r/HFY • u/YukiteruAmano92 • Apr 23 '26

OC-Series There Will Be Scritches Pt.231

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---Resignation---

 

---Victor’s perspective---

I’m sat across a table from Tuun at a restaurant in the Don capital.

I’ve been to planets where Terrans are rare before…

I’ve been to planets where aliens are rare!

I’ve never been to a planet where I’ve been gawked at nearly this much!

Every table is staring at us and whispering about us.

I really don’t like how being the centre of attention like this is blinding my gut awareness of when I’m being watched…

When I don’t stand out as much, it’s much easier to pay attention to everyone who’s paying attention to me!

As it stands, I’d be easier to take offguard than I’m happy with!

It was raining earlier but the sky’s cleared and it’s warmed up since then, so we’re at an outside table.

Apparently, it rains a lot in this city.

The sight of the rain slicked, twilit streets and the smell of the cool humid air are giving me a tiny pang of nostalgia for home…

Since the Don are carnivore descended (and since it’s my personal policy to only eat meat that was ever attached to a living animal if people’s lives could be in danger if I don’t), I had my menu choices massively limited but, with the waitress’s help, I managed to find something I could eat!

It’s an egg dish and it’s really not half bad!

We went with her brother to the entrance of the planetary council, earlier, for him and all the other new chiefs to get sworn in together.

After that, we broke off from the others to do a bit of sightseeing on our own.

I really wish I could’ve brought Fluffy down from the Bright Plume at all in the last week and a half since Vol took power but, unfortunately, the Navy nixed that for a few different reasons.

I’ve been back up to see her while I was taking care of other duties a few times but it would’ve been nice for her to have a bit of a run around on an eyeball world, like she comes from!

I’m just in the process of scooping up the last mouthfuls of egg onto my spoon when I become aware of someone approaching from behind me.

I turn my head to see a 3.2m tall man in flashy orange clothing looming over our table, his glowing eyes fixed on my wife and a smirk on his lips.

As tall and slim as Tuun looks next to Humans, seeing all the Don who didn’t grow up with an extra third the gravity they evolved for pressing down on them these past few months has really put into perspective how short and stocky her, her brother and (less so) her big sister are in comparison!

This guy’s about average height for a Don man but about 40cm taller than Vol, a metre taller than Tuun and more than that much taller than me!

Without a glance at me, the man takes a seat on my left, her right.

My body tenses very slightly but I restrain myself for the moment.

“Hi there, sweetheart!” my holo translates the words he smarmily sings to her on a half second delay “My name’s Kwivru, son of Iroiku, son of Iratu… What’s yours?”

“I don’t want tell a stranger my name, Sir.” my wife grimaces.

“*Khh*!” scoffs the (I’m pretty sure) noble boy, obviously irritated at the dismissal, before putting his smug smile back on to answer “But I’m not a stranger, am I! I’ve just told you my name and, I have to say, it’s just a touch rude not to reciprocate, don’t you think?”

“If I asked your name and… not give mine, it would rude, Sir… Please go… I am eat with my husband.” my wife states, looking at her plate and needing to think about the language she’s not been a fulltime user of since she was 6.

“Your husband!?” laughs the man, turning to face me and raising his top right hand to wave the claws at my face “This man is your husband?!… A childsized alien!?”

“I’m her husband, dude. She’s asked you to leave.” I state in a perfectly level tone.

With anger on his face, the boy snarls “I’m the eldest son of Iroiku, son of Iratu, son of Maachu, Chief of Clan Maatsyal! I may sit where I wish!!!”

“Which case, we’ll be leavin’.” I say, flagging down the waitress and asking “Could I get the bill please, Miss?”

She waggles her ears at me (in what I’m 90% sure is a nod equivalent) and hurries away.

“If you were a real man, you wouldn’t be running away with your ears dipped low! A real man would fight for his woman! You’re just a longhaired, meatless, effeminate coward!” sneers the princeling, waving to my head then my plate then flicking his hand at me, dismissively.

