#pc headcanon

[allbeendonebefore]

Me walking from Nikka Yuko: I think Bert should wear yukata. I think it would fix him. Get him out of his skinny jeans.

Quatsch: oh?? He's angry because he wears tight jeans?

Me: he's been wearing the same size blue jeans for 50-80 years and refused to admit he's gone up a size or two and that's why he's so angry yes

Quatsch: he accidentally wears Ben's jeans and he's finally comfortable

[acetechne]

can I ask what parts of the city Ed and Cal live in? do you have canon neighborhoods for them?

Yes and I do! Ish!

The parts of the city they live in change over time, of course. Both moved around with their respective forts in their childhood. 

Today, Ed lives in the bungalow he bought after the world wars in the 124th Street Area (Around Westmount, within walking distance of Duchess Bakery and biking distance of the river valley). I actually don’t remember the specific reason for choosing Westmount beyond being close to 124th, it used to be on the edge of the city once upon a time and had one of the oldest shopping malls in Edmonton (if not Canada, actually?) and it’s also right up against the old Hudson’s Bay Company Territory that was eventually sold off. Ed is very difficult to move and there’s still a stigma he has about living downtown that he’s trying to get over, but he’s probably not going to be moving any time soon.

Calvin has a specific address (The Keynote Penthouse 12th Ave downtown Calgary) because I love how horribly on-brand it is. It’s dead between the Stampede Grounds/Saddledome and the Calgary Tower, both are visible from the penthouse. He’s easily within walking distance of both city hall and Several major headquarters for O&G. He’s in walking distance of a lot of things and has free public transit access for a few stops around his place and YET he still insists on driving everywhere because he’s an idiot. 

(Their sisters of course tend to represent the opposite sides of the river and essentially represent one neighbourhood each: Edith being Old Strathcona and Caroline being Bowness) 

[allbeendonebefore]

“bert lives in edmonton because thats the capital” “bert lives in calgary because it’s the biggest city” wrong and wrong he lives in high river and is in the background of every single episode of the country’s longest running drama that’s my answer to that question

[allbeendonebefore]

Oliver was the kid who would hold their breath until they got their way, and if that didn’t work then it’s the puppy eyes or the tears next, that is all.

the tears next because when he employs this technique the others go FINALLY! and have peace and quiet : )

[allbeendonebefore]

Happy Canada day! also, any thoughts on Oliver’s and Ilan’s relationship? Does Ilan still hold a grudge towards Ollie or has he forgiven him for the most part.

Happy Canada Day!

This is a question I ask myself pretty often. I think the long and the short of it is that at my core I would love the optimistic vision of everyone putting the past behind them and trying their best to get along... but I also realize, especially in the spirit of (re)conciliation that it can be harmful to just put things in the past. I think there is room to explore the relationship in a complex way that does justice to that complex history. 

Like I mentioned briefly in a previous ask, I found the relative lack of consciousness about Louis Riel in Toronto/Ontario to be quite jarring and shocking, and I hadn’t even really been as inundated with the history of the resistances in Alberta as my friends in Manitoba and Saskatchewan had because it wasn’t really “our” history as much as it was theirs. Language is slow to change, and I only learned about the contrast between resistance and rebellion recently, because old Canadian history curricula, if they referred to it at all, were from the Ontario “rebellion” perspective.

Still, knowing what I know it was just weird and uncomfortable how glossed over that history was, or the fact that people in Ontario I talked to still grew up thinking of him as a criminal or ~controversial~ if they grew up thinking of him at all. And I think as long as the prairies’ entrance into confederation and ESPECIALLY Manitoba’s history is still brushed under the carpet like that, that Ilan is going to be resentful about everything that happened. I don’t think he is the type to struggle and fight for nothing, and I don’t think Oliver’s tendency to brush aside problems that aren’t his or to make them about him sits well with Ilan. I don’t feel that they’re there yet; even though Oliver took Ilan under his wing from a young age and even though Ilan watched the culture around him change to become more and more like Oliver’s, I don’t think the things he’d been through because of him are shakeable things. Even if Oliver wasn’t directly responsible for what happened, his tendency to cry wolf and act out of fear was a large part of it and drives Ilan up the wall to this day. I’m sure there are things that Oliver’s said flippantly in the past that Ilan holds in his heart or in his stomach like a rock.

