"Play something for me"

"Anything?"

"Anything."

"Liszt it is then." Sometimes when no one looked they could have their sweet moments like this. He would only learn how to play some of the Liszt's compositions for her but every time someone asked why Roderich would just pretend that it was just for himself when in truth it was so she could feel closer to home. --- Look! my parents

he looks like a sperm cell

Early Appalachian frontiersman Alfred in buckskin circa 1790- 1810s. I’m trying to figure out how to paint like NC Wyeth digitally (so lol the background is Wyeth’s).

Gonna ramble a bit about my nor’easter au and Alfred below the cut

Following the American Revolution, Alfred is immediately sent out to squash any rebellions (like whiskey rebellion) and to partake in wars against Indigenous nations like the Cherokee. I’ll save a discussion about the Cherokee wars for another time because that’ll take a long time to explain + I’m still working on my Cherokee oc and I need to understand Cherokee history and perspective more before I go forward with talking about this topic.

Now the many of the east coast states are older than Alfred, and they mostly supported him during the revolution because they thought he’d be easy to control given at the time of the revolution he wasn’t tied down as any colony or city. However, he was a New Englander and very obviously so

He was once Plymouth colony and he grew up alongside his cousin Henry/Massachusetts, but by the time the revolution occurred, his status was unclear and he was simply living with his cousin (who’s his earliest and most fierce supporter) .

These states operated like countries and part of why the had the revolution was to continue to self-govern and maintain their regional cultures. It’s also part of why the federal government initially was rather weak. Given Alfred’s closeness to his cousin, and his very staunch New England identity, I think the states would be hesitant over a strong New England national control. And so I think they especially Jennie/NY & Rich/Virginia encouraged Alfred to leave his cousin for a while, and partake in military campaigns (+ he was good at battle).

Also Alfred was like 14, and I don’t think he’s ever been the type to sit down and do paperwork. Honestly he was always a bad student, who was far more interested in the outdoors, horses, sailing and hunting. While he won the war, and he was fine with being head of state, he still didn’t 1) have confidence in himself to make non-military related decisions 2) he just wasn’t mentally ready to take on the responsibilities and was fine deferring it to his states like Jennie, Rich, or Henry to figure out matters that weren’t military related. He was irresponsible and it would come back to bite him in the ass during the Civil War.

Alfred on a personal level it was probably good for him to get away from his overly critical cousin who can be overbearing, but also so he would get more experience to deeply get to know his states.

Also Alfred, growing up in New England, he was a little ball of rage as a kid and he has a difficult time managing his emotions. He wasn’t exactly the personable seemingly fun loving Alfred of the present. Not that he couldn’t crack a joke, but ok I’m not from New England, but in the northeast I find we’re rather cynical, un-filtered and sarcastic and tbh kind of asssholes in the way we have fun and in our humor. That’s how he was, which is like fine unless you’re trying to appeal to the rest of the nation lol which he would have to

I think his time spent in Appalachia and the south did help him learn more about his other states especially Maisie/ North Carolina. But also helped him learn more how to let go some of this intense New England rage, and how to better control his emotions. But also let loose in a way that isn’t so dark and cynical. Also I think this helped him slowly learn how to speak with less of a New England specific accent

He was also able to observe states like Rich and Carl/ South Carolina and gain an understanding of how being able to control your emotions, can help control your image and how others perceive you. So these are the origins of how he slowly began to shape and become at least in public this overly friendly happy go lucky Alfred.

I’ll save a discussion about his interactions with the Appalachian states more explicitly another time I’m just tired😴 fr rn

I like depicting Alfred as charming, but not really in an obvious way. you meet him as a stranger and he's very friendly and considerate and polite; he helps you move your luggage or offers to his hand to help you up or holds the door open. he calls service workers "sir." you're not used to chatting with random strangers but you're clearly not going anywhere anyway and he seems so interested in you personally, what your life is like, what do you like, just little details no stranger really cares about. he's a little loud, sorta- it's more like he doesn't mind if anyone overhears him, so it's clear he doesn't make a habit of gossip, nor does he expect anyone to shame him for his opinions, as evidently it would be equally unthinkable for him to shame anyone else.

