#garbagedad and trashson

[stirringwinds]

Hello hello! I have an ask request for you, if you fancy- Please reblog/ repost your favourite fic or art of yours, or one that you're proud of and let us know why 🙏

thank you so much for this interesting question! i have a lot of favourites, so it was hard to pick, but i'll talk about this one:

The caption for this one was: 'Father had an empire / Stretched down from the heavens / To the depths of hell… / Now those days are gone, / Now you have the heavens, / All that lies beyond, / And all the hope I claim / Since leaving me undone. / You have my hands — forgive me. / You are your father’s son.'

This is one of my favourites because I love digging into the tug-of-war that goes on between Arthur and Alfred so much—between being bound together as father and son (and the moments of sentiment and tenderness that did exist amidst their dysfunctional relationship), king and crown prince—and the sort of Titanomachy vibe of being rivals. Titanomachy because well, that's the story of the old gods being overthrown by the new generation of gods in a war to decide who would have dominion over the universe. And that's very symbolic of their relationship, especially after 1945 which really hammers in the changing of the guard. Alfred doesn't quite slay his old man (unlike how some other older nations might have)...but it's a real generational change. A real relinquishment of power that wasn't without some prideful bitterness and scorn on Arthur's part, inasmuch as Arthur always favoured Alfred amongst his children, and begged for Alfred's help during the darkest days of WWII.

One thing I quite enjoyed was redesigning the back of Alfred's jacket from canon—instead of the US Army Air Force jacket, this is a Navy G1 flight jacket, because I headcanon Alfred as a naval aviator during WWII in the Pacific. The USS Yorktown was named after the Battle of Yorktown during the American Revolution (as most of you know)—and was a real aircraft carrier that played a pretty crucial role in several pivotal battles like Coral Sea and Midway against the Imperial Japanese Navy. It felt very apt, because Lord Father (tm) himself rose to power as a maritime empire—and here is Alfred, marrying sea and air power to seize the very power of the sun (stars produce light and heat through nuclear reactions after all).

After all, the boast of global British seapower decisively sank underneath the waves at Singapore in 1941 with the destruction of the Repulse and Prince of Wales at the hands of the Japanese. Alfred doesn’t have a title but...in spirit, that’s kind of who he is to Arthur. His heir. There’s some irony going on with Arthur’s deliverance being him. Composition-wise, I had fun with putting Arthur next to Alfred—but in the shadow— the sun sets on the British Empire after all, but at the end of the day, it's the crown prince growing out of his father's shadow and stepping into his shoes. Yes, I am a bit heavy-handed 😂 but all the same—I absolutely love drawing Arthur and Alfred together, because there’s so much to depict with the competing and fascinating strands making up their dynamic.

#hetalia #hws america #hws england #rainbowfruitpastilles #lord father and the crown prince #(or) #garbagedad and trashson

[disaster-fruit]

Maybe if we want to get creative, maybe pull inspiration from stirringwinds.... they use “garbagedad and trashson” for aph England and aph US.

suhfushfuahahsiu that is so true for both of them

[stirringwinds]

Okay, so one, I love your art and writing! It’s so so sooo impossibly good! I especially like the pacific sibs, and also how you delve into the nations eldritchness! It’s super intriguing!

And two, if you didn’t know, a lot of Americans, especially down south, enjoy sweet tea. I myself don’t like going too long without it, so I think it’d be funny if Arthur found out that his dearest wretch was still rather fond of tea and maybe just didn’t drink it while he was around.

thank you so much anon you’re very kind! Nothing like exploring how eerie and eldritch these helltalias can be, human and inhuman in all the beautiful and terrible ways. And yes!! I just love the pacific siblings brainrot because of how much it feels like it expands their backgrounds and history? And allows me to conceptualise other players linked in British imperial history (China, Japan, HK, Malaysia, Singapore etc) beyond just an Atlantic centric dynamic. Just all the kinship and contradictions in identity that are constantly being renegotiated between Alfred, Matt, Jack and Zee—and Arthur—because it’s forged in the saltwater, conflict and shared history of the British empire.

