IDNL/Neshiran headcanons (part 1)
Because someone has to do it
Before anyone comes after me, know that the biggest Ned/Indonesia shippers I’ve seen around are Indonesian ourselves. Top Ned is most popular in Indohetalia side of fandom, which I also don’t mind ofc, but I personally am more top Indo.
I guess these will be concentrated around their first meetings. That being said:
I don’t put an exact age on Indonesia, but I don’t subscribe to the idea that Ned ‘found’ a child Indonesia. Sure, modern/unified Indonesian republic is totes different from precolonial kingdom era Indonesia(n islands or Nusantara) and we learned to unify under (modern) Indonesian ideology only during colonial era, but yknow, it doesn’t make much sense for me that Indonesia was only a child when Ned found him. So I headcanon that Indonesia already looked to be around 18-19 years old when Ned met him for the first time, that is, in 1609 around (in modern time Indonesia looks to be late 20s)
Indonesia was a traveler/sailor and a trader between precolonial kingdoms. So he was not limited to just one or two kingdoms, he moved around a lot and was a good trusted friend for precolonial kings/sultans and the personifications of kingdoms (doesn’t make sense if they didn’t exist)
Ned wasn’t the first white dude Indonesia has seen in his side of Nusantara (that would be Portugal in the 1500s). So he actually could hazard a guess as to why Ned came; spice, and having all of it for himself.
Indonesia (ofc at this time wasn’t called Indonesia lol) is a curious dude and always likes to learn about/befriend new people, especially interesting foreigners, even if he knew the whites would end up fighting with him anw. By the time Ned came to Nusantara, Indonesia has met Portugal and Spain who fought with each other and also against him/with him (look up Ternate-Tidore sultanates conflicts in Maluku)
(The thing was that he was sure Ned would give up sooner or later because Spain and Portugal both kinda sucked)
(Obviously Ned didn’t, lol, even after similar beatings)
He has never been an innocent dude or a prude lol, because yknow, India taught him personally as a kid.
Indonesia and Ned fooled around during this time meheheheh. They didn’t have any relationship or anything tho, and while Indonesia thought Ned was pleasant-looking (an impression shared by Ned about him) he wasn’t that much impressed by everything else. It was just a nice fling while it lasted.
Their intimate encounters were nice tho, 10/10 it kept Ned awake at night
Surely, Ned knew Indonesia was a being <<like him>> only that he didn’t know what he actually was. Not that Indonesia told him anything, and not that Indonesia had a clear idea about his own purpose at that time. But Indonesia was Goddamn good in what he did, aka sex and trades and local diplomacy and everything important about the islands and these were why Ned kept pursuing him. Also sex
Ned worked in this company (VOC) and he set out to make Indonesia work for him.
He had to get Indonesia no matter what because he was the key to everything.