I also think that- even if Ilan is trying his best to help along reparations between them and even if he gets along with Oliver a good three quarters of the time, he’s just the sort of person who’s bad at expressing himself without coming across as blunt or scary, and Oliver’s hang ups with politeness and etiquette also don’t make the relationship easier. But I think there are lots of times they get along, even though they don’t know how to address their underlying tensions very well. They’re trying, they’re just both very plodding about these things.

[allbeendonebefore]

Any headcanons for Oliver? I read the list of headcanons for some of the other provinces that you did and I’m very curious.

oh boy those were ages ago i’ll dig up a few so i can remember the vibe of the things i wrote

for those of you just joining us, my past headcanon posts

BC | AB | SK | MB 1 + 2 | NB

while other provinces are torn between living in one city or another or out in the middle of nowhere, oliver doesn’t have that issue. he lives in toronto and holidays in one of an entire network of cottages across the province and does not feel conflicted about that in the least. and he doesnt live “in toronto” in the gta, he lives IN toronto in some old annex style house and good luck getting rid of him.

he LOVES living alone, he relishes his independence, he does NOT miss being trapped living with jean NOT ONE BIT!! he does NOT create fake arguments over what should go over the mantle or what to make for dinner with the chattery squirrel outside because he’s LONELY.

Self indulgent headcanon but since he understands how difficult it is to live in the city and how valuable a good education is, he will occasionally rent out the basement to a quiet and tidy university student or two. He has a soft spot for kids who are trying to find their feet and figure out who they are away from their parents (as long as they do their chores).

Despite his downtown living and his urban elite image, he has experience working in factories and on farms and that tends to catch people off guard. He knows his way around milking a cow and he loves to tinker with machinery, getting his hands dirty doesn’t bother him even though he does love to mope and solicit pity. 

he just cannot physically help being overdramatic and bitchy, it’s just the tough outer layer he developed trying to survive american assimilation (and jean’s cutting words lol). he thinks his sarcasm is among his most endearing quality, since the people who Get It always laugh.

OF COURSE THERE ARE GRADES OF MAPLE SYRUP ??? why Wouldnt there be

he thinks his most relatable story is tfw you cut the bag of milk too open and it sloshes everywhere and doesn’t get the mixed reception at parties

It’s not that he doesn’t drink or that he’s against drinking, per se, at least, not anymore. He just likes being the designated driver because he likes the moral high ground, not because he’s secretly a mother hen who wants everyone to get home safe. 

he grew up in the southern... peninsula (you know that... sorry i get so confused about whats north and west in ontario.)Anyway it’s not that he doesn’t Also represent Northern Ontario, it’s just sometimes hard to pry him out of his original comfort zone and he sometimes gets stuck in his own head in the south. 

it’s not like mani would know what to do with all that space up there anyway, it’s just best that he takes care of it, it’s always best that he be left to manage things, he’s just more organized, he’s the brains, he’s the one with the vision, no he does not accept constructive criticism, what kind of leader would he be if he was openly questioned... that’s not how he was raised at all. imagine, entertaining other people’s ideas. 

Ollie likes to think he’s the rational one but pretty much every move he made in his early days was out of fear and anxiety; he can sometimes be overly cautious and people who just go out and do things just baffle him. 