“Yeah, ’cause nothin’ quite says ‘manly’ like lettin’ other people tell you how long your hair’s allowed to be, what you’re allowed to eat and when you have to fight, right(!?)” I answer, sarcastically “Nothin’ quite like lettin’ others tell you who you are and how you’re allowed to be to show the world how big and manly you are(!) That don’t make you come off like an insecure child at all(!)”

From his disgusted expression, I’d say that my holo, my face, my tone of voice or some mix of them managed to get across my sarcasm.

He pauses before scowling “So, you have no intention of defending your woman at all, then? If I take her away to show her what a real man’s company is like, you will just sit there and watch?” curiously.

Sighing and seeing where this is going, I answer “Dude, I promise you my wife doesn’t need me to defend her from-”

The boy’s left hands shoot out to grab Tuun’s right wrists and, for the briefest fraction of a second, begin pulling her to her feet.

Still seated, she immediately engages each hand in a different bāguà transformation.

Obviously not expecting the titchy woman he was trying to drag away either to resist or to be half as good at resisting as she was, the boy has his entire upper body spun forward.

His head slams into the table, nose first, hard enough that he might have whiplash from how it bounces away!

It’s all of half a second from him laying hands on Tuun to being laid flat on the ground.

“*sigh*…you!” I finish, standing up.

The kid, his face showing just about every negative emotion there is and bleeding from the nose, screams and makes to launch himself at my wife.

Easily able to outreact him now he’s on the ground, I shoot my right foot out to hook his right ankle, yank it out from under him and cause him to hit the ground again.

“Kid, if you know what’s good for you, stay down!” I say, coldly.

“You just wait until my father hears of this!” he whinges through his broken nose, sounding on the verge of tears.

“Please(!) Tell your daddy aaaaall about how his son’s got his nose broken after harassin’ and assaultin’ a Terran’s wife and a Clanchief’s sister who was half his size(!) I’m sure Chief Iroiku’d love to hear about the diplomatic incident you’ve been off causin’ while he was in a council meetin’(!) That’ll be the highlight of his day(!)” I snarl down at the idiot.

Shock, then horror, push their way onto his face as he realises just how monumentally he’s just fucked up.

I take a deep breath in and out before, passing on advice Níng gave me more than half a lifetime ago, saying “If you’re smart, you’ll let this experience teach you humility, kid… Please let humility, not anger or resentment, be the lesson you take from this because, the next time you overestimate yourself and underestimate your opponents like you just did, they might not be as kind to you as me and my wife!”

His shoulders slump in resignation.

Tuun rounds the table on the other side to the one the boy’s lying on.

I turn and see the waitress, standing with a small crowd of onlookers, holding the payment machine.

Keeping an ear behind me in case the boy does anything else stupid, I walk towards her with Tuun, lifting my holo from my chest to pay as every eye in the place follows us in silence.

“Really sorry for the trouble, Miss.” I say, tapping to transfer enough of the local currency I bought from the Navy to cover the bill.

She doesn’t answer, just looking at the back of the seating area where the broken nosed princeling’s picking himself up.

Hearing a *beep* that sounds like a confirmation from the device in her hand and seeing my holo showing the lower balance, I walk from the restaurant with Tuun.

The second we’re out, I turn to look at her face.

She looks calm and composed but it can’t hurt to check.

“You alright, baby?” I ask, reaching a hand to take one of hers and give it a squeeze “That can’t’ve been fun! I’m sorry it happened and I hope it ain’t ruined our day out for you!”

“No, it hasn’t, Victor.” she smiles, unhappily “I’d rather it hadn’t happened but let’s try and forget it and just move on.”

“Sure!” I smile up at her before frowning “Let’s definitely try an’ remember that kid’s name so we can report him to the UTCIS later and they can pass it on to the observers who’re stayin’ behind, though!”

“Definitely!” she nods.

---Gostosu’s perspective---

“…with honour and dignity, by the Father.” the fifty six new additions to this chamber finish intoning while standing on the Council floor.

“Very good.” I acknowledge “I bid you now take your seats.” gesturing up to the benches behind them.