I just really like an Alfred who's charismatic and draws people in with nothing but courtesy and good manners. It's funny, too, comparing Alfred's courtesy and politeness against Arthur's. Arthur is every bit a gentleman but he is not kind, nor does he pretend to be. Arthur is courteous, but in an obviously imperious way. to Arthur, good manners are a sign of sophistication and good breeding- status, essentially. to Alfred, good manners are a sign of kindness and, oddly enough, ambition. opportunity. resourcefulness. a person who scoffs at everyone and declines to build bridges is not a person who wants to go very far in life.

in any case it's particularly fun to imagine Alfred like this at various points in history, because the newly independent, ultra-polite farmer and political philosopher comes off very differently than the generous and courteous Gilded Age business magnate. and both come off as a stark contrast to Arthur, for whom manners are sometimes the only thing keeping his temper and arrogance in check.

late 19th century Alfred in particular is great because he's such an openly ambitious, selfish piece of shit but he's also so damn charming and polite that most people simply don't notice. also he's found out that the more generous he is, the more wealth and power think he has and the more they want to work with him, so it becomes a self-feeding cycle.

side hc: during the Gilded Age, Alfred personally becomes hella fucking rich. it just makes his interactions with the 'old rich' Arthur and family so interesting. Lord Father may be the one with the empire, but it can't be denied that Mr. Jones does just fine for himself, and in fact does apparently better than his aristocratic family members.

Every time the Italy Bros are in the US, Alfred says he’s going to take them out to a nice restaurant

He takes them to Olive Garden

Feliciano falls for it every time and is Not happy

i think hetalia bosses would like to show the nation-people under their charge to other bosses, like showing your pet. "[country] come here, and don't say or do anything stupid". monarchs would be the most likely to ask to see heta-people: "[country] met my ancestors", so you can have presidents/prime ministers [etc] calling their pet nation for stupid reasons.

i saw an "approximate ages of hetalia characters" post a week or so ago and i just realized.

the viking age was in around 700-1000A.D.

norway, denmark, and peesumably sweden were supposedly around their preteens/early teens around the kalmer union.

denmark DEFINITELY remembers being a Viking

idk if anyone realized this but imagine norway, denmark, and sweden as itty bitty 5-10 year olds as vikings they're literally just playing childhood games-

like i'm pretty sure norway from that one iceland birth strip is around the latter half of that time, now just imagine all of them that size and probably smaller-

My headcanons for Belarus

Belarus is a character that I dislike in canon. Hima did her dirty :(

So here are some headcanons I have for Belarus <3

Her human name is Natallia Arloŭskaja/Arlievič (the last option is gender neutral)

Her nyo! name would be Mikalaj Arloŭskij/Arlievič

If you are interested in knowing why I think those names would suit the character better, check out this post:

Ok, back to the headcanons!

I ship her with Romano or with

Could talk for hours about knives with Sakha/Yakutia

Has a complicated relationship with Russia

She is not his sister. I don't think nations are related to each other. Sure, nations can call each other "brother" or "sister", but because they are close to each other and have no romantic feelings, not because they are genetically related.

Perhaps she had a close relationship with him in the past and called him "brother" during that time. But nowadays their relationship is more complicated.

Belarus is extremely worried about her language, as it's getting more and more russified over time.

She is very protective of her own culture and tries to preserve it as much as possible.

She could have been close to Lithuania, as she was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (I need to do more research about this though...)

I know little about Belarus' history, but she is an interesting character! I will probably talk more about her in the future

Headcanon: Every year FACE fam and Haoan go to see the cherry blossom festival in Washington, DC. It’s a time honored tradition to have a picnic under the trees.

Headcanon: Every year Canada makes mochi with Japan for the picnic, while America watches after “ruining” the mochi the first time.

Headcanon: Canada loves to drink Englands special floral tea blend at the picnic. Something about that pickled cherry blossom, honey, hibiscus, and rosey blend hits the spot.

Headcanon: France always makes some new pastry to have for dessert. You’d think he’d run out but Canada counts a new one each year. This year was cherry tarts.

Headcanon: If it’s windy enough America and Canada have a kite flying competition to see who can keep theirs up the longest. Canada’s record is 4 hours.

