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✈︎ my shit: a-flying-fortress | archaeologyfjones (ask blog) | twitter
my old shit: close-air-support (old main) | grem-archive (hetalia) | archaeojones (original ask blog)
✈︎ tag guide:
misc: callsign gremlin checking in | gremlin shitpost | gremlin tankposting | gremlin’s things with wings | mooom! gremlin’s archaeologyposting again!
from the desk: alpha romeo tango | papa echo november
headcanon tags: mechanics of nations // eldritch abominations | alfred f. jones // daring to fly | mathieu williams // bear with me | mathieu & alfred // brothers earth and sky | arthur kirkland // salt wind and green garden | arthur & alfred // a king and his crown | arthur & mathieu // anchor spares none | ace family // new worlds divided | romano de cesare // luctor et emergo | ivan braginsky // Не остаться в этой траве | ludwig beilschmidt // meine Stärken und meine Schwächen
ship tags: romerica // spaghetti western | rusame // stardust on our boots | gerame // mach speed meta
my aus: sunfall // the wayward soldier | beartalia // hibernation or bust | harpytalia // world on the wing | unbound // a western saga | lemon sharks // friendly seas | ersatz // dark side of the moon
Hello! I'd be interested in hearing about #5 for N.Italy and Romano. For the Hetalia ask game.
🌌what's your favourite au you've put them in?
I know I don’t talk about AUs on this blog like I used to, but I do still yap about them in my Instagram stories and with my moots.
Romano:
By far, my favourite AU is still the RoMerica western AU @gremlins-hotel and I came up with a few years ago (“Unbound”). Out of all my AUs, it’s the most thought-out, story and character-wise. We put it on the back burner for a long time once our interests shifted, but a few months ago I picked it back up and wrote up a script and thumb-nailed a comic for a “chapter 0”. The drafts are collecting dust rn because I’m more focused on career stuff atm, but I would love to pick it back up. I can’t make promises, though!
The premise was along these lines: Feliciano and Romano, with no more family or prospects in their homeland and enticed by stories of wealth and adventure, cross the pond to begin a new life as prospectors in America. Reality sets in as misfortune follows them at every turn, but Feliciano is determined to set off further west for one last try. Communication slowly trickles to a halt, and after an extended period of silence, Romano becomes desperate to find his brother at any cost. He enlists the help of the outlaw Alfred F. Jones, and together they journey into the west, all while being tailed by a bounty hunter searching for his biggest catch. Gayness, hijinks, and drama ensue.
“Chapter 0”, or ig the introduction, was set somewhere in the middle of the story, when Ivan (the aforementioned bounty hunter) is searching for them. Chapter 1 would then start from the very beginning.
Here is one of the playlists. It's a duplicate of the original playlist I share with Grem, where the first half had songs listed in order of (current) story beats, and the rest were songs that fit The General Vibe(TM). But I thought it'd be neater to have a separate version with JUST the story sequence. It's also a perpetual WIP, especially since the story isn't 100% plotted out rn.
Feliciano + Romano (+ Seb + Rome):
Ghost AU: Following the tragic and untimely passing of their youngest brother Sebastiano, Feliciano and Romano travel the country with his ghost to investigate hauntings and possessions to learn more about the paranormal world and solve the mystery of Sebastiano’s death.
I never talked about this AU publicly, but it has a special place in my heart. Essentially, Feli and Romano are the only ones who can see Sebastiano’s ghost, and Sebastiano cannot remember how he died, no matter how hard he tries. So the brothers believe that if they learn more about the supernatural world, how ghosts operate, etc. They can find a way to make Sebastiano remember what happened. Romolo/Romano Sr. Is alive in this AU, but does not know about, nor can he see Seb (the pain of outliving your youngest child. Yeowch.)
I imagine it would’ve been a “monster of the week” type of story, with an overarching plot focused on solving Sebastiano’s death and exploring the family’s grief. The first, introductory chapter was set in the Pinacoteca di Brera, an art gallery in Milano, where employees have been mysteriously disappearing. The brothers, suspecting that something paranormal is at play, visit the museum to investigate.
