As the oldest of six children in the small farming village of Ohma, Nephenee had been raised with certain unspoken expectations placed upon her shoulders. First, she would help with both the family farm and with the rearing of her younger siblings. And second, she would eventually marry a hard-working country man and have a gaggle of children of her own.

Nephenee never hated the future everyone else envisioned for her, not really. It didn’t really seem all that different from the life she had been living her whole life. She just didn’t like to think about the part about giving birth, or how she’d get pregnant in the first place, but she assumed that that was how all women felt. The women in her village loved to complain about their insatiable husbands, about the struggles of pregnancy, of having yet another mouth to feed.

But Nephenee is a realist, and her life has always been full of up’s and down’s, so she figures this is just the price women pay for the joy of having a family.

And like, Nephenee likes her neighbors, right? She trusts their judgment when it comes to rotating crops and treating livestock injuries. So when she joins the militia and everyone starts talking about how this is her chance to find a nice man, she internalizes that shit.

Then Nephenee meets Calill. I hc that Calill is Nephenee’s first crush (tho it’s not until later that she recognizes it as such). Calill is just… so effortlessly confident, so radiant, so classy. The fact that Calill also comes from humble beginnings is crazy to Nephenee. When Calill starts playing such close attention to her, and complimenting her face… it makes Nephenee so, so flustered, and she honestly has no idea why. She is equally oblivious why she seems to dislike Largo so much…

And then comes Heather. Nephenee at this point is still completely ignorant of the fact that gay people exist. Her initial reaction to Heather is confusion and discomfort. She has no idea why Heather makes her so uncomfortable, and tries not to let it show, because as ignorant as she can be, she is no bigot. She’s met all sorts of wacky people throughout the Mad King’s War, and she tries to operate on the “anything goes as long as no one is getting hurt” philosophy. Some people are weird, but that doesn’t make them bad, etc.

Suffice to say, it takes a long time for Nephenee to really unpack all of the internalized heteronormativity and to realize Heather makes her so uncomfortable because she represents an alternate future, one where Nephenee doesn’t have to marry a nice man and have six or seven of his babies. And Nephenee doesn’t want to acknowledge how appealing that idea is to her.

In the end, I think it would be poetic if Calill were the one to push Nephenee into having an honest conversation about herself. And Neph winds up not only admitting to her doubts about her sexuality, but her jealousy towards Heather.

I do think it takes time for Nephenee and Heather to wind up together. It probably doesn’t happen until after the events of RD, even. They return home to their separate lives, until one day Heather shows up in Ohma, and they catch up over tea, and Nephenee finally confesses her feelings.

The villagers of Ohma are flabbergasted by this unexpected twist. But despite their ignorance and many, very intrusive questions, they are willing to learn and be supportive allies. Maybe a little Too Supportive at times.

Life with Heather still has its up’s and down’s, but it’s so, so much better than Nephenee had ever dared to hope.

Thanks for reading!! Comphet Nephenee is something that can be so, so personal.

You can see all my Tellius Pride posts in chronological order here!