and oh, Lord Father knows! 😉 he is probably rather elitist about it. just all tsk tsk tsk at the Wretched Firstborn chugging sweet iced tea. just all 'my dear boy! injecting that liquid diabetes right into your veins, are you, instead of a cup of properly brewed earl grey or some lapsang souchong served at teatime! Tea is meant to be taken hot and with sugar in moderation!' and Alfred's just brewing up a whole pot and pouring in an entire cup of sugar, chilling the whole thing and cutting lemon slices like. whatever. whatever, old man. how's your liver doing, First Sea Lord of the Liquor Cabinet? Still having whiskey before 10am in the morning? 

#hetalia #garbagedad and trashson #(or) #lord father and the crown prince #pacific siblings #hws canada #hws America #hws England #hws Australia #hws New Zealand

[stirringwinds]

What if Alfred just goes one step further and rechristens himself so that the "F" now stands for "Fucking." Alfred Fucking Jones.

😂 I can see that. I've definitely joked that Arthur sneeringly called him 'Alfred Fornication Jones' when he thought the Wretched Firstborn was being a bit too popular in London in 1944. Alas. Should've never named him Fly-from-Fornication. Imo, Sir Lord Arthur Kirkland was practically inviting it.

#hetalia #garbagedad and trashson #hws america #hws england

[stirringwinds]

do u think churchill would be disappointed and enraged that arthur feels a very much british and repressed attraction towards francis (who is no marianne thank you very much) and not, well, our fair columbia?

not at all, no. since i personally headcanon a clear father-son / old king-crown prince dynamic between arthur and alfred, that is the framework arthur's prime ministers would understand it as too throughout history. conversely, anytime they feel Alfred's kind of kinda favouring someone else over supporting his old man, it'd be much more about tsk tsk What An Unfilial Son or, if things get particularly maudlin, some sort of "America, nursed at the liberty-loving bosom of Britannia, but abandoning us at this time! Shame! Woe! In God’s good time, hurry the bloody fuck up!" 

but yeah to illustrate— this is how they would understand it (the tiny-ass caption says: "After Many Years: Britannia: Daughter! / Columbia: Mother!")

(As a sidenote, through my historian goggles— I personally do take Churchill’s iteration of the Anglo-American r/ship in the 1940s with a huge grain of salt. Besides his perspective being very biased by British imperialism, imo it’s romanticised in certain dimensions and glosses over the known disagreements that existed between FDR and Churchill, such as over decolonisation. Even today—we should be mindful that many U.S administrations did not necessarily see the “special r/ship” the same way the British side hoped, though ofc, the cooperation/cultural influence is significant. After ‘45, this dynamic is also mediated by the wane of the British Empire and the recognition that playing up ties with the US, now that it was the unquestioned superpower, was crucial to limiting the drain of British global influence. I think acknowledging this makes exploring the old king / crown prince dynamic between Arthur and Alfred after 1945 a lot richer and very, very interesting.)

#hetalia #hws england #hetalia headcanons #garbagedad and trashson #hws america #long post

[stirringwinds]

this is one of the funniest things ive ever seen re: archival material dating from the revolutionary war; it’s not quite Arthur-Alfred as GarbageDad and Trashson —but it’s very much Mother Britannia reprimanding her Wilful Daughter America (while urging that she return to the bosom of family).

The actual text of the letter:

#technically not helltalia #hetalia #but im seeing it with helltalia goggles #hws arthur #hws america #garbagedad and trashson #'be a GOOD GIRL........rely upon me"

[stirringwinds]

young alfred @ arthur: Father, Lord Father 

20th century alfred: dad, old man, oLD fart, fucker, old coot, pops, ‘sir lord 9am-isnt-too-early-for-a-drink kirkland’, ‘the sun’s set on your fucking ass’, ‘im cutting up your credit cards if u don’t gtfo of the suez canal’. 

arthur @ young alfred: poppet, lad, son, young man, ‘alfred fly-from-fornication kirkland behave yourself’

