#aph jefferson

Annapolis/Dover

Who’s the more protective one

I’m going to say Dover. She seems like she’d follow in Delaware’s footsteps with how he treats Maryland, so she’d do everything to keep Anna safe. She also wants to be Anna’s ‘knight in shining armor’, so she feels like she has to protect Anna from literally anything.

Who’s more emotional

Also Dover. Dory tends to feel like she needs to ‘prove’ herself a lot and runs on high amounts of energy. This causes her to react in very emotionally driven ways, even when the best option is to sit back and relax.

How they balance each other out

Both are energetic. They can spend a lot of time together and never get bored. While Dory is more emotional, Anna tends to keep her calm. They enjoy similar things and grew up with one another, so they can read the other extremely easily.

How they clash

Both are energetic. While this can be a blessing, they can burn themselves out sometimes. Dover’s more emotional responses tend to cause anxiety in Anna, leading to her panicking in an attempt to help. These emotions bounce back and forth and escalate until the problem is solved or a state steps in.

How they confessed

Like I said before, the two are really good at reading each other. However, Anna would’ve pulled away in fear when she came to realize her feelings for Dory. This cause fear and heartbreak in Dory, which then caused those emotions to bounce back off of Anna. So they two avoided each other until they couldn’t take all the time apart. Either Trenton or Harrisburg would’ve stepped in, reminding them that the two of them had bee n close for years, so they were literally throwing away decades, if not centuries, of their friendship. However, due to the emotional tension, Dory basically yelled at Anna that she loved her. Anna then promptly tackled her.

What others think of the relationship

Both Delaware and Maryland approve 100% because who’s better for their capitals than the other’s? Maine only sees them through Augusta but she’d cover an escape for the two if they want some alone time. New Hampshire and Vermont think they’re cute, like two puppies.

As for other cities, Albany thinks they’re both terrors in their own right so they’re a perfect couple. Portland and NYC have learned to avoid them and any room they are in together, though they’ve learned how to hunt NYC down to play pranks. They don’t dare try to follow Portland. Augusta still hasn’t learned to avoid rooms they are alone in and has walked in on them making out many times.

All in all, everyone is okay with it but would prefer the non-straight jokes to stop, Dover.

Maine/New Hampshire

Who’s the more protective one

Now this is hard. Both Maine and New Hampshire are extremely protective people. However, Jacob wins by a slight margin. How? He knows Maine’s past. He knows how many people abandoned her. He’s seen her in the heat of battle, throwing her life on the line for others, including him. And he hates it. He can’t stand seeing her in pain ever again. In his eyes, she’s dealt with enough.

Who’s more emotional

NH shows more, Maine feels more. While Jacob doesn’t show much emotion, he shows more than Mack. However, Mack feels too much. She tries to cut herself off from emotions but loses that if anyone shows resemblance to someone she deeply cares about, such as Vermont reminding her of Portland, NH reminding her of Augusta, and Jefferson reminding her of herself.

She also simply can’t hide her more motherly side. She raised both Portland and Augusta, not to mention herself. She nurses animals back to health. As such, she tends to take people younger than her under her wing, giving them more leeway than someone closer to her age. Two good examples would be Sacramento and Los Angeles, as she’s willing to put up with them far more than either California.

How they balance each other out

They understand what the other has gone through. They fought alongside each other, seen the same horrors as the other, ect. While Maine is cold to others, NH tried to be welcoming without overstepping her boundaries. He helps open her up to others, while she helps keep him from trying too hard or becoming a doormat.

How they clash

There’s a reason this blog has the words ‘What is ‘responsibility’ you speak of?’ in the description. While they both tend to act more reserve and calm, they’re also ticking time bombs. Not of anger or jealousy, but of awful ideas. They feed into one another and cause a lot of havoc.

How they confessed

It was a slow start. Maine didn’t want him to become too ingrained into her life, in case he left her. However, she also noted he was similar to Augusta, as he preferred to be left alone but would work with others if forced. Knowing that they had saved each other during the American Revolution helped as well. However, the tipping point was when their cities met. Portland and Augusta took some time to get used to Concord but refused to make him feel unwelcome, even if they weren’t sure how, which lead to the three becoming almost inseparable. NH decided enough was enough, so he tried going the romantic route and taking her on a moonlit walk in the woods. However, before he could even speak, she kissed him.

What others think of the relationship

Portland, Augusta, and Concord knew it was going to happen and worked hard to make sure they never got in the way, so they were excited when it finally happened. Vermont and Montpelier had a bonfire of their plans to get them together. It lasted for days.

