i like to think arthur and francis fell back in love at the turn of the century and it was a total love fest. the vibrant underground gay culture in the victorian era helped arthur deal with his feelings (he’s wearing a green carnation btw) and francis, who waited for centuries, welcomed him with open arms. and it was as if they never separated. they went on a lot of lowkey dates and carried their portraits in their uniform pockets when the world went to hell a decade later.
Summary:Francis is the leader of a rather dysfunctional adventure party. Amid dungeon exploring, mission clearing and overall questing, he is desperately trying to keep the peace now that his former teenage sweetheart has joined his ragtag group of runaway strays.
Notes:This was an exchange fic that I did with @lutao-o that started over a year ago and is finally done! Just some found family RPG party shenanigans with a dash of pining.
Summary:Francis is the leader of a rather dysfunctional adventure party. Amid dungeon exploring, mission clearing and overall questing, he is desperately trying to keep the peace now that his former teenage sweetheart has joined his ragtag group of runaway strays.
Notes:This was an exchange fic that I did with @lutao-o that started over a year ago and is finally done! Just some found family RPG party shenanigans with a dash of pining
There was a man, the studio assistants tell him, who came by earlier to buy pencils. He offered to be painted after they had mentioned that their master was looking for a new subject, bored with the usual fare around.
He is young, apparently. New from the capital, blown in like summer. Soft blond hair and expressive, dark blue eyes above a strong jaw and elegant shoulders. A face that can capture attention but not dominate a work, draw in the eye like an arrow and not let go.
This is high praise indeed from the artist’s assistants, who see all across town in their many shapes and sizes with critical, well-trained eyes, and so this man needs to be assessed soon, lest he is taken and marked as muse by someone else hungry for their shot at greatness.
Where he is staying or how long for is unknown, but the assistants tell him that the man wanted to draw by the river and so there the artist goes, considering on the way whether or not the description will match the man himself. It is hard to stand out in a small town like this, and the booming art scene flooding the upper classes all over France to dilute the recognition that emerging talent deserves. A new muse, a fresh face, might provide the fire of imagination that he needs.
I can’t get enough of the concept of how despite France is the one making the first move flirting with England to rile him up, England is the one who does most of the serious pursuing over the centuries.
France always has suitors pursuing him no matter what time period (Scotland, Spain, Russia, Germany, Japan and America had a crush on him at some point). So England has to do the pursuing, as a pirate would hunt for the booty. He’s more competitive and serious than the free-spirited France. France likes teasing, but England is more possessive and serious about such relationships. As soon as England gets over his denial - in public, he remains nonplussed but in their private lives, HE is the one booking the reservations, preordering France’s favorite wine, vying for his attention, dressing to impress, wooingthecrap out of his irritating Frenchman.
He may be an angry bastard man who’s out of his league, but DAMN is he stubborn and devoted. That’s why France falls for him!
Alfred is manning the trolley. The trolley is playing ‘All Star’ at an extremely loud volume. He is distracted. The trolley is moving at 65mph. There is very little time to react
Arthur has cloned himself. He and his clones have been super glued to the track by an unknown person.
Francis is standing by the lever. You can get his attention by screaming. You have ten seconds to convey that you want him to pull the lever….if you want him to. Otherwise, leave him be.
Feliciano will get up and move depending on which way the trolley goes. His death is inevitable.
What will you do
Now I’m going to answer this unironically, as if OP has a gun pointed at my head.
The thing that everyone forgets is that Alfred/America is the one on the trolley. This is key. We have no say in this. It’s his choice. This is not a moral dilemma. This is an exercise in character interpretation and hypothetical conjecture.
However, it’s actually impossible to tell if America at that very moment is in the “spite england ya’ll” or “haha you can’t die yet you owe me money” or “of course imma hero here to save you!” mood. Their relationship perpetually oscillates between these contradictory truths, and sometimes all three mindsets are at play at the same way. Canon America’s brain is fucking wild. Hell, I’d make the case that if he could run all of England’s clones over, killing them, and claim it wasn’t his fault (”the trolley was going too fast” “I couldn’t decide in time”) and get away with it, he absolutely would. But see, even ifhe decided instinctively to spare England, his vitriolic ally, there is the added complication of assuming that France would go along with it.
You see, France can just as easily feign not understanding America’s incomprehensible yelling as his voice is distorted from the wind caused by the trolley speeding at 65 mph, and therefore conveniently allowing his insignificant other, his pain in the ass rival, to perish without taking the blame for it. This is also a possibility that he’s in a non-bitchy mood and does not wish violence upon England, yet who could blame him if he couldn’t hear America over that obnoxious All Stars music that was playing “at an extremely loud volume”? This situation makes it almost impossible for England to survive, evenifthey both made a conscious decision to save him.
Italy’s role here is completely irrelevant. He dies either way and neither America or France have strong feelings of resentment towards poor Italy, unlike England whom they share a common disdain for, yet at the same time wouldn’t feel right to end in such a premature way.
My answer is, of course, that the trolley will continue to take its course, as the universe intended. RIP England.
Then again, this is all irrelevant because they’re all fucking immortal metaphysical representations of nationalism and England and/or Italy will simply re-spawn and come back to life eventually. Then maybe England can explain why he thought it’s be a good idea to clone himself and who is the ‘unknown person’ who tied him on the tracks. Then maybe Italy can explain to them why he was feeling suicidal that day. Yeah, maybe we ought to unpack that??? What America was doing on top of that thing and France standing around the lever being extra is completely in-canon, needs no explanation. I rest my case.