20th century arthur: wretched lad, son, insufferable boy, beloved firstborn, bloody headache, absolute wanker, ‘i remember him when he was in his diapers now he thinks he runs the world!’, ‘oh, you should’ve gone all the way. why stop at changing your surname? christen yourself alfred fornication jones, will you! are you quite done seducing all of europe with your nylon stockings and chocolates’

#shitpost #sorry i never tire of this dad and son pair #they take up a lot of my brain energy #hetalia #aph england #aph america #garbagedad and trashson #arthur stuck alfred with a puritan name #so: F stands for Fly-from-Fornication

[stirringwinds]

Jus sanguinis

Have you heard about Kirkland’s bastard?

That arrogant little prick has a child? A snicker. Are you sure you have that right?

A bone china cup is delicately set down. Fanciful wigs are delicately adjusted. Oh, he does. Hides the boy away in the colonies, where he pays a governess handsomely to keep her mouth shut.

Intrigued tittering, now. Kirkland had always, somehow, felt like an oddity in the polite company of the moneyed gentry. Precious little was known of his background, other than the fact that being self-made was a badge he threw with scornful pride in their faces.

Why are you so certain the poor lad is illegitimate? Maybe he got hitched on the quiet—he doesn’t look the sort but why, you can never tell! A round of laughter.

Kirkland is ambitious and hungry to prove himself. He had been knighted for unspecified services to the Crown, and infuriatingly, somehow always had the King’s ear, despite his lack of aristocratic lineage.

Oh, the boy is. The lady who had started this all is relishing the attention. She radiates the indulgence of one telling a good story. There’s no respectable wife in the picture. And do you know what else they say? That Kirkland swore that the little brat was his child by blood. Gave him his name and officially claimed him.

Well, I never. This was unexpected. Kirkland is always roaming, always restless. The last person polite society expected to take responsibility for an illegitimate son. Plenty of men certainly did not.

Why yes, it is touching, almost! You know what else they say? A touch of sneering condescension now, edging a prim smile. They say the boy is not really English. His father might be, but he is not.

#hetalia #aph england #aph america #arthur kirkland #alfred f jones #my writing #garbagedad and trashson #the 1 people i hate the most are moneyed english gentry wankers lol #and back then oh yeah this lot was obsessed with lineage and status #(i mean they still are)

[stirringwinds]

okay idk if you've ever seen "the borgias" but there's this quote from the end of s3 by the pope about his son cesare that seems SO garbagedad and trashson: "he is me. all the fire and the fury, the drive. the pitiless ambition. i look into his eyes, i see myself. do you expect me to love that?" and its been driving me crazy to think about

okay. okay damn, anon. i’ve been sitting on your ask for one month+ because that quote gave me a truckload of thoughts about arthur and alfred, the way power corrupts, the general eldritchy, great and terrible nature of nations—i wanted to draw something in response, but i’m being overloaded with deadlines—so i’m just going to let this out of my inbox for now, along with my personal headcanons + history:

‘he is me’: that’s seriously such a huge part of how i see arthur’s complicated feelings towards his eldest son manifest. the irony i see with the pacific siblings (and how i draw them) is that alfred’s the one who looks most unlike his father. jack and zee take after the old man in certain ways (the bold brows). matt’s resemblance to francis is pretty clear. alfred’s also the one with likely the most absentee parenting due to the longer travel times in the 17th—18th century. english polite society regards him as the bastard son of a wealthy english lord who was left to be raised by a governess in the distant colonies across the sea. but—it’s alfred who takes after his father’s own heart in many ways that his three siblings don’t. linguistically, culturally, philosophically—father influenced him all the same. and arthur knows it, no matter how adamantly alfred claims he will be different and remake a better world free of the tired, corrupt ways of the old world: 

and yes, alfred is different from him in many ways; he’s far more of an idealist, compared to arthur’s more cynical pragmatism. during the 1940s, it’s a power struggle with his eldest son about how will the brave new world look?

but as the world progresses after 1945?  