He’s really open with his feelings (particularly when it involves complaining, which he loves) but he’s horrible at delegating tasks or asking for help. He also gets easily frustrated when people have given up on helping him without him having to ask, but he still insists on trying to do everything himself.

is it weird i cannot fathom him in anything but an mlm relationship lol

He won’t forgive rude behaviour, even if he appears like a doormat to an American. He remembers when he’s been rude to and compensates by being overly polite. The only person who’s immune to this seems to be Jean, who always seems to be getting away with being rude...

that said he drops way more f-bombs than most of the others and americans always either think it’s either adorable (and make fun of his perceived accent) or are SO SHOCKED that their INNOCENT BABY FRIEND would have such LANGUAGE!

has such. a weird. distorted. romantic idea of what road trips are. i dont know if he knows how to travel in places where rest stops arent cleaned every couple hours or if he’s ever had to pee in the bush or stay in a place without electricity in the time that he’s owned a car. 

he’s always been a huge natural history nerd, he loves spending time in natural history exhibits and geeking out over weird birds and fish and minerals. 

shakespeare in the park anyone?! shakespeare in the living room??? shakespeare over zoom conference? reciting shakespeare while outside oil painting the fall colours?! DID SOMEONE MENTION SHAKESPEARE.

he also loves sailing and swimming and he’s got a weirdly extensive canoe collection squirreled away somewhere. 

had a LOT of pressure on him as a kid to be the Good and Perfect child, not like those nasty yankees. He’s not very good at acting out and being rebellious, but he will absolutely stand his ground on an issue that’s dear to him, particularly if his control over something is threatened. 

anywhere you can’t take a train to is fake adn should not have been counted

he’s still an avid tea drinker and has lots of opinions about tea time and has been making the same recipes for literally 200 years (jean puts up with this because he cannot be assed to make his own little fine cakes, ok, and if ollie has extra for him to take home its to his advantage. if oliver makes extra specifically because he knows jean likes them, that’s for him to know. and same with homemade fudge and butter tarts and candy and ice cream, neither of them outgrew their sweet tooth) 

also he’s somewhat motivated by jean’s blunt reactions to his baking because thats how he’s going to survive the blue ribbon baking and jam making events against those tough and bitter old ladies, jean is perfect practice (although some of his best and most nuanced insults don’t translate very well)

his french is not bad nor is he embarrassed of it, he’s annoying in both official languages.

he gets mad when you say he’s practically interchangeable with matt but he still seems to think the things he does are things that all canadians do or like or have, i mean, why wouldn’t they? but they still owe him for that.

he compensates for his relative lack of interest or seeming inability to ask the others how they’re doing (because thats rude! and prying! and he’s sure they’re just fine! he doesn’t meddle anymore because people get upset when he rearranges their pantries) with an almost weird obsession with his self image and what’s happening internationally

[allbeendonebefore]

What are the prairie bros best impressions of Oliver?

It’s too early in the morning for this question haha. [dredges up notes]

like on a boring political level i can speak most to how bertie gained a level of respect for ollie in the 60s, which is kind of when I think he first learned that oliver actually does have a backbone and does advocate for his own rights and responsibilities and occasionally those of others. (whether this is ultimately a GOOD quality is debatable, since BC/AB/ON/QC have teamed up on this point to grab as many provincial rights for themselves and often at the expense of the others, but autonomy is a quality that bertie can’t help but respect in others even if he resents them and disagrees with their position.)

I don’t think that is necessarily true of the other bros though. But I think another point to make is that rural people in every province often have more in common with each other than they may realize, and I think even though Ontario doesn’t put the same amount of emphasis on being rural that the bros do that they can get kind of humbled when, yeah, actually, he does know his way around a cow and he does know how to fix a car. I think they like to forget that on purpose but it’s another thing they can’t help but get a little jazzed about when Oliver reminds them that he’s been doing this for longer than they have. I think even though they are a little rough about it that they like when Oliver is rough back and not afraid to do a little hazing back and forth.

also everyones best impressions are when ollie cooks/bakes for them. that just settles things, lol. is it bad the thing i miss most about living there is the food

[allbeendonebefore]

Do geographic personifications catch human illnesses and viruses?

Something a lot of people in the fandom are probably wondering i’m sure! I have been thinking about it for the purposes of my own story telling too. I will preface this to say that I am not interested in trivializing global events and especially not deaths- I will not be using illness-as-shorthand for the worst hit regions in gag strips because I feel it is inappropriate. 