Everyone else expected it. Seriously, everyone. While the two aren’t the most lovey-dovey couple, everyone knows how deeply they care about each other.

Alaska/Hawaii

Who’s the more protective one

Shockingly enough, Hawaii. Alaska was also an outsider due to his Russian roots, so he didn’t feel like he fit in. Hawaii knew this and refused to let anyone feel alone, so she began to argue with people that he’s just as much of a state as they are.

Who’s more emotional

Alaska. While he’s similar to Maine in the sense that he tries to hide it more, he put up with a lot growing up. He just bottles it up and waits for a better time to release it all at once. Hawaii is more ‘go with the flow’, unless Alaska is upset, in which case, she becomes protective.

How they balance each other out

Alaska is used to harsh conditions, while Hawaii isn’t. She reminds him to move forward in life and to relax, while he reminds her that sometimes ‘going with the flow’ isn’t the best option. While Alaska hides under a cold mask, Hawaii reminds him that people care about him and that he can open up. Hawaii tries to forgive and forget, but Alaska remind her that holding negative feelings for a short time isn’t the end of the world.

How they clash

Alaska can’t leave things undone. Hawaii can. They two clash a lot over time constraints, especially self-imposed ones. Due to Alaska’s stubborn nature, he’ll hide away when Hawaii has upset him, which annoys her, especially when she doesn’t know what exactly she did. This causes Alaska to get more upset and bottle up more negative emotions until one of them explodes and the two reconcile.

How they confessed

Alaska confessed on accident. They were hanging out on the islands, walking on a beach after a meeting. Hawaii had stood up for Alaska again and dragged him from the building to talk. He said ‘Have I ever told you how much I love you?’ and she responded with ‘No, but you should.’ and slipped her arm around his waist.

What others think of the relationship

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   “You look like shit, Nathan. Our cousins will slaughter you,” Princess Allison sighed, fixing her royal blue sash that was draped across her shoulders and tucking her dark hair back in place. She wanted to be dressed in the colors of fire, her element, the heat of passion and the executors of enemies of the crown, but unfortunately, her mother had been very insistent that she wear the colors of the sea instead of the desert where their ancestors were born. An indigo dress swept down to her ankles, wrapping her waist tightly in the style of the Northern Cali Clan, with navy blue and azure jewels peppering her frame and clinging to every thread of the carefully woven dress. Her bare arms were burdened only with slate and stone color gloves that hid her royal insignia and matched the pale arctic shawl she had draped over her shoulders. She looked splendid, as usual, but her brother looked miserable.

Her half-brother was frowning harsher than she had ever seen, his slanted obsidian eyes turning darker than his midnight hair and his pale skin was flushed with barely contained nervousness. His Southern Cali Clan cloak kept falling off, and he had to shove the awkward thing back into place every few moments. Dressed in the golden shades of fire, the colors of his pants and long garb changed from honey to tiger orange to the generous dark sapphire on the edges. His eyes were so covered by the golden veil placed before coronations that to express his displeasure Nathan had to sigh and plop himself down on the chair beside him, picking absentmindedly at the itchy vest the Southern Cali Clan had insisted was traditional. Allison couldn’t help but stare with envy as fire almost seemed to dance on the 16-year-old, and she looked down at her ocean of dark blues and frothy waves and frowned even more than Nathan.

“I know I look like shit, Alli. Why couldn’t I wear the blue one?” Nathan mumbled, looking down at his gold shoes and muttering a light curse at his clan’s stupid pride.

“Because it’s tradition, apparently. Whenever a person is coronated, they have to wear the opposing clan’s color. Since we’re both getting coronated, I have to wear the Northern style of the clan and you have to wear the Southern. Trust me, I wish we could swap, but the clan is about to collapse as it is; we need this as a symbol of unification! Our combined rise to power is probably the only thing keeping the clan together. Kassia knows the Tex or the Arzi clan wouldn't hesitate to take our spot as the dominant faction. Now, in order to get our cousins and half-brothers to- are you even listening?!”

Nathan was lying on the chair, looking utterly bored and defeated all at once and sighing so hard Allison was sure the other servants could hear it in the next room. “Why can’t we just let them be in charge, or let the clans duke it out? We should have an arena or something so that all 71 of our cousins and the clans can just explode the other. That’d take a lot less time.”

“Nathan, don’t be ridiculous. The Neva clan alone has 16 different families, the Arzi have 15, and the Ore has 36! And do you know how many factions with their own head warriors and nobles the Tex has?!”