‘i look into his eyes, i see myself. do you expect me to love that?’ you know, i’ve said that i headcanon that arthur isn’t good at expressing simpler affection with alfred (compared to how he is with say, francis). but alfred is his favourite son, underneath all that dysfunction and surface differences, because of how much he’s frankly invested in him emotionally as the first child, when the empire was in its beginnings. he might be more reflective after being shorn of his empire—all the folly, hubris and self-destruction that is the price of such ambition amongst nations is still being reckoned with. i think arthur has the strongest attachment to alfred for these reasons; alfred is the firstborn, the one who rebelled and disowned the family name but...—it’s the mix of pride tinged with more regret after 1945: you’re just like me, son.

#hetalia #aph america #hws america #aph england #hws england #hetalia headcanons #garbagedad and trashson #long post #helltalia

[stirringwinds]

Bit of a random question, do you think the Dirt Children bond over hobbies? Like, do Arthur and Alfred bond over being train enthusiasts? I mean, the Flying Scotsman did do a tour of the US in the 1960s, also went to Australia 88-89.

definitely! with arthur and alfred, i admittedly don’t see it as just trains—rather, in the 19th century they’re both very enthusiastic about the potential of industrial technology—the steam engine itself, the telegraph etc. that era still has quite a bit of friction (such as due to the trent affair during the american civil war). and there was a sense of rivalry between the british empire and the united states. but i see arthur as always having an eye on what his estranged eldest son is up to (he can’t help it. always a soft spot for the firstborn)—and on the occasions where alfred does end up sitting down for a scotch or two with his old man during the 1800s, trains and telegraphs make for more cordial conversation. 

tangentially, i see arthur as really enjoying collecting plants and gardening. think those victorian greenhouses and rich english collectors paying thousands of pounds for orchid hunters to bring them some rare specimens. like, i see it as beginning as arthur’s tendency to hoard things, but i do think he does grow to enjoy the satisfaction of gardening. i see alfred as enjoying the outdoors, but i haven’t decided if he’s a plant person the way arthur is haha. arthur is really partial to pitcher plants, orchids and bromeliads—and he’s probably given alfred some, lol. just all the 19th century victoriana: ‘ah, looking mighty peaky from that bout of consumption, aren’t you m’boy! well, this pineapple will brighten up your space. or perhaps this marvellous carnivorous pitcher plant? some say it can even consume rats. what a delightful fellow, it would make a good birthday present for you, i quite think.’

#hetalia headcanons #hetalia #garbagedad and trashson #hws #america #aph america #england #aph england

[stirringwinds]

so @draw-a-circle-thats-the-foxhole​ brought my attention to this and isn’t it delightful when history abets our attempts to write these eldritch beings into world history. such as this ship, originally built in Philadelphia in 1774 and later captured by the British.

there was also that second HMS Alfred^, originally laid down in 1772, in the Chatham dockyard in Kent, England before its 1778 launch. this is just headcanon fodder. just consider it. (francis: ah, feeling sentimental about your firstborn beneath that rage, are you, arthur? arthur: fuck off you utter cockwomble, i intend to rub his face into it and ensure you lose your entire investment. spoiler: he did not get to rub alfred’s face in it. francis never let him hear the end of it. just fucking guffawing at the war’s end. he’s in tears. he’s so smug. ‘you have two boats named alfred, but not your son. alas. marvellous, rosbif. splendidly done. truly touching.’ )

#hetalia #aph america #aph england #shitpost #aph france #garbagedad and trashson #hetalia headcanons

[stirringwinds]

Lol does England call America "beloved firstborn" sarcastically or is that a genuine expression of affection?

sometimes sarcastically when he’s sober 

if he’s drunk enough (or genuinely wants to embarrass alfred) he does get positively maudlin. think of how flowery the victorians could get at times. or just the typical drunk rambling into their post-pub kebab or curry. ‘my beloved firstborn! eyes as blue as the sapphire in st edward’s crown! born of my liberty-loving bosom!’

there might be a part of arthur, buried under like 10 layers of denial, that regrets how dysfunctional their relationship is due to how hard he was on alfred as a child in the 17th century. so, alfred isn’t about to start a shooting war with his old man anymore, but man...their communication sucks in terms of Healthily Talking About Their Issues. it’s a whole bunch of contradictory feelings for arthur! he’d regarded alfred as a threat to his empire, but at the same time...that calculation, the ambition, that dangerous pride—arthur knows it well. (’he’s just like me.’) the beloved firstborn is the one who threw away the family name but the one who takes the most after him in certain ways. he might not say it aloud. but some of that sentiment is there, as i see it. alfred is genuinely his favourite son, but arthur doesn’t exactly show it the conventional way. 

