four-comma-five-verse

[four-comma-five-verse]

aughhhh the shared worlddd, the shareeed world my beloveeed , , , <3 honestly now think more of the shared world me and Oz have then my own at this point. (I can not imagine Maria (my Livonia (german)) without Kornelius (Oz's Livonia (german)) - that useless lesbian can not be left alone)

I am going to be so annoying abt all the lore we have made up, when I'm free from the evil that is Exams but for now! ! ! Sketches i already had cooked up and Lore be upon ye all!

Ok so ! The way I personify the hetalia Nations in my head is as 'People made Spirits' - they're the songs people sang around a campfire or the laws people made up - they are - intrinsically - made up out of thoughts and dreams, while Oz's Immortal Guys are much more - well - guys. And that difference was intriguing and cool ! ! ! The thought of both of these worlds co-existing - banger to me.

The completely opposite ways we characterised Raivis was also a big drive in smashing them together like dolls and forcing them to interact. The realist and the dreamer. The State and the People.

The Song and the Singer.

My Raivis (Raivis Bērziņš - or just Bērziņš as we like to call him for ease) is a Frankenstein Monster made from his ancestors - a 200 year old spirit whos bones and flesh and blood is over 2000.

Oz's Raivis (Raivis Liepa - or just Liepa) is a 800ish Immortal Guy who's mom was Latgallia and who continued on living after all the 'latvian' tribes Immortal People died :( (to the horror of my 'latvian' tribes personifications (dieties - for a lack of a better world)).

And yes you read their ages right - Bērziņš is basiclly a baby compared to Liepa - yet Liepa is the head in clouds 'Space isn't real' guy while Bērziņš is the 'I am going to evade so much Taxes' politics-brained guy. They are the heart and mind of the operation - personality wise.

Oz has already posted some drawings of the lil guys interacting but heres the drabble i wrote about it also ! :D Liepas "first" and first meeting with Bērziņš! :D

They are the left and right hand - theyre Bērziņš and Liepa :D

How would the two Latvias coexist? Very intriguing

I implore @four-comma-five-verse to reply to this aswell, Jay is ultimately the driving force behind this little verse and we use more-so of that world than my identity fraud stories

In short, Raivis (Bērziņš) is the whole of Latvia as the geography, as the language, as the culture and folklore and every feeling of home that people associate with the land. He is a "deity"(for we couldnt come up with a better word for this 🤷), while Raivis (Liepa) is a "hero"(also no better word). He is an immortal person who grew up there, represented it at many important times as the people besides the goverments and in the "nationpeople" things of "got conquered, live with me now". He is the folk. Part of the folklore and a creator of it.

Theyre two sides of the same coin, the song and the singer, the flower that grows and the hands that weave it. The wind that blows through the sea, the piece of amber falling out of the waves, and the wishes whispered to it under the moon.

Politically, Bērziņš is the whole of the country and probably the one acting besides the saeima domestically, and Liepa acts besides the president in foreign relations. Just look at what Rinkēvičs posts on his instagram lmao 😭

I would also say Liepa, for being #bornandraised Latgalian, sortof represents the region (even if Bērziņš is the -whole-). Their two's speaking besides eachother would make this obvious but otherwise you probably couldnt tell.

They get allong. This is the most I can say without tearing my skin off (we insinuate such angst and lore and ilness and and and between them but its secret for now). They get allong 🥺😮‍💨😁😄😃😆🥰👍👍👍

[four-comma-five-verse]

truly some people have no genre savviness whatsoever. A girl came back from the dead the other day and fresh out of the grave she laughed and laughed and lay down on the grass nearby to watch the sky, dirt still under her nails. I asked her if she’s sad about anything and she asked me why she should be. I asked her if she’s perhaps worried she’s a shadow of who she used to be and she said that if she is a shadow she is a joyous one, and anyway whoever she was she is her, now, and that’s enough. I inquired about revenge, about unfinished business, about what had filled her with the incessant need to claw her way out from beneath but she just said she’s here to live. I told her about ghosts, about zombies, tried to explain to her how her options lie between horror and tragedy but she just said if those are the stories meant for her then she’ll make another one. I said “isn’t it terribly lonely how in your triumph over death nobody was here to greet you?” and she just looked at me funny and said “what do you mean? The whole world was here, waiting”. Some people, I tell you.