“What?”

“The Tex have TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-EIGHT FACTIONS! The logistics of an arena would be a nightmare! We have 58, and we’re barely keeping it together as the ruling class. Imagine how frustrating the bureaucratic process would be if they won and there were 257 more families fighting for power.”

“Uh-”

“Basically you’re idea of an arena is stupid. If that were possible we would have done it a long time ago. Now, help me with my veil.” Allison motioned for her brother to get up and fix her bow on the very back of the head covering she had snapped into place during the conversation. Nathan rolled his eyes and went over to help, pinning it into its final position with a sigh. She turned around and Nathan could barely see her under the lapis and cobalt colored lace as she lectured to him about politics in Cosmina and how they needed to crush inner opposition as soon as the coronation was over. Soon enough the servants pulled them into the hall and hovered beside them, shielding the royals from view like royal Cosminian tradition demanded.

“I’m pretty sure we can trust the Colos and the Utans, but the Okas are starting to break away from the main Tex alliance they’ve had up to this point, so we need to take very cautious steps to see if we can nudge them to our side. The Wyoms are neutral, and their mountains make them worthless, so the Idas and the weaker Washin need most of our attention, outside of the Okas, of course. Once we have them under control, the Montas and their dragons will soon follow, and then we’ll have the Mountainous Court and the Noble Court under our control, so they can’t overthrow or challenge our regency, which admittedly is a bit illegal,” she added as they strolled down the hallway decorated for the royal event, the gold colors of the South and sea colors of the North creating an illusion of an ocean floating above them while the palace burned a brilliant yellow. The magicians had gone all out for the event, letting miniature griffins and dragons of Ida and Monta fly with the desert wolverns of Arzi and the new clan of Mexi. Giant centipedes and ivory snake monsters slithered on the wall, clashing with the cold blizzard that ran at the top, six-eyed goats and all. Cosmina was a land of monsters, from the Krakens that sunk rival ships and obeyed their chosen one’s calls on the ocean water, to the snarling wolf-like Amarok that hunted in the frozen plains to the north, to the prideful king of birds, the Fenghuang itself, that sang in the bare mountains, and even the humble dryads of the giant forest clan of Washi and the goldsmith dwarves of the somehow even more forested Ore. One look around the palace and you could see every crack and struggling pillar of Cosmina, the former empire that was struggling to keep all of her factions and noble houses tied together, though no one really remembered why. The Cosminian Kingdom, the land of sea, desert, mountain, and forest, was barely whole, and this coronation would change that, at least, that’s what Allie said.

“For the past 500 years,” she said as she admired the long columns dressed up to look like ice pillars, “The Cali clans had been split, Nathan. Siding with the all of the others to wage political war, fighting for the throne, taxing the very fabric of our society until it seemed it would break, all of it. Our parents, well, the king and Mother, who knows who our true fathers are with the size of the royal harem, only stepped down to let us take their place because of our kingdom needs this.” Allison whipped around to face him, and even through the dark veil, he could see the glimmer of hope and ambition that always seemed to lurk underneath. It was often said that Princess Allison came out of the womb wanting to rule the world, but at that moment, it was clearer than ever that she just wanted to keep her kingdom together, like Kassia herself so long ago. “With this, the Cali clan will finally be united, and we will finally have the power to take it all back. Make Cosmina the land Kassia made. And, with her guidance, we will succeed.” Allison beamed at him, holding out her arm as they finally walked up to the large stone doors of the side temple the coronation was to be placed in, and Nathan accepted her arm and looked forward, head up like his half-sister, ready to take on the snakes and tigers dressed in nobles' clothes inside.

The doors opened until they thudded against the magicked walls, and the reds and blues and greens and yellows and whites and blacks of the different clans channeled the soft light from the glowing magical orbs to the now rainbow floor, a million different insignias and flags raised behind the beautifully dressed people of the Cosminian clans, all in their own fashion and styles. The dark green Washi were the closest to them, as being the weakest clan made sure that they were the farthest away from the ceremony. The Tex, draped in a brilliant blood orange and scarlet, the image of the desert nations the Southern Cali once were, were all the way in the front, an inch away from the pair of thrones. Allison was going to have to fix that.