#hetalia #garbagedad and trashson #aph america #aph england

[stirringwinds]

Heir   

I named him after a king, Arthur says poisonously, and he spits in my face. It is Paris, and the year is 1783, and the time has come for him to look his eldest son in the face again.

Alfred—for Alfred the Great, of course. The Anglo-Saxon monarch who had reigned a thousand years before, who had fashioned him into what he now is. He had given the boy whom the humans had muttered was a bastard a good, noble name. As he had given him everything else. He had been hard on the child too, yes, but the sooner he learned it, the better it was.

At that, Asma had laughed at him, though it is good-natured compared to Francis’ florid, spiteful delight. Then you shouldn’t have named him after one, if you wanted him to think himself always a prince. A prince who would never have the right to succeed the sultan. He hadn’t dignified her with a reply: he hasn’t forgotten how her king had been the first to recognise that wretched boy, all the way back in 1777. Back then, he had thought it amusing. A little premature, don’t you think, to recognise a boy who is not one of us? 

I named you after a king, he thinks again, on a cold December evening centuries later. It is 1941, and the mood is tense, the silence ugly and ringing with the snide, sharp remarks they had exchanged. The half-empty bottle of painkillers is tiny in the tight-knuckled grip of his son’s uninjured hand. He himself is exhausted from the tumultuous, secretive trip across the Atlantic, dodging U-boats and enemy ships.

I named you after a great man, Arthur says, his eyes tracing the edge of the jagged, angry wound closed up by stitches that peeked out under the white bandages that now swathed the left side of Alfred’s face. And there you sit wallowing in vain self-pity when I need you to be strong. Navel-gazing at your own bullshit when you are stronger than anyone else left. 

Oh, so you’re finally saying it, Lord Father. Not through Winston’s dramatic and bombastic speeches. But in person. The smile that stretches across Alfred’s face is slow, mocking and venomous. The mighty British Empire. 

Arthur knows that expression well. He’s just like me, he thinks, from that small part of him that is tinged with regret, sharp, jagged and pettily cruel in our vulnerability.

#hetalia #aph america #aph morocco #aph england #my writing #injury #garbagedad and trashson

[stirringwinds]

I was just curious if you see Arthur and Alfred's relationship as one of those who publicly despise each other (as often implied by most complex father-son relationships) who secretly care about the other? Like they can trash-talk each other till blue in the face, but if a mortal or country should say something they each have their own way of defending their horrible son/terrible father?

good question! i see it varying through the ages—their relationship has evolved quite a bit with time. these are my headcanons:

1. alfred is probably most vocal and public about how much he hates his old man during the american revolutionary war, the war of 1812 and at various points during the american civil war (think the trent affair). father is out to undermine him, is gleefully watching and hoping he fails! From arthur’s perspective, man. The american revolutionary war? That ungrateful wretch! Publicly, arthur goes from ‘that fool will learn his lesson and realise he is nothing without me’ to more like ‘oh whatever, I’m bloody glad he’s disowned himself.’ (king george sure bitched about the americans that way to his prime minister lol). But internally? Shit, Arthur’s got this tumultuous mixture of fury, humiliation and dismay. Ungrateful, treasonous wretch or not, Alfred is his eldest son. the one he’d poured various hopes and expectations into. By god, he even allowed himself to get emotionally invested—but…arthur’s a really prideful person. Showing that alfred’s actions have affected him that way? Weakness! So publicly, he’s casually contemptuous of any mention of alfred for a while. If someone spoke badly of alfred during those times he’d probably agree.

