#hetameta

Matt's humanity tends to just slide right out of his body when he's isolated and depressed. It evacuates the dancefloor. Poof, gone, he's chilling with the bears not even putting off human pheromones anymore.

Arthur had to cut deals with various supernatural entities on several continents when Alfred was hatched because he put off energy so strong it was pulling souls out of purgatory and every supernatural creature ended up on the door step. The iron cradle can only do so much when Rhys is like "Goddamn it Arthur, revenants are stepping on my turnips again!"

In the same vein, he introduced his children to his mother or at least her ghost on Samhain when they were very small and could potentially still see these things.

Alfred rarely gets high on hallucinogens because it tends to punch through his defence mechanisms of refusing to acknowledge or see other beings.

Matt never outgrew his ability to see things. It's not really acknowledged that he can and Arthur never talked to him much about it, so he generally doesn't choose to interact with them when it's Alfred's energy they're drawn too if at all. But when they go camping he'll often wake up to things of other realms going about their business or peaking into the tent or campsite, curious to get a glimpse of Alfred's freaky-even-by-nation standards. Matt will have a bit of a heart attack and just lay there shaking until Alfred's 95% asleep ass rolls over on top of him drooling "you cold dude?" And Matt just buries his face in his shoulder because Jesus fuck what was that??????

you are so right and i'm holding onto this nugget so dearly, you have no idea. it's so easy to picture, especially with france, who likes to be friendly and proper with people he meets. him standing there stumbling into the name 'francis' because he has just realised in a flash the several potential consequences of introducing himself as 'france' to a human. it's beautiful. but i'm taking it a bit further because as initially underwhelming as it'd feel, like, 'francis? really? that's the best you can do?' i'd like to think that the subsequent interaction leaves its mark on him. i'd like to think that this human receives it so well and have such a lovely, honest, and memorable conversation with him that france then looks at this name, francis, which has allowed him to briefly feel like a human, and thinks... it's me. it feels natural. it feels precious. and as a bonus, it also kind of feels like an inside joke for him to enjoy each time he uses it, which brings in a whole other layer of joy.

I feel like most countries have some version of interacting with nature that's not quite human. Arthur screaming with joy to the heavens as the sea threatens to swallow him instead of shitting himself in terror while Zee occasionally loses her shit on someone just as a geyser coincidentally explodes. There are certain quirks in any country that will line up with nature but not a complete slippage of the humanity. Culture in most places is strong, a sense of community is strong. I don't think Matt's entirely unique, but these themes have been present through my cultural history and it makes sense to me he's sort of the perfect storm for it.

Canada is 80% uninhabited. Culture isn't distinct or united, nationalism is weak, regionalism is strong. And there is an inherent linguistic split. And for all that space most of us live in densely packed cities. Again, none of this is unique to us. Canadians run more communal than Americans but what defines this country is weather, nature and their vastness. With American culture so dominant, the land plays an outsized role in who he is. Also not unique to him.

On top of that, just Matt himself is often cut off, unimportant, disregarded, taken for granted and just plain unimportant. God knows he's not alone in this world with regard to those things but Canada has one border and shares it with a country who generally forgets they have a northern neighbour. When he's isolated and particularly depressed and his attempts at reaching out to friends family and humans are inconvenient or rebuffed or otherwise unfruitful, he loses what's anchoring him to his humanity, the handles he grabs onto normally disappear. If being human only pain sometimes, when all the positives of socialization go: all that's left isn't quite him anymore.

So all that said, if you put the cultural, social and personality traits into place, it'd theoretical be possible for all of them to do it. Alfred has come close, when he disappears into the west. But he never quite gives up the horse or the bedroll or the idea of himself. Jack would also be another strong contender but he generally doesn't just cease to exist in Zee's world view when he isn't present.

NO PLEASE THE POOR BABY 😭 He's trying so hard, he's just not as impressive as his brother and it's not his fault!!!

Also, "trying to unionize this kid's patron saints" is the funniest fucking thing I've read all week 😂

Also also, I would very much like to hear your thoughts on the urban fantasy aspects!

It's not his fault no but Francis realized pretty quickly he wasn't going to be very impressive. He's trying tho 😭. I love the idea that while Arthur is trying to get the fae to leave Alfred the fuck alone, Alasdair or Francis or even together, lighting yew-wood fires like "Hey, mum, little help down here? This one's going through it again."

As for the urban fantasy, I play around with it sometimes but also the horror of endlessness. I am a child of the north where our horrors come from the sea and the ice. Like go watch AMC's the terror and that's pretty much the distillation of the folklore I was raised in. There's a line comparing British and American horror— "The British found their terrors in their bursting cities, the Americans in the expenses of their new territories." Or some such concept that I really like, comparing the two.