And on the side, so small in comparison to the large harem families of Cosmina, were the visiting delegation from Sacch, looking drab in their dark greys and not even coming close to capturing the brilliant midnight of the Nevas. They were the only people from another kingdom that had come to the wedding. Azrail had opted out or had been rejected; neither of the future rulers really cared about the isolationist nation and there probably wouldn’t have been room anyway. And there was Jason sitting right next to the foreigners, of course, Allison sighed. Nathan’s vaguely paternal half-brother only other powerful male heir to the Northern Cali clan, Jason had always been a little headache, and the fact that the half-breed, that half Ore-half Cali bastard, had even shown up was enough to rub Allison the wrong way. She resolved to send the brat abroad to another school as soon as she had the time, but right now, the head wizard of the Magical Council, a council that was almost all Cali aligned and was incredibly easy to sway, was calling for her attention.   

“Ladies and Gentlemen, spirits and monsters, the lowest clan,” -everyone looked at the Washi- “To the most powerful of all,” -everyone turned to the Cali, now united in a slightly illegal yet powerful way- “We have gathered here today to not speak of our differences among us,” Nathan swore he heard a snort or a snicker from the Okas or Texs somewhere, “But to speak of the great ascendancy of our new leaders.” Now Nathan KNEW he heard someone say “horse shit,” under their breath, but he kept his masked smile on from underneath the fiery veil and held his half sister’s hand tighter. They had been through a lot more than this as a duo, the very existence of their friendship was testament to that, but if Allison hadn’t been holding him with the same white grip he was squeezing her hand with, Nathan swore he would have drowned everyone in that room, one fake smile at a time.

“Now we are ready for the ascension and coronation ceremony.” Nathan was ripped out of his thoughts when two balls of metal were placed in front of them, sparkling happily with all of their heavy magical splendor on top of the thick and neutrally rainbow cushion. They were shoved together tightly on the small thing; the cushion only had room for one of the coronation items. It was unheard of that two should be placed there, as only one person became ruler at a time. But here they were, about to make their clan united and the most powerful of all in Cosmina, all under the furious but helpless gaze of the other clans, and all they had to do was reach out.

“Take your emblem, and let your reign, I mean, reigns,” the head magician stuttered, taking a step back and watching nervously, “B-be filled with splendor.”

Allison was the first one to grab the dull looking metal spheres, not even hesitating as it grew gold at her touch and twisted into the shape of the Southern Cali symbol, a poppy with a bear roaring inside it, and held it above her head, taking a deep breath and waiting for Nathan to do the same.

Nathan mirrored her actions, a redwood leaf and a bear carving itself out of the now glowing blue metal, and raising it above his head. The entire room held their breath to see what they would do. At a normal coronation, like their mother’s, who was standing with the rest of the United Cali clan, the spheres would twist into a new but similar shape to their native faction and that was that. But two of them, of practically different clans, no less? This blatant grab for power was impossible to predict, and the room knew it. Well, the Cosminians did at least, the foreign Sacchans looked completely lost.

Nathan locked eyes with his sister, who nodded with a faint smile visible through her veil, and they threw the spheres of magic into the air. For a few heartbeats they simply hovered, twirling around and staying in place, but then Allison curled her hand into a fist, and her sphere erupted into fire. It was consumed in the golden flames as the entire court gaped, jaws open on even the most experienced politician as the remains dripped onto the floor, the powerful magic now seemingly gone. Nathan did the same with his glowing sphere, freezing it in easily summoned water and shattering it on the ground. The corpses of one of the strongest magical items, second only to the staffs of Kassia herself, stayed forlornly on the floor until it started to shake. The remains started to slowly drift to the other, scratching the floor and making a screeching sound as they slowly clunked together and shifted into a brilliant blue and gold. All at once, they were shoved together, and Cosmina watched as the Royal Spheres became one, spinning so fast it was impossible to tell if it was gold or blue. There was a shattering sound in the room until suddenly it was over, and the new huge sphere, bearing the symbol of Kassia herself, floated happily to the floor.

Allison was gaping behind her veil, and as she locked eyes with Nathan once again, a huge smile broke on her face and the ambitious glimmer grew twice fold. No one could question their legitimacy now.

The head magician recovered from his shock and pointed to the new sphere, voice shaking as he said, “The r-regency has been chosen!” The Tex clan was the first to overcome this new bombshell and started to clap, forcing fake smiles and whispering among each other in suspicion as the rest of Cosmina followed and the cavernous hall boomed their cheers. They were now King and Queen of Cosmina.

“All hail Queen Allison!”

“All hail King Nathan!”

“All hail the rulers of Cosmina!”

Allison smiled as the cheers and howls continued, now glad that the veil hid her face from her sneers at her rivals and the tight grip in which she held her half-brother, her twin.