You are Hope...

Amon · 2019-02-23 12:16:19

You get born naked and crying, onlookers gathering, your brothers, uncles, cousins and grandmother all around as your mother swoops you up against her bosom.
Sometimes it takes very long for the mother to figure out the perfect name for her new little baby, but this time it was not like this. The moment she laid eyes upon you she knew, and without hesitation, the mother utters "You are Hope."

And it dawns upon you...

In a mere few years, you will be the only fertile woman alive...

An interesting pattern to notice. How did you live your life like that?

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Not necessarily will this be the case, at least with the name or at least at the start being hope for a future... Here is my most recent story.

I was born into a village, it had everything already set up. Nice gardens a smithy and sheep. Wow, what a nice place! Not too advanced, but it has lots of stuff. How could it be so barren?
(casually notices the two bear dens IN town). But there was no concern. My mother and her younger sister were both very young and it was guaranteed I will have many brothers, sisters and cousins in life. After I was born my auntie gave birth to a son.
(But I think Pius or Legna named my cousin "Girlname", confusing him for a girl, I laughed with him about the funny confusion. It would have been too good to have two girls.)

There was so much food around, but my mother died in a swoop so suddenly, I was still too young and shocked. Then my auntie came running, she died in a swoop, dropping my baby cousin on the floor. Both of us helpless and unable to eat.

Thankfully there was fire nearby to which we ran and kept ourselves nicely warm to hopefully outgrow the starvation timer. Every second was living hell, delaying the inevitable.
Two pips left and...bam, hair. I run to the berries and eat, I pick one up and run to my cousin to see our uncle feed him in the last minute. Phew. Safe. We both got clothed and I proceeded to feed my cousin until both of us could start working again. Often panic strikes these camps. It was just me, my uncle and cousin.

"You are hope" and now you are expected to stand still by the warmth or dressed in clothes, have a yum chain and generally be in the peak of the condition and churn out babies. All your male relatives will do the work for you. Understandable, you are never sure when the only girl you bore will know how to survive on her own and doom the village. Better safe than sorry and tell her to do menial tasks in the village than risk her dying doing real work or by wildlife.

But I and my cousin never needed any protection. We worked and worked on different things. You shouldn't be scared of experienced children dying, but it's hard to know until they, well... die or live. And death is a little bit too late.

Reminds me of the time back then when I was a Hope again, taking time to raise children and only raise them, grandmother stood by me and constantly overfed me and reset my yum as I hold the newly arriving baes, a bit counterproductive despite wellmeaning. Nana would not take a single risk. All was hectic. Many of the kids were new players, but in the end a pair of newbies as twins ended up growing up to bear more children, some of which hopefully more experienced. With children it always is a chance, by having more there is more to feed, but by having more it's a safety net to get the good players to you.

I was entrusted with the knife and made clothes and pie for there were no tools to make proper clothes just yet, and we needed that room for more poo anyway. Soon enough I was overburdened with raising children, but I never stopped working. Soon it was just me and my cousin and all my children. Brilliant little rascals. Make compost, make food, make broth and smith, soon enough life was returned to this town. You didn't even need to tell what you needed and they just knew what was needed. It was so beautiful.

Yet that was cut short when somebody set loose a bear...well two bears. On seeming much older than the previous one. It was rather chaotic for a time.
More children were birthed and grandkids began popping up. I spend some time verbally spoiling some of the cute little camuffins.

Though honestly, I don't even remember why I ran so far from home later after things settled again...What task needed completion..? But I spotted my son Snowflake in the wilderness hunting rabbits, twice actually, and remembering his good work from before, I entrusted him with the knife. I was growing old and shy of entrusting a tool capable of good and evil to just anyone, seeing how one of my kids likely set loose a bear. (Notice this, always pay attention to your co-players and evaluate their contributions, those that give most usually don't want to see their lifework gone. Entrust them, and not just a random unproven child.)

Returning home I pondered about the bread. Yum.

