The Seven Year Retrospective #12 - Amendola's Bet (Patreon)

It's the start of another week folks and we've almost cracked the top ten in the Seven Year Retrospective Top Twenty! This week's entry - in at number eleven, as you can probably tell - is Amndola's Bet and the Alternate Ending, which was released on Patreon in February of this year! The alternate ending was previously only available to patrons pledging $15 or more a month, but its place on this list means that it's now available to everyone pledging $3 or more, so it might actually be a brand new piece of reading for some of you!

My love for American Football is probably pretty well noted by now - three of the six released RT Sports chapters have involved NFL players, after all - and as my good friend JW Ripley once pointed out, my enjoyment is as much about the hunks playing (actually, he said it was more about them but I'm choosing to compromise) as the sport itself. It's hard not to appreciate the various hunks of the NFL considering just how many there are too, but near the top of my list has to Danny Amendola, currently of the Dtroit Lions and formerly of the New England Patriots (my team of choice, if you hadn't figured that out already) and the Miami Dolphins.

This one actually started off as a photo caption that you guys (the patrons) voted to become a full-length story in a poll. I'm pretty glad that was the caption you picked too, as obviously it has ended up producing one of my personal favourite stories! When adapting it out into a full story I knew I'd get more meat out of focusing on the bet Danny made rather than Harrison's experience in the wide receiver's shoes and it was through choosing to focus on the bet that I came to the "gradual bodyswap" approach that the story takes, with Harrison stealing more and more of Danny's life until he takes his body completely. In retrospect, the ending of the story is perhaps a little rushed and I could have explored those moments after the final bet in a little bit more detail, but overall I'm happy with how the story holds up.

Now this might be hard to believe considering some of my other works (including ones that end up higher on this list!) but I'm actually a big softie and stories where nice friendly guys undeservedly have their bodies and lives stolen often leave me feeling a little bit sad. That was why I chose to write the Alternate Ending, in which Danny gets his life back but rather than taking revenge on Harrison, decides to help him. It would have been easy to write an ending where Danny punishes Harrison for what he tried to do, but I wanted to end the tale on a hopeful note rather than a vengeful one. Harrison wasn't evil through and through, he was just struggling and desperate, and the optimist in me wants to believe that all those kind of people need is a bit of kindness.

I'd love to hear which ending you guys prefer and why! For now though, enjoy the week ahead and I'll see you on Friday when we finally reach #10!