2. During other parts of the 19th & entire 20th century? Publicly despise isn’t quite how I’d describe it despite their dysfunctional dynamic. They start mellowing a little. It’s like—once alfred is more secure as a world power, he’s pretty amiable to sitting down and having a drink with his father. They talk more without arguing. Alfred’s more…irreverent of Arthur rather than publicly hating him. (‘not dead yet eh, old man?’). Arthur’s not good at expressing affection healthily—but his snipes at Alfred lose some of their genuinely resentful edge. It’s like, over breakfast alfred will cheerily remind him how he shot Arthur’s jaw back off at Yorktown, and Arthur’s just snorting like yeah lucky shot there, don’t be insufferable Alfred I haven’t even had a drink and lord knows I usually need 3 to tolerate you. And that’s just how they roll. Though if someone badmouthed Arthur and his empire, tbh I don’t see Alfred necessarily defending him mainly because the 20th century is also where there’s a power struggle between them both for what the world should look like after WW1 and WW2. A rivalry. As far as Alfred’s concerned, Arthur is clinging on to a decaying colonial empire while he’s an idealist who envisions something different that a sclerotic empire like his father can’t. He’ll remake a better world in his image, and not even his father will stop him (also: pax americana. Open markets. Autarkic empires like his father’s stand in the way of that.)

3. Still, it’s a situation where going to war against his father is no longer such a real thing he’ll contemplate unlike when he was younger. I’d say Alfred’s somewhat improved r/ship with Arthur is shown more in action than words when shit is really going down. So, like WWI. Alfred’s so tempted to be all ‘goddamnit it’s not my problem’ but he does, in the end throw his weight in. Similarly with WWII before Pearl Harbour: he’s very adamant about not helping. (‘what did we get for the last war? all those millions I sent to bleed? another war!’) but he does bend laws and move heaven and materiel to throw the old man a lifeline (it’s not an understatement that the allies would’ve been fucked without Lend Lease). But otherwise? He’s always here for the old man being roasted, especially by his siblings, lol. Hell, he and Arthur are also going to have one giant argument about Indian independence during WWII and Alfred’s not on Arthur’s side, as per the real US divide that existed with the UK over this. (imo Churchill’s perspective seriously over-romanticises the ”special relationship” and glossed over the concrete disagreements/rivalry that did exist) For Arthur? He’s torn between feeling somewhat resentful about how Alfred doesn’t even bother to hide how he’s fine with waiting to push the british empire down an entire flight of stairs after WWII—and this grudging sense of acknowledgement and pride. His foolish firstborn. Beat him at his own game. Well played, you wretched lad. Well played. You’re just like me, son.

4. Additionally: Arthur is much older than Alfred, so he probably does have more experience and time to parse out his feelings about his complicated relationship with his Beloved Firstborn™. Alfred on the other hand? He’s still pretty young. And one thing that he still absolutely hates is showing any sign of weakness in front of Arthur. Whereas Arthur in the 1940s—beyond a certain point—he doesn’t give a fuck about showing up a mess in a flowery bathrobe, with dark eyebags, insomnia and a glass of scotch. Bollocks to it all! Alfred? Oh no. He can’t. He’s obsessed with controlling his image and appearing strong and confident in front of Father. A strong touch of vanity and insecurity there. Which is why he absolutely hates it when Arthur shows up unannounced in December 1941 for the Arcadia Conference—and gets to see his face being a mess of ugly stitches and bandages. He’s grown up tall and strong. Stronger than his Father. But Arthur still has a way of getting under his skin that few others do, a way of making him feel the way he did as a little boy in the 17th century: vulnerable—and helplessly young.