This is me, thank you uncle Legna and thank you cousin Nameer.
http://lineage.onehouronelife.com/serve … id=3546421
Thank you Baron and Dominic, and I am so sorry Matthias that you had to die so young...I hope the later generations were able to make some extra arrows to get the bears their just revenge.
Thank you all my children and grandchildren, you were amazing. Except you, you rascal who disturbed the bears!! Lol

happynova · 2019-02-23 15:29:46

I am reminded of the saddest time when the "only fertile female" thing happened to me. It was just my mom and uncle in a small but very promising village, and I was born just as time ran out and my mom aged into menopause. My family were so overjoyed that I was there. They fed me berries, gave me a backpack and a full set of clothes, gave me everything. They were super nice and just so darned happy. I assure them that I would live, that I was a good player, that I would save them. Yes, I would stay close to town. Yes, I would eat. Yes, all would be well.

They rejoiced, and when I was old enough to fend for myself, they both went back to the work that needed doing, and I set about doing safe things in town, or just very slightly outside of town, in the green biome, where I went to get branches or something.

The green biome with the misplaced, tree-hidden mosquitoes that I did not see until I blundered into them. Fully clothed. With no one around, because they had trusted me enough to leave me alone. I still feel so damn bad for those people.

Ilka · 2019-02-23 18:49:40

I was your great-grandmother Jenny.
http://lineage.onehouronelife.com/serve … id=3546421
When I was a child, there were a lot of people in the village. But they all died for various reasons.
I had two of my youngest children just before I was forty. The three of us were the only inhabitants of the village.
And only girl was your grandmother Nadia. This name also means hope.
So it was empty because all residents were children of one mother.
I like the random aspect of this game. Will there be at least one girl in every generation? And will this girl survive? A lot depends on happiness.
You can only hope and name Hope your child.

Amon · 2019-02-24 09:32:02

Oh happynova something similar happened to me once when I was still new. I killed myself accidentally. On later lives I've heeded their instructions, even though you mostly felt like a useless burden.

Ilka, Interesting about the fragility of lineages, how they can bottleneck, and the longer it goes, it's more incidents that had a fortunate outcome. Wish I knew what caused the second bottleneck to happen! I can only say I am proud that Baron, my daughter bore Princess, whom had so so many children of her own haha. But I think the last generation died out of lack of females, that's how it usually is when you've got plenty of old men running around. There was enough resources to survive.

happynova · 2019-02-24 15:33:56

Amon wrote:

Oh happynova something similar happened to me once when I was still new. I killed myself accidentally. On later lives I've heeded their instructions, even though you mostly felt like a useless burden.

It happens so easily when you're new and still learning. Whenever I have a new player who's in that situation (and I'm one of the non-fertile family members), I'm always surprised and grateful when they actually make it long enough to have the babies we need. (And I make a point of trying to help them and give them advice and let them know I'm grateful, too.)

But, oh, man, the feeling when you're experienced enough to really know better and you disappoint people like that...

DestinyCall · 2019-02-24 16:37:07

My saddest experience as a baby named "Hope" was this one life where I was born into a decent sized city with three people left. I actually recognized the town from the night before. I'd played there for a while and fixed the sheep, combated some griefing, and baked a lot of pies. I knew the layout and had a couple of new projects in mind, so I was happy to be born back to this place. Even better, I was a girl and from the reaction of the other villages, I was clearly the LAST girl. My mother named me Hope and my uncle celebrated my arrival. I was loaded up with clothes and a new backpack. My mom was carrying me around showing me the village. Things were looking quite promising.

Then I noticed that my mom had turned old. She could no longer nurse me. I was getting pretty low on food.

I started frantically trying to communicate. I was only two years old and it was hard to talk, but she finally noticed the problem. She dropped me and ran to go grab a pie from the kitchen. Except .. she dropped me on top of a fire built in a jungle. And I was fully clothed. It took me a moment to notice that my heat had just skyrocketed to max. I started running after my mom, but it was too late.

I didn't last the three seconds it took for her to grab the pie and run back to feed me.

Last edited by DestinyCall (2019-02-24 16:38:06)

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-02-23 12:16:19

You are Hope...

#2 2019-02-23 15:29:46

Re: You are Hope...

#3 2019-02-23 18:49:40

Re: You are Hope...

#4 2019-02-24 09:32:02

Re: You are Hope...

#5 2019-02-24 15:33:56

Re: You are Hope...

#6 2019-02-24 16:37:07

Re: You are Hope...

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