[four-comma-five-verse]

Two latvians.. @four-comma-five-verse's guy is a real sobstory, and he had to explain to my dude what "GDP" means too

(opposite ver under cut)

geen and gay original by al8estos

[four-comma-five-verse]

hey, did you know that the world is a better place because of your creations and art and writing, no matter how niche or how many people see it

[four-comma-five-verse]

for reference so people know what the fuck is going on in fcf verse

[four-comma-five-verse]

[four-comma-five-verse]

This is for me and two other people that enjoy seeing these two in close proximity

Also this is actually a band au sketch but I’m keeping the rest that pertains to that below the cut

Playing around with their band name and their theme

[four-comma-five-verse]

i <3 making fuckass gifs with my ships

feel free to use

[four-comma-five-verse]

[four-comma-five-verse]

wow cringe

[four-comma-five-verse]

:D

[four-comma-five-verse]

cant leave me besides a whiteboard unattended

[four-comma-five-verse]

Hey gang its me ms ideas, back again with more ideas that i had before actually doing any of the previous ones.

[four-comma-five-verse]

Exams Please end faster Exams Please End faster Exams Please End faster. I want to draw the latvian twink in my Entire warderobe Please Please Please

[four-comma-five-verse]

me : "so if hws!latvia is like 42.8 % laimdota, 35.7 % spīdala, 12.5 % lāčplēsis and 7 % kangars then a 2p!hws!latvia would have to be at least like 57.4 % kangars right?"

the person ive forced to listen to my insanity (thats you guys <3): "wghat are you talking about where are you getting these decimal points from?"

me : "ah but that array forgets koknesis! though of course the argument can be made that koknesis and kalapuisis instead are 0.5 % of hws!estonia and hws!lithuania! so really we're not forgeting anything and the scientific configuration of a 2p!hws!latvia could still be - hey no where are you going i wasnt finished talking about how we can use triganometry to calculate a potential 2p!hws!latvias personality come back - "

[four-comma-five-verse]

imagine the baltics getting therapy. the therapist (whos sent by the UN for PR or something) being so, so sure she knows what she's getting into and then it turns out that actually these three have many things wrong with them in ways noone (except their buddies who also have things wrong with them so they all thought it was normal) had ever bothered to look into before.

the therapist hearing her colleagues call them the "trembling trio" and expecting to face three palatable traumatised anxiety cases.

instead shes faced with mr "im 5 sec away from burning the nearest building on fire all the time but im a profesional so i dont", mr "i want what everyone else has so bad i could bite" and mr "i am going to bite and maim everyone who looks at me wrong i am not going to lose i am not going to lose to anyone anymore."

and fuck man. she may not be the best option for this but maybe she can give them all some drawing exercises and see what comes out of it.

[four-comma-five-verse]

also while the minutia of Raivis's whole deal with Arthur are of course specific to the fic - the broad strokes of their relationship during the independance wars are something that's rotted my brain for a while now - the lil "Did Arthur tell you to call me that?" >:( from Raivis is something Raivis would have said even without any time loop shenanigans.

presenting excibit a) - a small drabble i once wrote that was meant to become a comic but never did (tw for Arthur being a prick and Arthur pretty heavily implying that he thinks that Raivis is Ivans 'kid' (also Arthurs an ureliable narrator so most of what he thinks is bullshit)) ->

“I did everything right.” Raivis says, blood dripping from his forehead and unkempt hair. He’s wearing a tattered coat – not even a uniform – and that too is bloody and full with bullet holes. It swallows him with it’s size.

“I did everything right,” He repeats – louder - his voice now a low growl, worn out from – well, screaming, most probably. “I kept my head down, I rolled over like a dog, I let the Germans into my army and they stabbed me in the back, I let the Reds into my lands because they were my people too and they slaughtered the rest of me.”

“I didn’t fight back!” Raivis screams. “I jumped when they said jump! I knew I couldn’t win! I knew what more powerful Nations do to those who resist!”

“So why – “ And here, his voice catches, a lump in his throat, as he yet again tastes blood – his blood, his peoples blood. “Why did they still slaughter me like cattle?”

Arthur, who had had come here to tell Raivis about the British governments new demands and policies for the Baltic Sea aerial, pauses. Opens his mouth - “Look, kid, Raivis, I get that – “

- and is interrupted by Raivis picking up and throwing down a chair against the table with an animalistic ferocity -

“That is not my name!” He yells. “I’m Latvia! Raivis is a nickname I chose on a whim! And I am not your kid – I am your ally.”

Startled laughter follows this proclamation, and judging by the look of afront on Raivis’s face – it is not taken well. But – really – can someone blame Arthur for it? For laughing at this kid, who’s never been a Nation, who’s so small and insignificant his only real use is to be a human shield between the civilised people and the Communists, insisting he’s the great British Empires ally?

“Boy, take care what tone you take when you speak to me. Did Ivan not teach you any manners when he raised you? Honestly, this is why that man doesn’t deserve to be a parent.”