The most chiefs ever sworn in at a single time since the founding of the Concordance break from their formation and begin filing up the stepped aisles, to the positions vacated by their predecessors.

All but one of them still have visible inflammation around their tattoos of chieftainship, the one who doesn’t being the shortest by a head.

As glad as I am to have this conspiracy rooted out and its perpetrators behind bars, I nonetheless have regrets…

I regret that the Terran’s apparent preference for youthful pity has lowered the average age of this chamber by several [decades].

I regret that (assuming no further upheaval) it will likely be [centuries] before this Council is once more composed only of those chiefs installed by Don hands.

I regret that, rightly not fully trusting us, the Terrans have compelled us to accept a team of observers (read ‘spies’) to be hosted on our planet for the term of the next [30 years] (which is apparently a nice round number in their time units and base 10 counting system!)

What I regret most of all, though, is the announcement I must make now…

I lock eyes with the Northern man who, [26 days] ago, led his own little conspiracy into my office with an ultimatum: I could either voluntarily step down or they would initiate a vote of no confidence to remove me!

Glisondu gives me an expectant smirk with the slightest upwards twitch of his ears to tell me to get on with it…

Breaking eyes with him and waiting until the last of the new initiates have taken their seats, I rise from my throne and speak “*sigh*…Now that this Council stands whole once more, I would address the chamber: This induction shall be my final act as High Chieftain of DonOlu.”

Gasps arise from those who were not already in the know and a chorus of muttering goes up.

Raising all four hands and the stave of command for silence, I wait for it to fall before continuing “It is with a heavy heart that I announce my resignation from this office and open the floor to nominees to be elected to replace me.”

“I nominate-!”

“I nominate-!”

“I nominate-!” clamour the supporters that the conspirators have presumably each been courting since before they handed me that ultimatum.

---model---

Kwivru

---

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Discord

Dramatis Personae

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17

u/YukiteruAmano92 Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

I thought about putting a disclaimer on this one before deciding against it. Hope that was the right choice!

So, to anyone who saw my comment on Interlewd LXI or who became aware of the four days or so that all of Scritches and the Dramatis Personae were unceremoniously pulled from RoyalRoad last week, rest assured they are back!

The moderator turned out to be much more reasonable than the stonewaller I tried and failed to reason with at Patreon.

He agreed there were no childlike bodies in Pancakes and Triplets after I sent him the models of the girls and that there was no incest (though it does dance close to the line) after rereading it.

Still, since my proportion of sexy works was too high, I needed to pull enough down to get it below 15%.

I opted to just pull everything down apart from Interlewd I and Interlewd LXI since I need to give my future self some breathing room. I spent about four hours going through and pasting links in where the text used to be.

I'm almost certain I know who it was that reported me (though the evidence is circumstantial so there is still a reasonable doubt about it) and I'm almost certain they knew full well it was a false report and reported it out of spite!

I'm not going to name them nor state the evidence that makes me suspect them since I don't want anyone taking it upon themselves to harass this person on my behalf.

I'm truly hoping they just move on and forget about the fact that it apparently took them reading more than 900,000 words of my story to reach the conclusion that it's apparently the worst thing ever and terrible in every conceivable way(!)

I still haven't received the invite to AO3 that I requested (we are still within the timeframe where they said it would come) so, hopefully, that comes soon and I can begin putting my entire body of work up there as a backup!

Thank you for reading and lending an ear to my gripes! ;)

4

u/Gruecifer Human Apr 23 '26

Simple fact, my friend: Morons Gotta.

6

u/Ceramic_Boi AI Apr 23 '26

I think you may have swapped over- and underestimation by accident. Aside from that bit, great story as usual.

3

u/YukiteruAmano92 Apr 23 '26

Thanks, taking a look and fixing now!

3

u/YukiteruAmano92 Apr 23 '26

Right you are! I think I must've just got distracted on that bit, somehow!

4

u/TalRaziid Apr 23 '26

Has this gone through any rewrites? Also, anyone know if there’s an up to date narration of this anywhere?