I’m someone who loves family dynamics and themes of grief and loss. Not just death, but losing relationships, your sense of self, your purpose, identity, etc., etc. This AU was my way of exploring these ideas, which is why it has a special place in my heart.
Feliciano:
A more recent, light-hearted, AU is my… Art Forgery Scheme AU (??): Feliciano paints art forgeries and blackmails Ludwig, an art historian and collector, into joining the scheme. It kind of snowballs from there as more and more characters force their way into their plot and things spiral out of control. It’s not a super serious criminal AU; I want it to be slightly ridiculous and far-fetched. Norway is the lead investigator, of course.
I also have an old EngIta pirate AU, but this post is already way too long lol lmao
With the generosity of modders and other behind the scenes activities
I have officially made Ivan in
Final Fantasy XIV
Finally got his face in reference and inspiration from @gremlins-hotel 's more recent concept art of Ivan in our AU.
With me being burnt out with work I haven't been drawing as much. But I have still been brewing ideas behind the scenes and with Final Fantasy's GPose I have been brewing some fun poses.
So you may see me and even Grem post these.
I am not going away from artwork. So I will still post stuff, when I have the energy and draw.
Was just thinking of your ff14 AU, but out of all the mounts ingame, what would Ivan and Alfred have as their main mount?
but also, can you imagine Alfred trying to squeeze into this goofy mount
oh boy, a good question. it may be a long answer that requires a little bit of background info to start, which i will ATTEMPT to be concise with. @artistically-hershie and i have done a lot of work on the au since this post, to the point that the events in this art piece are actually no longer fully accurate!
so...just to start, we made certain executive decisions regarding the au ra as a race, which affect this answer. we really, really loved that the original au ra concepts leaned hard into them being canonically related to dragons. as the story goes, these original designs just weren't working out with the game/heavensward expac as it went through testing and development - mainly egregious clipping errors and clothes/gear not being able to fit or requiring special models - so the au ra steadily lost more and more of their draconic traits (such as little ears, digitigrade legs, longer tails, more horns, etc.), becoming the "voidsent/demon people" that we received in the game today.
that's frankly so boring! give us our dragon people back!!
if squenix doesn't have the balls to make them related to dragons, then we certainly do. we gave them back some of these traits and fully claim that the au ra are related to dragons and the greatwyrms. and in ivan and alfred's case specifically, they're actually a cousin species, the au rei ("AW ray"; we didn't want to completely disregard the otherwise fun concept and design of the au ra that are in the game, such as the nomadic xaela and the diasporic raen populations). they're basically the older, more basal big brothers to the au ra, who are a derived population that moved away from their original homeland and changed with enough time, as life is wont to do. and speaking of homeland, we saw a blank island above hingashi that we've claimed as theirs. they also live in a two-tribe structure in which it's sol & sarnyy (rather than raen & xaela, still sun/moon coded though), with each larger tribe being broken up into numerous clans. that's all story for another ask, however.
so the au rei are far larger than even the au ra, having not left their home and mingled with non-drahn races to have made them smaller. this also meant the au ra began to lose some of those more obviously draconic traits that they had before their move to othard. and i do mean that they are much larger. more concentrated dragon blood meant greater body size and musculature; traits such as having a mix of scales and feathers (source: look closely at hraesvelgr, vrtra, and azdaja, who all have this mix); more horns and more variation in horn/tail growth patterns; freaky feets and claws, and more. and out of spite, we're giving the au ra and our au rei their tiny ears from the concept art. i will attach sketches at the bottom of the post where this trait can be observed more easily.
