#freagradh

I personally really like On Board by Alana Henderson & Joshua Burnside, it's always been my go to, but I do like Sailor Song.

(The following is all vibes, ahistorical in the way only fantasy can be)

I love to imagine Arthur growing up slowly, with a deep connection to his land, aware of his coasts, but with something unsteady in him. It comes across as a short temper, an anxiety, light-footed. He fidgets, paces, dresses in layers as his body changes and seems to run deeper into the wild each time he runs off again. He is not finding answers there, only himself. And he already knows; he does.

The forests are felled, the people are changing, Arthur cannot hide from them any more than he can hide from himself. It's necessity (it's desperation) that drives him to set foot on a boat for the first time.

[They are expecting things from him, now that's he's ageing out of a childhood where he smeared himself in mud and blood and ash to keep away hands and roving eyes. They are all expected at court; unknown by a grand majority but present in the lives of their people in a way that feels unnatural. They all chaff against it, slip away nameless for another decade, a century. He could do that, is what Arthur reasons. Pick a trade, sail far. Let the memory fade into myth.]

The sea is horror and beauty. Arthur scrubs decks, and caulks, and learns woodcraft. He mends sails. He grows taller.

His voice deepens with practice, with he grit of sea-air and bellowing orders. He holds his own against any man or woman, stronger and faster than ever before. Laughs easier, grows wiser to his own temper and the worst of his habits. It does not mean that he is rid of them, but it makes him certain of himself, and better for it. He embodies the strength of his body and of his convictions in equal parts.

Hello albatross anon! I'm delighted to hear from you again.

This AU has a grip on me like you would not believe, I keep thinking of it. I have a bunch of wee headcanons now that I want to write down into a masterlist at least.

Arthur loving the sea and becoming a natural sailor is one of the things that endeared him to me from the very start so I was surprised not to see more of it in fandom (some pirate AUs aside, and one of my absolute favs God's AU by saachai).

Human au. But little baby Arthur shaving and putting anything in his hair to look more blonde his mother is 10000/10. Even better if his dad is somehow Differnet to his siblings dads (maybe his siblings have dads who are friends or some have the same dad) and he’s desperate for that connection to her.

Or if it’s nations au. Rome making him do it as he’s ashamed of him and hates that he is somehow connected to him. I just adore the idea of England having connections to Rome. Makes it extra angst if England and Albion are different people. Uk Celtic bros one day had Albion and the next had this new kid speaking another language insisting this is his land. With weird smelling hair (I dunno how he’d do it lemons???? Ammonia??) and some burning desire to conquer resting in his eyes (lemon smelling 6 year old is just a funny scary image)

He would absolutely be the kind of person to be shown a picture of (very obviously) himself as a child and say “I don’t know who that is” with a straight face, actively in the process of retouching his ends. (I have to admit that I am very partial to Arthur with blonde hair and dark dark roots. I don’t think that he’d hide he dyes his hair, just does not discuss it. It’s who he is at this point)

In a human AU I can definitely see this being a way for him to be closer to his mother, or who he thinks his mother is based off of old photographs. Maybe she had dark hair as well but dyed it— how could Arthur know, really? But it’s how he remembers her. It’s the her that left imprints in faded photographs.

In nationverse I think it’s a complex identity struggle, aye especially under rule. Either as a way to belong to himself, or forceful assimilation that sticks in a way he would battle to unlearn. The Arthur who existed before that influence does not exist anymore; he would literally not recognise himself in a mirror.

Thank you for saying that! I do have an AO3 just for my hetalia stuff, which is here. My work for other fandoms is under a different pseud.

I have some things on there, like Meadowsweet (which is a short omegaverse) and Blindsided (threesome fic, mind the tags), some of my newer fics and very very old scoteng one shots I need to rewrite.

The shorter nsfw fics I write as well as my thoughts are on my side blog @bigein. Things like Mint, this short Halloween one shot, Swallow. When tumblr made tagging things impossible I tried to keep all my explicit writing in one place. My plan was to keep my longer fics and a general archive of my writing in @trealamh.