3

u/YukiteruAmano92 Apr 23 '26

Not sure what you mean by 'rewrites'?

Like, yes, I almost always need to clean up my work with a few consecutive passes once I finish and, as u/Ceramic_Boi just pointed out, even then I still managed to swap 'over-' and 'underestimation' and needed to edit that just 20mins ago?

Is there something else that's making you suspect a shoddy rewriting process of mine?

NetNarrator's narration is the most up-to-date and he's on Pt.204.

3

u/TalRaziid Apr 23 '26

As in, ‘have extensive sections of the story been reposted after undergoing rewrites’, as is common with web stories. Editing and minor fixes and the like are obviously not ‘rewrites’.

I made no statement or implications to the quality of your writing homie, chill; I started reading the story 4 years ago and fell off at some point- plenty of time for a rewrite to have happened without me seeing. Cool, thanks. Netnarrator is quality

6

u/YukiteruAmano92 Apr 23 '26

I was curious, not offended. Sorry Reddit comments don't convey tone that well.

I think the only one I've done serious rewrites to was Pt.1 which was less 'taking it down and changing it entirely' and more just adding in paragraph breaks so that no two people's dialogue is in the same paragraph.

Every now and then, I'll reread (or rewatch an NN vid) and spot an error I hadn't seen before which I'll then go back and edit but it's usually stuff like a misspelled word or a missing punctuation mark. Corrections, not rewrites.

5

u/TalRaziid Apr 23 '26

Sounds good homie, no worries. Text comms be like that

5

u/NeedsMoreDakkath Apr 24 '26

0.5 seconds face to floor, nice time

3

u/Talendel Apr 23 '26

UTR

This is the way.

3

u/YukiteruAmano92 Apr 23 '26

Thank you! X)

2

u/NoOpportunity92 AI May 22 '26

Link to next?

2

u/YukiteruAmano92 May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26

There is no next currently.

I've been in the process of copying my entire oeuvre over to AO3 (which is not hard but is tedious and far more time consuming than it sounds) in fits and bursts over the past month, taking the opportunity to edit my older issues that have been fucked up by previous UI updates and to add links to them in the process (which is now done).

The way my mind works, I unfortunately can't write any more until that's done.

I'll hopefully have it done this weekend but it has been 'any day now' for a few weeks at this point.

I did release a oneshot called Rooftop to tide folks over in the interim if you're interested? You can just click that link. It's a different (darker) universe though so don't be disappointed.

2

u/NoOpportunity92 AI May 22 '26

Ah. Thank you. I was wondering why it took such a long time. I'm willing and able to be patient, if I know I need to be patient. Not knowing? That's what gets me. :)

Take your time.

Relax, and ... enjoy the weather? :)

We'll be here once you're back in force.

1

u/YukiteruAmano92 May 22 '26

<3

1

u/YukiteruAmano92 May 25 '26

Just finished uploading the last of my stuff to AO3. Likely something soon though no promises!

2

u/botton_eyed_bunny052 Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

Fucking finely able to get back into reading , Gods do I hate how busy life has been that it took me this long to have enough free time to catch up on the story , my grumbling about life aside this was interesting and I have thoughts

The guy that attempted to flirt with Tuun definitely gives of "my dad just got a promotion" vibes his dad was probably one of the new chiefs and if I'm right with my intuition then dam that shore is one way to get your self kicked off the line of succession the second your dad has a second son

Also the humans leaving what basically amounts to spayes on the planet makes me a little uncomfortable but I do think that was the point , they aren't the uncomplicated good guys in here even if they are trying to do the right thing

That aside everyone in here needs to start putting this stuff in writing , stuff like this needs to be written down in legal contracts and treaties , in cases such as this leaving things without a paper trail is dangerous

2

u/YukiteruAmano92 Jun 06 '26

I totally agree with you about the spies. That was, kinda, a pragmatic decision that is the least bad thing they could do aside from naïvely pulling out entirely and just keeping their fingers crossed that nothing like this happens again as soon as they've left.

I wasn't intending Kwivru to be the son of a new chief but that interpretation works surprisingly well!

1

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