they're also meant to have less of a severe size difference between the sexes than the au ra do - this was also intentional design on our part, because i love them but it is a bit ridiculous. the dragons of ffxiv apparently canonically have no gender but both genders at the same time! (final fantasy xiv's dragons can also reproduce via parthenogenesis OR any dragon is feasibly capable of bearing an egg via sexual reproduction, it turns out! xiv's dragons really said gender is an eorzean concept and we don't fw that, so we ran with it.) they choose how they present and wish to be identified. so we actually have aimed to make the au rei more androgynous in writing and in art, since we can't do it in the game; it's much harder to tell "male" vs. "female" with them, just like it is with the true dragons. gender is social for the au rei; it depends on the roles they take on within their tribe, which means it can change depending on what you do or who you're talking to. confusing for eorzeans, normal for the boys. ivan as a healer often gets identified in the feminine at home because of the profession's associations with one of their creator gods, the dusk mother, nhaama, who is primarily referred to with feminine markers!
but i digress... you've asked about their mounts. as you can maaaaaybe guess, well, these big dragon freaks aren't about to neatly fit on a yol or a horse any time soon. they're too large and too densely built. they'd kill the poor things trying. instead, their homeland has a native population of mountain gryfons that those of the warrior incline will be challenged to go out and catch for a battle mount/lifelong companion as a test of courage and resolve. otherwise, they ride sturdy steppe bison since a horse won't do to carry a single au rei or their mobile tents and domiciles (they're also nomadic, where do you think the au ra carried it over from?). these bison are integral to many parts of their lives, alongside other livestock such as sheep or goats. meat, fur, milk, bone, horn, hide, as currency or offering to their gods...plus whatever they can hunt and forage. you name it, they've done it. gryfon feathers are also prized, and even more rarely, gryfon meat for certain rituals regarding the dawn father, azim.
as for their main mounts in general, ones that are perhaps not tied to lore...well. that's honestly not something we've given much thought to. with the way the au starts/goes, ivan and alfred won't have access to their gryfons or bison until about the very end of heavensward and into stormblood. until then...i suppose it's up in the air. they're too large for any conventional chocobo, and if they desired a horsebird, they'd have to be provided (or have the gil to purchase) the much larger draught chocobos, which would be the only breeds capable of bearing them anywhere. we'd have to think on that some more!
if you simply want silly mounts that neither of the boys fit in, we figured out the air force mount is absolutely diabolical. the manacutter is pretty bad, too.
forgive how busted ivan looks in these sketches. i recently started using clip studio paint and i'm still very much learning to get used to it. (and to drawing again in general, yikes.) he ended up being my warm-up and it meant he suffered a little in terms of quality, though the design still stands firm and there was no less love put into drawing him. i'll redraw him at some point. i drew alfred second because i deadass did NOT want to deal with his horns and was therefore procrastinating.
Was just thinking of your ff14 AU, but out of all the mounts ingame, what would Ivan and Alfred have as their main mount?
but also, can you imagine Alfred trying to squeeze into this goofy mount
oh boy, a good question. it may be a long answer that requires a little bit of background info to start, which i will ATTEMPT to be concise with. @artistically-hershie and i have done a lot of work on the au since this post, to the point that the events in this art piece are actually no longer fully accurate!
so...just to start, we made certain executive decisions regarding the au ra as a race, which affect this answer. we really, really loved that the original au ra concepts leaned hard into them being canonically related to dragons. as the story goes, these original designs just weren't working out with the game/heavensward expac as it went through testing and development - mainly egregious clipping errors and clothes/gear not being able to fit or requiring special models - so the au ra steadily lost more and more of their draconic traits (such as little ears, digitigrade legs, longer tails, more horns, etc.), becoming the "voidsent/demon people" that we received in the game today.
that's frankly so boring! give us our dragon people back!!
if squenix doesn't have the balls to make them related to dragons, then we certainly do. we gave them back some of these traits and fully claim that the au ra are related to dragons and the greatwyrms. and in ivan and alfred's case specifically, they're actually a cousin species, the au rei ("AW ray"; we didn't want to completely disregard the otherwise fun concept and design of the au ra that are in the game, such as the nomadic xaela and the diasporic raen populations). they're basically the older, more basal big brothers to the au ra, who are a derived population that moved away from their original homeland and changed with enough time, as life is wont to do. and speaking of homeland, we saw a blank island above hingashi that we've claimed as theirs. they also live in a two-tribe structure in which it's sol & sarnyy (rather than raen & xaela, still sun/moon coded though), with each larger tribe being broken up into numerous clans. that's all story for another ask, however.
