My first submission for the Historial Hetalia Week 2021! I’ve never participated in an event like this and am super pumped to share my ideas with you all. Thanks so much to the @historical-hetalia-week team for organizing this event! (I’ve tagged this to the best of my ability, please forgive me if I’ve done something improperly and let me know how I can fix it!)
Title: Britannia Prima
Summary: The Roman Empire arrives in the soggy northern reaches of his emperor’s domain and meets the young boy he’s been hunting for decades.
CONTENT WARNINGS:
Brief but distressing physical roughness with a child (who in this case is also an immortal eldritch being/far older than any adult human)
Some vulgar language.
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Londinium, Britannia, Roman Empire
4th Century, C.E.
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It was raining when he arrived in Londinium. Of course it was. It was always raining in these gods—God—forsaken parts. The very edge of the earth, or so they said. Julius stalked up towards the villa as though he himself were a storm cloud descending to punish the landscape, ignoring how the mud splattered onto his calves and the hem of his tunic. He’d travelled all the way from Hispania as soon as he’d received word from the praetorian prefect, and the long journey through the tidal waves of spring had done nothing for his mood.
We found him. That was all the message had said. Him. That detail was news. No surprise, really, there had always been more males than females, when all the lands of the world were accounted for. Julius had already met one of her brats, after all: a son, already making his turns into manhood. But then, he’d seen her pregnant. Now, decades later, there was only left to see what kind of bastard she had produced.
He did not have to knock at the front door, for which he was grateful. As soon as he was over the threshold he threw off his hood, showering cold rain down onto the tiles.
“Where?” He asked, and the servant sent to receive him kept a demure look on the ground.
“In the cubiculum,” he reported, carefully extricating Julius from his cloak and offering him a linen towel for his hair. Julius ignored it, brushing off his hair with a hand and slinging the water to the ground. Without a further word, the Roman marched out of the fauces and through the atrium, where on both levels, there were not a few servants, soldiers, and other assembled house members waiting like buzzards to dissect whatever scraps they’d be able to hear from their perches. Julius ignored them, and hardly waited for the guardsmen to raise their spears before he entered the cubiculum.
“Master Romulus,” greeted the prefect, sounding at once relieved and terrified to see the empire, “I’m glad to see you’ve made it through the storm unscathed.” Julius ignored him.
Jesus Christ and all his disciples, it was a boy. Not a child, hardly more than a woodland wisp like the ones the barbarians spoke of, it was an infant. Decades of searching, Julius fumed to himself, decades. For this. The child was facing away from him, staring out the window into the rain, flanked on either side by guards and a tired-looking Breton nanny. The torchlight caught on his tangled mop of hair, which was far lighter in color than his mother’s, and made it seem as though the strands themselves had caught flame. So light of hair. There is no way he is mine.
Keep reading
November 5th with no context:
i am never gonna fucking finish these but look at them anyway
Do you think Alfred and Matt are twins, or just brothers? What do you think their dynamic is a bros? Are they closer to each other than their European allies, or is there like a kind of rivalry going on? I just long for more matt content
An ask about Canada, hell yes!! ily anon ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
In my head they are most definitely 100% twins. In fact, my characterization of them is largely based on a pair of twins I know in real life.
Matthew and Alfred balance each other but not in the sense that they always like or do opposite things. Instead they’re a kind of regulator for each other. Whenever Alfred starts talking too much, Matthew gently involves the other person back into the conversation. Whenever Matthew becomes too shy or reserved Alfred intentionally buggers or provokes him so he can loosen up. Whenever Alfred goes too far in his opinions, Matthew would take the opposite stance to moderate the debate. These are all very obvious when they interact with other people – in those cases the two behave almost like a single unit and it’s very nice to be around them because each observes different social cues.
As for what they’re like in general, it’s very easy to get the impression that they annoy each other but it’s all classic sibling behavior (maybe taken a bit to the extreme). They will always always prank the other if the opportunity presents itself. There’s a lot of smack talking and comebacks. In fact instead of ganging up against someone they would purposefully take opposite sides in other people’s arguments.
In reality it’s all harmless because they know each other extremely well. They both enjoy the opposition because Alfred knows he’s difficult to argue with so people don’t bother and Matthew knows that his softer personality can cause people to avoid conflict with him.
As for rivalry, I don’t think that’s the case with them. Opinions are subjective so it’s not rivalry there. Where skills are concerned they’ve long found that they can be a killer team if they work together. Once one of them finds something he’s good at, there’s a high chance the other will try and compliment that instead of besting it. For instance, whenever they flew fighters in the war, Matthew would be Alfred’s wingman (in the military sense of course, but hey who knows). But in a heavy bomber Matthew would be pilot and Alfred his flight engineer
I don’t know too much about sports except for football (aka soccer) but I imagine the same situation there. Basically both of them are happy to take an assisting position if they notice the other has a knack for something.
All of this is hardly subconscious, they’re both just very aware of each other.
And yeah, I do imagine them being closer than the Europeans. Even from a historical standpoint, similarities in Europe meant little with how closely crammed they were there and every neighbor was a potential threat. Matt and Alfred on the other hand are in the opposite situation where they had to learn to live together because they had little to choose from in terms of company. I imagine their differences did initially cause some friction but eventually they grew old enough to realize that the fact that they cared about each other was more important than any argument or annoyance.
I think their dynamic also works because I imagine they’re fundamentally wired differently. Alfred is a tunnel vision kind of guy who tends to hyperfocus and see things from his own pov in relationships. Matthew meanwhile is the type of person who is aware of everything and can divide his attention while tackling multiple things (incidentally this also causes him anxiety sometimes – when he puts too many things on his mind) and focuses more on how others see him or feel.
As a result they know they can fall back on each other for advice. It’s like having that magic point of view on demand that can reveal a side of a conflict you were previously blind to. Which is also a source for mutual respect.
Merry Christmas to all celebrating today!!
I hope everybody has a great day and a happy holiday!! ❄️✨
Happy Krampusnatch!:D
Made a little 2 page comic based on the Krampus!AU.:)
In wich Gilbert familly is “cursed” to have one of their familly member changing into a Krampus during most of the winter and having to play the role in the region. Gil bro left home to go live with his boyfriend and so hearing that Gil would be alone this year, matthew decide to go surprise his penpal friend (Crush) for the holiday because he is alone too this year.
Sadly when Matthew got there no one was home since Gil was spooking kids in the woods and so he waited by the door and fell asleep. (No worries Gil will make him a warm drink to go with the explanation of why he has hooves and a long tail.XD)
His 🍑 was popular on twitter so I might as well post it here too.
I keep my embarrassing little thoughts in the tags where they belong
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