dropped to under 20%. So clearly a lot more people were voting. Not incredible numbers, but consistent. Other contests elsewhere in New England had higher turnouts, but only once in a while. Maybe the fact that there were no grand principles at stake hurt. After all, the Ward-Hopkins feud was pretty unexciting if you didn’t have an economic stake in the outcome. I don’t think you could say that the whole colony was gripped by election fever.

Anyway, all of the elections were close. Neither Hopkins nor Ward ever got more than 55% of the vote. And remember, there were only like 3 or 4000 voters in a given election, so a narrow margin of victory meant that the winner won by hundreds if not mere dozens of votes. In two separate elections Hopkins won by just 66 votes. In another election he won by just 24 votes.

Unsurprisingly, the main divide was geographic. Two-thirds of voters in the north supported Hopkins and two-thirds in the south supported Ward. Not exactly unanimous, but still striking. Voters in the middle of the colony could go either way, and that was where both factions directed much of their efforts.

Neither wealth nor occupation mattered much. Artisans and farmers and wealthy merchants all tended to vote the same way depending on location. So it really does seem to have been a regional struggle above all else, even though there were sometimes other issues at play.

Now, the struggle between Ward and Hopkins took over a decade, with votes held each year, so I’m not going to get into the specifics of every election. In any case, the specifics aren’t as important as the broader picture, in terms of helping us understand elections in America.

Power went back and forth between the two factions, although Hopkins usually came out on top. He was elected for nine out of thirteen years, and Providence got as much patronage as he could throw at it. For example, while the colony was at war, Governor Hopkins made sure that it was men from Providence who got permission to become privateers. And he also made sure that the colony’s new college, which would later become Brown University, was established in Providence and not Newport. His faction even blocked an attempt by the Ward faction to set up a second college in Newport.

There were still other issues beyond mere patronage though. Most especially the currency, of course, and related debates over taxation. The Ward faction didn’t really have a plan to deal with the currency, apparently. They were split between two groups of their supporters, the merchant elite of Newport and rural farmers, each of whom had seriously divergent economic interests. Like with any other party in a two party system, the Ward faction wasn’t a coherent thing. It was composed of different smaller groups, who only shared some interests. So it was difficult to come up with a plan that would win the approval of all or even most of their supporters.

The Hopkins faction, on the other hand, despite similar difficulties, did manage to come up with a plan, which would standardize all of the old currencies floating around into a single currency backed by silver. And that’s what happened. During one of the times while it was in power, the Hopkins faction managed to get this plan passed into law.

The problem with this plan however was that the government had to buy enough silver to back the new currency, which was expensive, which meant that taxes would have to go up, which raised its own set of issues. What should be taxed? Or rather, who should be taxed? Both factions cooperated to come up with a bipartisan plan, but the supposedly bipartisan plan actually placed heavier burdens on Newport than on Providence. So a few years later, when the Ward faction was in total control of the government, they repealed the old plan and passed a new one which heavily favored their constituency in the south.

But apparently Ward didn’t do a great job while in office. He managed to alienate some of his own supporters, and so he lost his second bid for reelection in 1767. Hopkins was back in power and he reversed Ward’s new tax plan, going back to the previous “bipartisan” arrangement. As it turned out, that was pretty much the end of the Ward-Hopkins controversy. Hopkins was able to pass most of his desired legislation and Ward was no longer able to compete. Basically, Hopkins won, partly just because he was a somewhat better politician.

And in the end, Providence completely eclipsed Newport. Today, Providence is both the capital and the largest city in Rhode Island, while Newport is a small town with only some 24,000 residents.

So that’s the end of the Ward-Hopkins controversy. Probably both Ward and Hopkins were happy to see it end. Actually, both of them had been quite displeased with the factionalism that was being carried out in their names. The political norms of the day said that factions and parties were a bad thing, that parties were just the result of men abusing the government for their personal gain. So both men felt like they had inadvertently created a monster. Neither of them had wanted to be in that position, but neither of them saw a good way to back down either. The logic of party had a life of its own, as the Founding Fathers would discover a generation later.

But really, this was a minor dispute. It pushed Rhode Island into a state of anxiety, but it left no lasting scars. Once these factions went away, they went away for good.

You may have noticed that the end of the Ward-Hopkins controversy came only a decade before the War of Independence. The minor dispute between two minor cities was fast eclipsed by much bigger issues. And as it turned out, almost everyone in the colony wound up supporting independence, regardless of which faction they had belonged to. They may have clashed over local issues, but ultimately they had similar economic and political interests, and so they responded to British provocations in the same way. The fights of the past were soon forgotten. In fact, both Hopkins and Ward were delegates to the First Continental Congress in 1774.

But although neither of these factions survived, many of the techniques they pioneered would live on in the fierce electioneering of the early American Republic. No more the stately, patrician-led quasi-oligarchy of the past. Well, the stateliness was gone at any rate, replaced with lively mass appeals to the public. And with the offer of patronage for supporters. That style of politics won’t take hold in the rest of the United States for decades to come, but Rhode Island gives us a sneak peak of what it’ll be like.

The old model of a fairly closed elite making decisions on its own with relatively little public input was dying. It makes sense that it would die first in Rhode Island, the most populist of the New England colonies. All it took was a spark to set things off.

Okay, so last episode, we saw factions in Massachusetts arise because of disputes over paper money. This episode we saw factions in Rhode Island arise because of a rivalry between two towns for dominance. Next episode, we’ll see factions in Connecticut arise because of a religious divide within the colony, over the first big American revival movement, the Great Awakening. So join me next time on Early and Often: The History of Elections in America.

If you like the podcast, please rate it on iTunes. You can also keep track of Early and Often on Twitter, at earlyoftenpod, or read transcripts of every episode at the blog, at earlyandoftenpodcast.wordpress.com. Thanks for listening.

Sources:

Revolutionary New England, 1691-1776 by James Truslow Adams

The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Volume 3 by Thomas Williams Bicknell

A Land of Liberty?: England, 1689–1727 by Julian Hoppit

Colonial Rhode Island -- A History by Sydney V. James

Adjustment to Empire: The New England Colonies 1675-1715 by Richard R. Johnson

Colonial Massachusetts -- A History by Benjamin W. Labaree

A Polite and Commercial People: England 1727-1783 by Paul Langford

The American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century, Volume I by Herbert L. Osgood

The American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century, Volume II by Herbert L. Osgood

History of New England, Volume IV by John Gorham Palfrey

Black Yankees: The Development of an Afro-American Subculture in Eighteenth-Century New England by William Dillon Piersen

Colonial Connecticut -- A History by Robert J. Taylor

The Ward-Hopkins Controversy and the American Revolution in Rhode Island: An Interpretation by Mack E. Thompson

A history of the Episcopal church in Narragansett, Rhode Island, including a history of other Episcopal churches in the state by Wilkins Updike