Just curious what the fandom thinks of the status of nations having kids, be it with other nations or with humans, and as it should be implied, this is in the context of a Standard Nationverse world, no human AUs or omegaverse or anything else as those are separate cases

Random Austria headcanon #3

Austria loves plants and flowers of all sorts. He’s so autistic about them, but since he doesn’t like being outside he keeps a ton of houseplants everywhere. He knows most of their scientific names and gives each individual plant their own silly person names too. Imagining him humming a little tune while watering Fizzle the Phalaenopsis amabilis >>>

Learning about the Polish situation after the partitions is so funny because you learn that after one of the Uprisings when everything from language to culture got banned in the Prussian part of the Annexation, (it got banned everywhere but let's ignore that for a moment) some Germans started to get interested in that because "why is it banned"?

And I just imagine the situation where poor Gilbert is just sitting in his study or just some office space doing paperwork maybe, and teenager Ludwig just comes in and is like:

Ludwig/Germany "I wanna learn Polish"

Gilbert/Prussia "You what now?"

It's the greatest revenge of Feliks.

fuck u lookin crazy for eat yo food bitch damn

More on Chagatai Khanate

I feel as if Chagatai Khanate is not talked about a lot by me. This is despite the fact that I pretty much have his whole characterisation and storyline planned from birth to death in my head and I have written about him before as a part of larger posts however I have not dedicated a single post to him.

I somewhat fashioned his personality off of the actual Chagatai. I also did something similar with Golden Horde and Jochi.

He really fits into the role of the ignored middle child well to be honest. Both character wise and how the actual Chagatai Khanate is perceived. From what I've seen over the years, when people reflect on the different Khanates of the Mongol Empire, they often think of the opulence of the Yuan Dynasty and Ilkhanate, or the infamous reputation of the Golden Horde in Europe, with the Chagatai Khanate often coming last and least in many peoples minds. Hell, a Khan of the Chagatai Khanate itself declared that it was a "miserabe little ulus", so its no wonder its not given as much attention.

I wrote this before in a much longer post about Mongolia's relationship with the different Khanates (Mongolia came to be the figurehead of the Yuan Dynasty) but I think Chagatai Khanate was born only one year after the Golden Horde (kind of wanted it to be poetic in the sense that this reflects the actual age gap between Jochi and Chagatai) so they're quite close in age. I think this only made him more competitive towards his eldest brother (Ilkhanate being the youngest). This is especially because Golden Horde felt outcasted to an extent as he was the representation of the Jochid territory and there was a lot of speculation about the nature of his birth - if Genghis Khan was actually his father or not. This casued a lot of tension between the actual Jochi and Chagatai, this is something Chagatai constantly berated him for. I think this is the same for Golden Horde and Chagatai Khanate. Not in the exact same way of course - no one was questioning whether he was Mongolia's child or not. However as he was the representative of Jochid lands - he was seen as illegitimate by proxy if that makes sense.

Out of the three brothers, I think Chagatai Khanate was the most similar personality wise to Mongolia. Don't get me wrong, all three of them inherited his traits, such as his stubbornness, competitiveness and intelligence. However if I was tasked with knee jerk picking the one son who just is the most like Mongolia personality wise overall, it has to be Chagatai Khanate. 

This is one of the major reasons as to why Chagatai Khanate wanted to be the favoured son. Golden Horde was technically his first born, however he represents the Kingdom of  a bastard. He considered Ilkhanate a weakling who was not strong willed like he was and just bent over to whatever Mongolia said (unfortunately for Chagatai Khanate, thats exactly why Ilkhanate was Mongolia's favourite). He thought Mongolia would prefer a more hard headed son - like him. 

Considering this reasoning, Chagatai Khanate was expecting... More? From his father. More approving pats on his shoulder when he did something right, more proud smiles when he stood his ground. Sure Mongolia gave them all attention but it was never enough. He was always busy with something else or late for something. 

For the longest time, Chagatai defended his father a personal level and was extremely uptight about upholding tradition and rules. Out of his brothers, he was the one who was so anal about upkeeping proud Mongol tradition. Not that he was not a troublemaker in his own right - he most definitely was, however he was very conservative when it came to this. He could pretty much recite the entire Yassa code off by heart. Hence another reason why he thought he should be the favoured son.