#hetalia #aph america #aph england #garbagedad and trashson #hetalia headcanons #what has tumblr done to my read more lmao???? this hellsite

[stirringwinds]

Any WWI headcanons, specifically about how it might have changed the relationship between Britain/France/America/Canada (any combination of these characters) ?

this is a briefer snapshot—but most of the ideas i have centre around alfred and arthur: for alfred, it exposes the overstretched nature of his father’s power. the empire ‘officially’ reached its zenith in 1922 territory-wise, but in truth, WWI exposes plenty of weaknesses that portent WWII: how his father has to hurl his younger siblings into the meat-grinder to secure victory. for so long, arthur cast it as his siblings being under his protection. but it’s the colonies saving the heart of empire, not vice versa. father’s globe spanning empire has become its own weakness: too large, and too many possessions to stretch british power over. at the same time: alfred’s star is rising. he can see his father’s weakness like never before.

it’s not quite the american century yet, of course. but there’s a perceptible shift. another dimension of this is also alfred’s emerging rivalry with kiku. during WWI, the british empire relied quite heavily on the japanese navy to patrol and conduct operations in the pacific to ensure the security of british colonies there. again; overstretched. one of the reasons (of many) for the demise of the anglo-japanese alliance was pretty much not wanting to end up in the middle of a future clash between the u.s and japan. it’s like an old king realising rival monarchs see him as over-the-hill and have decisively shifted their eyes to the crown prince—that’s very much how i see what’s going on between kiku and alfred. so, not quite pax britannica anymore. he’s the one in the middle of a dance between two pacific powers. there’s some irony there, indeed. the two he used to lord over. his eldest son—and the formerly “”backwards”” elder nation he saw himself as grandly tutoring in modernity.

#hetalia #hetalia headcanons #aph england #aph america #aph japan #garbagedad and trashson #the pacific

[stirringwinds]

[1941]  hubris   

Summary: It’s December 1941, disaster bears down in the Pacific, and there are recriminations to be thrown around. (Arthur, Alfred, Kiku).

Content warning: References to real historical events, injury, dysfunctional familial relationship dynamics.  

“If I fucked up, where the hell does that leave you?” The jagged wound on Alfred’s face burns as hotly as his contempt. Everything seems calculated to shave away at the slender thread of self-control he has. The unbearable itchiness of the bandages swathed around the burns, the sting of the stitches that closed up where hot shrapnel had ripped through his flesh, the astringent smell of the antiseptic ointment—

—The sight of Father settled in an overstuffed chair and glowering at him over the rim of his scotch glass.

“I didn’t say that,” Arthur snaps. He tips back the glass, swallows. Of course. Father could never go through a crisis without cleaning out the liquor cabinet. The shadows under his eyes are only exacerbated by the flickering light of the fireplace. His thin lips curve into a sneer. “But if you are so keen to be petty about this, I shall indulge you. Optimistic, weren’t you? Trade, modernisation and opening a brand new market outside the boundaries of where my empire stretched. The prospect of out-scheming your dear old father. For you, of course that was irresistible. What could go wrong!”  

Alfred smiles sharply. The stitches on his face burn with the effort. It’s worth it. He’d hated the flicker of pity in Father’s gaze when he’d earlier struggled one-handedly with the bottle-opener. Arthur’s sympathy made him feel naked, hideous and vulnerable. By contrast, Arthur’s derision was familiar and comfortable territory. 

“The same fucking question you should’ve asked yourself before you decided to cosy up with anyone who was willing to put the squeeze on Ivan. And now it’s only your entire goddamned Pacific empire in the firing line, while you now beg me for help.” 

It feels good, hurling that barb, witnessing that flash of uncertainty mar the infuriating facade of arrogance Father always wore. But it’s a shallow, hollow rush that fades. 

Eighty-nine years earlier, his ships had cut hulking, dark and menacing silhouettes in the harbour, as he loudly and proudly announced himself with the smug confidence of a newly-minted world power. Two weeks ago, he’d never even caught a glimpse of the large, sleek vessels that had sneaked across the Pacific and hurled all those planes against him. 

And how many more ramshackle ships did Arthur have left? To face off against the large, modern navy of the enemy Father himself had lent his skills and expertise to, once upon a time? 

#hetalia #aph america #aph england #aph japan #injury mention #alfred f jones #arthur kirkland #kiku honda #death mention #long post #fighting when they should be on the same side? uh yes #garbagedad and trashson #my writing