Raivis stares. He doesn’t look angry anymore – just startled, a bit spooked perhaps. He looks like he’s finally understood his place, Arthur thinks with a tinge of pride. Raivis might have been Russia’s little territory, but after all this nonsense he felt he was owed at least an honorary big brother’s position.

Arthur had always loved adding to his collection of smaller siblings. (even if some of them were ungrateful brats)

“How much will my government have to pay you back after this is all done?” Raivis finally asks.

Arthur frowns at the change of topic : “Excuse me?”

Planning out a longform multi-chapter independance wars time loop fic focusing on the Baltics, so while I'm still marinating that - here's a 'prototype' one-shot i wrote to test out if I liked the premise enough to write a longform fic about it ->

The third time Eduard woke up on the morrow of april the 16th 1919 - he groaned.

His glasses sat on the table next to his bed, not the book he had put them on yesterday – in the evening of a 16th of april so very alike the one he was about to relive once again.

It was truly a miracle he hadn’t gone insane yet – truly.

-

"Don't you have any other jokes?" Tolvydas sighed absentmindedly as he picked at his food, while both of them sat together at breakfast. They were to 'play nice' with each other while they waited for Raivis and the representatives of his provisional government to arrive to talk business.

(Eduard didn’t mind being treated as an actual Nation, but being treated as a child who was to play with his designated play mate in what amounted to a (not even that fancy) play date irked him.)

Eduard, who had told the exact same joke for the last three days (because certainty was safe) to less and less success was beginning to think that maybe practice didn’t make perfect, if his execution apparently got worse and worse each time.

"Maybe Estonian humour just isn't for you," Eduard said.

Tolvydas had laughed the first time he had said it, and it had reminded him of a time spent holing themselves together with the others in the servants quarters - sharing stories and anecdotes with one another in that cramped space. It was a bittersweet memory.

Maybe it was for the best that Tolvydas didn’t laugh anymore.

"I've just heard it before," Tolvydas said, "Maybe you have another?"

Eduard paused. Tolvydas had most definitely not heard that joke before today - he had told him as much during Eduards first april the 16th.

"Right." Eduard said eventually. "None really come to mind. Maybe you have some of your own?"

The joke Tolvydas told him was different from the one he told the previous time Eduard had asked.

-

"Right." Eduard said yet again, on another april the 16th. "None really come to mind. Maybe you have some of your own?"

The joke Tolvydas told him was the same as ‘yesterdays’.

Eduard, despite himself, snorted before Tolvydas finished the punchline.

"Hm," Tolvydas hummed like he hadn’t before.

"So when do you think Raivis is getting here?" Eduard asked like he had done every time before.

-

"So when do you think Raivis is getting here?"

-

"So when do you think Raivis is getting here?"

-

"So when do you think Raivis is getting here?"

-

"So when do you think Raivis is getting here?"

“He’s probably already dead.” Tolvydas hissed, before biting into his slice of bread.

“That – “

Eduard’s next words got caught in his throat.

“Don’t joke about that.” Eduard said after a beat of silence.

“Who says I’m joking?” Tolvydas said. “Have you seen him? He doesn’t even want independence.”

Eduard, who had often argued about the exact same thing with Raivis, suddenly felt extremely offended on his behalf. “He’s just tired from the Great War. Besides - aren’t you supposed to be brothers?”

“Since when has that mattered for Nations?”

Eduard has nothing to say to that.

-

"So when do you think Raivis is getting here?"

“Will you shut up about Raivis already!”

There is a pause.

“I never said anything about Raivis.” Eduard said carefully.

Tolvydas glared at him, pushed back his un-eaten food, and crossed his arms. “It’d be easier to pretend we both don’t know what’s going on if you’d stop being so annoying about it.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Tolvydas did not look convinced.

-

Eduard and Tolvydas did not talk in their next april the 16th.

-

“Game of chess?” Eduard asked the next morning, because even he could get bored.

Tolvydas squinted at him, obviously suspicious, but well – there really wasn’t anything better to do, was there?

-

"Checkmate," Tolvydas grinned.

Eduard scoffed.

-

“Oh look at that,” Eduard said. “Checkmate.”

Tolvydas stopped staring at the board in search of an exit – a way to win – to glare daggers at Eduard.

-

“Hey – do you remember that time we all stole those pastries from the kitchen?”

“Blaming it all on Poland was the best part.”

“You would say that.”

-

A pause. Then -

“Do you think the others will make it?”

Silence.

“Worry about yourself.”

-

“So how do you deal with these time jumps?” Eduard asked, a paper and pen in hand – there was always the possibly that this April the 16th would be the last, so there was no harm in writing this all down.

Tolvydas snorted. “Time jumps? Is that what you call them?”

“That’s what they are.” Eduard shrugged.