Before Chagatai Khanate came to resent his father, he saw his meticulousness of upholding Mongol law and tradition as an extension of his love and respect for his father. But as time went on and there were more developments in the empire (as in, infighting between the divisions), Chagatai Khanate no longer saw it as an extension of his love for his father but as a competition. He was already given the short end of the stick when it came to the wealth of his Ulus ("miserable little ulus") which he was most definitely a sore loser about and not only that, Mongolia went on to establish the Yuan Dynasty under Khublai Khan -  a dynasty that ruled over China, posed itself as being a legitimate dynasty with the mandate of heaven, Khublai himself was very fond of China and there were whole wars fought between Khublai and Qaidu - the de facto ruler of the Chagatai Khanate, as Qaidu was more traditionalist compared to the more liberal Khublai. It's speculated that one of the discussions that took place during the 1269 Talas Quriltai was about Khublai straying away from Mongol tradition and turning to China! I explained this in more depth in a previous post I'll link here, it's a lot more historically dense but it's worth a read if you want more context. 

Even before the different Khanates went their separate ways, I think Chagatai Khanates resentment began to blossom. I think he realised that no matter how hard he tried, Mongolia would never consider him his favoured son. So he got strangely competitive with Mongolia in more subtle ways before everything blew up. Who could inspire more fear in the lesser staff, who was the better wrestler. Mongolia caught onto this and was... Not impressed. He was quite annoyed at this. I don't think he felt threatened but I do think it's funny how the son most similar to him personality wise annoyed him the most. Admitting that you're obnoxious, Mongolia? (At least in the context of this era).

Mongolia definitely had his own thoughts on Khublai and absolutely raised an eyebrow at a few things he did (like moving the Mongol Empire capital to China) however he was not expecting his children (except for Ilkhanate who pretty much always sided with him) to turn against him in such a way - and to accuse him of all people of disrespecting Mongol tradition! Yes, he was pissed. Especially at Chagatai Khanate who he saw as the instigator of it all. Despite this conflict ending, Chagatai Khanate was still very sore about it and continued being a pain to his family. What's funny is how much Chagatai Khanate and Golden Horde hated each other, but one of the only things that could unite them was when they wanted to bully and threaten Ilkhanate. lol. And I guess their shared frustration when Mongolia inevitably sided with Ilkhanate in the conflict - Mongolia/the Yuan Dynasty being one of Ilkhanates only allies (daddy's boy I guess)..

This staunch adherence to tradition did not stop though. Whilst the other Khanates became more sedentary, the Chagatai Khanate was still living traditionally (ironic as this was a factor in halting the growth of wealth in the Chagatai Khanate, something he complained about) and when the Chagatai Khanate broke up into two, the West in Transoxiana and the East called Moghulistan (Chagatai Khanate became the Eastern Moghulistan) , Moghulistan was a hell of a lot more traditional than the Western Chagatai Khanate. They upheld Chagataid tradition whereas the Western Chagatai Khanate used Chagataids as puppet rulers usually. They were even discriminatory towards the Western halfs more mixed status, and the Western half similarly looked down on Moghulistan for being "uncultured" from what I recall. Yes I do think he was hatecriming his son-

Anyways it's ironic because Moghulistan itself became increasingly Turkified over time and even adopted Sharia law over the traditional Mongola Yassa. He's my fave jock loser

Some other hcs:

Ruddy face

He and GH are similar in stature but he is slightly bigger

Bushy eyebrows

Small scar on his cheek

hc that some countries have legal immunity and some don't, for various, surprisingly practical reasons. Alfred doesn't have legal immunity because it would violate the entire point of the US. so sometimes he actually goes to prison or gets executed by the state. in practice this is extremely rare, especially in modern times, and generally at worst he just serves a prison term before being pardoned because like... he's the United States. he's too fucking useful to have sitting in prison. BUT the US government wanted to show that they're willing to do it on principle so they've done it a few times. ftr all his death sentences have been pre-20th century and usually involved some wild west outlawry shenanigans.

Arthur, meanwhile, has to have legal immunity because I'm pretty sure the UK doesn't have statutes of limitations and technically since Late Antiquity the man has committed regicide a lot more than you'd think (not necessarily HIS monarchs), along with several high-profile murders and likely countless low-profile assassinations. and war crimes/acts of war. and piracy. and general hooliganism. he'd be in prison forever for crimes committed centuries ago. same goes for Herakles, Mathias, Berwald, Sadik.... basically any nation past a certain age is going to have a very long rap sheet.

And then there's Romulus, the Murders Georg of Europe, who is an outlier and should not be counted.

i like to think when they hurt each other the scars take longer to heal than when humans hurt em