However, I have been considering illness and personifications for a long time and in different contexts (such as, for example, the plague that hit Athens in the 5th century BC) and am happy to go through this thought exercise together. My aim with my work has always been on the optimistic side and I like to think of personifications as empathetic people who want to do whatever they can to help, and thinking about that in these times sometimes helps.

In Hetalia proper, we’ve seen France worry about catching a cold from England, so we know they can transmit something between each other (HWS Ep 5 / Ep. 57) When England catches a cold, America claims he has no idea what one is. Conversely, when Germany catches a cold, Austria is so dependent on him that he will almost immediately catch the same cold!

Catching a cold is depicted as a euphemism in gag strips for the economy tanking, as seen with Japan’s cough and Poland’s fever in Lithuania’s Outsourcing 3. According to the wiki, sickness might also indicate tense political situations, natural disasters, or bad weather- as far as I’m aware, it’s never been used literally.

As always I tend to use Hetalia as a compass rather than a bible, but I do still sort of have these embedded ideas from being in the fandom for many years. I have referenced economy-as-sickness before in doodles (wow what a lifetime ago this was)

HOWEVER I realize that is no the question so let’s return to it. What about human illnesses? 

In short, I think avatars can definitely carry and transmit human illnesses. Whether they show symptoms or not is debatable, and I don’t think unless the symptoms were very obvious they would be able to tell. They might have trouble distinguishing an economic cold from a normal cold, for example, unless there’s some kind of tell-tale sign for them. On the other hand, any illness that threatens to wipe out their entire population might cause them to suffer a great deal more and certainly imprint itself on their memory. 

This all is partly because I like having a balance of both inhuman and human elements to my characters.

On the inhuman side I like the idea that they are (generally, but not always) physically more tolerant to extreme conditions, can recover quickly from physical injuries (which has been referenced in canon as well). Some people have taken this to an extreme with things that would definitely and irreversibly kill a normal human (which I admire! i’m just not keen on illustrating explicitly!). Sometimes it might be a more subtle thing, like having a much higher alcohol tolerance than a normal human. I think sometimes their immortality can lead them to reckless and sometimes even harmful behaviour because of this.

Maybe it’s because I’m a classicist and over-saturated in Greek myth, but I also like the idea that personifications are also very tied to the human experience and feel very empathetic towards their people because they know what it’s like to be them. They also have an instinct of self preservation and (generally) really don’t enjoy getting hurt because they don’t know what the results will be. Again, some people have taken this to the extreme by having avatars literally born human- this is something that I’m less interested in exploring, but that’s a ramble for another time. I like the idea that they can do more or less the majority of things that humans can experience, and that includes getting sick. That also includes having no idea whether they might be sick or not and worrying about it.

With the physical recovery thing: this means that even if an avatar briefly shared in human suffering during a pandemic, they might barely notice it. I think they reflect not only the physical states of people but the sort of collective social state of confusion: Do I have it? Am I doing this correctly? Have I spread it to someone? I know I will get through this, but should they know that about me? I think they’ve had experiences of this anxiety a lot more recently knowing now that illness can be spread without symptoms, something they might not have known when they were younger. (For example, @randomoranges has written about this here)

In the context of the current pandemic, it is obvious to us which cities are suffering from the pandemic in terms of total active cases. I hesitate to say that this is a direct indicator of health for cities because it only reveals cases in those who have been tested, and certain cities may be overperforming or underperforming in tests and it’s impossible to know from which day to the next who is sick and who is not and who is a carrier in real time. We’re doing the best we can with the tools we have access to. 

I think in this context an avatar would have to deal with a couple notions:

One: that it is safest to assume that regardless of their behaviour or their appearance, they could have the illness and spread it

Two: that they more often than not appear healthy and are capable of respecting health guidelines as well as capable of making a difference

Three: that, regardless of how many cases they have or how unequipped they are politically/economically or otherwise, they have the power to do small, sometimes invisible things that help and inspire each other and their people.