Alfred finding his power, freedom and his damnation in the hyper individualism of the prairie, cut off from society and support. So think cryptids, isolation, the slow descent into madness in the vastness. The Hallmarks of North American horror.

I have a series of questions, but first: I adore that idea too. I have a vision of Arthur on one side of the house carefully brokering deals to keep the fae away while Alasdair's on the other side summoning mom because Matt needs some support, and it is excellent.

1. Does Francis have anything to do with fae stuff? Rituals, know about them, see them normally? It's not usually talked about for his character but I think it sounds very interesting!

2. Would you mind talking a bit more about Arthur's relationship to his mother/the idea of her? You've talked about the statue incident, apparently Alasdair and Brighid honor her at Samhain, but you also talked about Arthur not necessarily remembering her very well, but he introduced the weans to her when they were tiny? Is that something that's evolved over the centuries (the Alasdair and Brighid thing was mentioned in a fic from the...16th, 17th century?) Are the older Island siblings closer to her spirit? Sorry, everything you wrote about the magic/fae stuff is absolutely gripping my brain right now.

Arthur literally shooting iron arrows into long since dead things because baby Alfred attracts the supernatural like moths to fire and hacking out a deal is going to be a fic as soon as I'm done putting the final touches with this one about Alasdair with baby Matt.

1.) So he really should. Almost every single flavour of British faerie has a French counterpart. They do however tend to run somewhat more chaotically and much more... Horny? There are a shocking amount of families who claim descendency from fae well into the 19th century. Children who survived drownings were said to be "kissed by Mélusine" or "touched by Mélusine." I think he can see them when he wishes but they tend not to interest him very much. There are much darker things that walk the fields and forests of France. There are all the same fae figures but many more folkloric entities who are much more powerful and more like forgotten Gods that crop up. Like what I called the Trench Creature. Which is based on a real phenomenon but not a specific one.

2.) So for a long time I've kept their mother kind of vague? Because I have ideas but they're probably the least realistic or historic or accurate thoughts in my entire universe where I'm not drawing from history or cultural practice as nearly as much as I wish I could. I am pulling things out of my ass because they're satisfying to me. Apologies if this is somewhat incoherent, I've never actually laid this all out before.

About 1,000 years before the arrival of the Romans at the end of the bronze age and the advent of the era of Iron, there might be what we now loosely group as Celts arriving in Britain and Ireland. And there were several peoples and many tribes but typically culture and religion was shared. When recorded history begins with the Roman arrival, there was one tribe in Northern England and Southern Scotland that reached politically into Ireland and Wales as well, the Brigantes. Their patron goddess, Brigantia was extremely popular across the islands. I made their mother Brigantia herself. She was a nation, just like them but who inserted herself into the public life of their people and absorbed their worship as they brought her into their identity. Brigantia the goddess contributed to Brittania the traditional armored personification of Great Britain and Saint Brighid of Ireland. Its kind of a bullshit take in my part but it works extremely well thematically.

Arthur is the youngest of his siblings, he got the least amount of time with her. His memory of her is very much wrapped up in memories of Brighid and layered into many human women who cared for him in her absence. Celtic traditions survived much more strongly in what we now call the Celtic Fringe, Ireland and Scotland specifically. England has a lot more going on with the Saxons and Normans and all sorts. He has participated when Brighid or Alasdair summon her, but tends to stay back a bit. When they meet, his memories do not match her presence and he is confused and somewhat upset but does not vocalize it. She is mother to him, and he has a much harder time reconciling her whole personality to the comfort he clings too.

He only became more interested when he became a parent himself, speaking to her somewhat more in the very first years after Alfred is born. But very quickly after Elizabeth I's reign ends, there is a clap back against all things supernatural and no amount of witch trials can burn the magic from him but for quite a long time after, he clings to trade and reason and much more earthly concerns and does not join Brighid, Rhys and Alasdair. There is also in this period, massive déforestation in England. He had presented Alfred to her in the 1580s or 1590s for her approval but that was almost the end of an era. He wouldn't really touch the spiritual until his last two children in the early 19th century. Zee might be the last time he's able to summon her as England is almost completely stripped of its natural beauty. But this is also when pagan revivals really took off. Almost nothing of original ancient practice survives and most modern paganism was... I don't want to say made up but also all religions are made up... I guess pieced together and codified? In the 19th century especially during the Celtic revivals. I was a practicing pagan at one point but it's interesting how so much if what is claimed to be ancient and holy was kinda just pieced together in the Victorian period.

Or one argue though your head canons if Alfred gives off such vibes of supernatural power that it attracts random magic creatures would that be true with Canada when he looses his humanity??