so the au rei are far larger than even the au ra, having not left their home and mingled with non-drahn races to have made them smaller. this also meant the au ra began to lose some of those more obviously draconic traits that they had before their move to othard. and i do mean that they are much larger. more concentrated dragon blood meant greater body size and musculature; traits such as having a mix of scales and feathers (source: look closely at hraesvelgr, vrtra, and azdaja, who all have this mix); more horns and more variation in horn/tail growth patterns; freaky feets and claws, and more. and out of spite, we're giving the au ra and our au rei their tiny ears from the concept art. i will attach sketches at the bottom of the post where this trait can be observed more easily.
they're also meant to have less of a severe size difference between the sexes than the au ra do - this was also intentional design on our part, because i love them but it is a bit ridiculous. the dragons of ffxiv apparently canonically have no gender but both genders at the same time! (final fantasy xiv's dragons can also reproduce via parthenogenesis OR any dragon is feasibly capable of bearing an egg via sexual reproduction, it turns out! xiv's dragons really said gender is an eorzean concept and we don't fw that, so we ran with it.) they choose how they present and wish to be identified. so we actually have aimed to make the au rei more androgynous in writing and in art, since we can't do it in the game; it's much harder to tell "male" vs. "female" with them, just like it is with the true dragons. gender is social for the au rei; it depends on the roles they take on within their tribe, which means it can change depending on what you do or who you're talking to. confusing for eorzeans, normal for the boys. ivan as a healer often gets identified in the feminine at home because of the profession's associations with one of their creator gods, the dusk mother, nhaama, who is primarily referred to with feminine markers!
but i digress... you've asked about their mounts. as you can maaaaaybe guess, well, these big dragon freaks aren't about to neatly fit on a yol or a horse any time soon. they're too large and too densely built. they'd kill the poor things trying. instead, their homeland has a native population of mountain gryfons that those of the warrior incline will be challenged to go out and catch for a battle mount/lifelong companion as a test of courage and resolve. otherwise, they ride sturdy steppe bison since a horse won't do to carry a single au rei or their mobile tents and domiciles (they're also nomadic, where do you think the au ra carried it over from?). these bison are integral to many parts of their lives, alongside other livestock such as sheep or goats. meat, fur, milk, bone, horn, hide, as currency or offering to their gods...plus whatever they can hunt and forage. you name it, they've done it. gryfon feathers are also prized, and even more rarely, gryfon meat for certain rituals regarding the dawn father, azim.
as for their main mounts in general, ones that are perhaps not tied to lore...well. that's honestly not something we've given much thought to. with the way the au starts/goes, ivan and alfred won't have access to their gryfons or bison until about the very end of heavensward and into stormblood. until then...i suppose it's up in the air. they're too large for any conventional chocobo, and if they desired a horsebird, they'd have to be provided (or have the gil to purchase) the much larger draught chocobos, which would be the only breeds capable of bearing them anywhere. we'd have to think on that some more!
if you simply want silly mounts that neither of the boys fit in, we figured out the air force mount is absolutely diabolical. the manacutter is pretty bad, too.
forgive how busted ivan looks in these sketches. i recently started using clip studio paint and i'm still very much learning to get used to it. (and to drawing again in general, yikes.) he ended up being my warm-up and it meant he suffered a little in terms of quality, though the design still stands firm and there was no less love put into drawing him. i'll redraw him at some point. i drew alfred second because i deadass did NOT want to deal with his horns and was therefore procrastinating.
I am so high I thought you meant a hockey player's jersey/get up and was like, "wow, someone's salty about a team loss, okay then"
But yeah, fuck that person
honestly that's so fair (i only wish it'd been a nice hockey jersey). it was definitely not what i was expecting to open up my mostly monster hunter feed to on god. fuck whoever did it