“They seem more like time loops to me.”

“Ah – but a loop implies that it’s a closed loop! Which isn’t really the case here, is it?” 

Tolvydas rolled his eyes.

-

The first time Eduard woke up on the morrow of april the 17th 1919 - he laughed, the sound coming out a little breathless.

-

Tolvydas smiled at him during their first breakfast on the 17th of april 1919. And maybe they would never actually be friends or trust each other much, but Eduard could admit that he liked the man well enough.

And for Nations like them?

That was enough.

It was the 18th of april 1919 - and the room Eduard had walked in on was utterly wrecked. Wooden splinters which were surely once chairs littered the floor, a table laid overturned - it's once pure white, now dirtied tablecloth a mess beside it, the curtains torn.

-

The reason Raivis had not arrived in time - turns out - was because he was too busy loosing control of his army and terittory to a German coup.

Eduard saw red.

-

That’s not what Eduard noticed first though - oh no, the surroundings were a mere afterthought to the eye of the storm which stood in the middle of the room.

It was the harsh winds of the Baltic sea, the unyielding currents of Daugava, the oppressing depth of a hundred bogs, the unstoppable growth of a field of dandelions. It was castles and fortresses - the cobblestone roads of Riga. It was the church bell in the sunday morning.

What stood in the middle of the room was unquestionably not human.

It was a dose of pure liquor, after having gone so long with only the distilled one to taste. A flame out of control.

But that only made the feel of it all the more recognisable.

'Latvia?' Eduard wanted to ask, but refused to, for the thought of nobody responding to that name scared him more than he cared to admit.

"Raivis?" He asked instead.

The growth of the forest, stilwater of the lake, swing of a farmers hoe, story passed down from mother to daughter, song sung around a summer pyre stayed silent.

"You're leaking." Eduard frowned, not managing to keep the disapproval out of his tone.

 (Raivis had once told him it felt patronising, but Eduard only chided Raivis for his own good, really. What could someone so young know of the world anyway? Eduard only wanted to protect the only thing left of his friend.)

Nothing.

And then - the air shifted -

"That's not my name," said the storm, the water, the earth, the story and the faith now safely back under the skin of a young boy - barely older than the youngest of his students battalion.

Eduard tensed, his mind already all but certain of the worst case scenario. Did he go by Johan now? Ludwig Junior?

Was this lapse in control a sign of an incoming fracture? He was no stranger to those, not with his roots. Eduard still remembered as his annoying southern neighbour number 3 splintered and his new southern neighbour claimed she was not her past self at all. He had found it amusing back then. Had found it funny.

Now he felt sick at the mere idea.

Eduard had sparred with Raivis before - knew his biggest weaknesses, knew of his poor reaction time, knew how to kill him.

He could do so now in only a few seconds if he took him by surprise, if -

"I am the Republic of Latvia." Was the last thing Raivis said before there was a bullet in his heart.

His body, which was so horribly human, despite it all, dropped like a stone. It hit the white tablecloth draped floor and did what open wounds did best - bled.

The white sheet – now stained blood red at the sides felt like a slap in the face.

Eduard, for his part, only stared.

"Oh," he whispered, now only to himself.

-

When Eduard missed a step and landed right back into the morning of the same day he had just lived, he rejoiced.

It felt like forever ago that he was actually thankful for a time jump.

(The thought that Tolvydas was stuck reliving this day too and most likely did not appreciate having to retrace his steps yet again was a fleeting one. Both of them had used the time jumps to their advantage before, and it was not like him begging for one to happen before had ever bore any fruit, so Eduard refused to take any responsibility for any annoyance this one would cause Tolvydas.)

"Latvia?" Was what Eduard asked the second time he walked into that wrecked room.

Raivis blinked, the storm of what they actually were receding back into humanity with an almost sheepish air.

“Did Arthur tell you to call me that?” Raivis asked, his voice deathly calm, if a bit strained – all except when he said England’s name, which was uttered like a curse – spat out like poison.

Alright, Eduard thought to himself, at least I didn’t kill him this time. That’s progress.

Still –

“No,” Eduard said. “He seemed to be in too big of a rush to tell me anything when he stormed out of here.”

Raivis’s eyes flashed, before he seemed to catch himself. Eduard watched him untense, shrink like a house in winter - a cat deflating, before he asked. “He wasn’t … too mad, was he?”

“Depends on what you told him.”

Ah. That had come out more accusatory then Eduard intended.

 “I know we need him,” Raivis said. “I know we do – you don’t have to be the one to tell me. I know, I know, I know.”

Eduard stared at Raivis for a while, both of them standing in an oppressive silence, before Eduard sighed and –

-

Eduard missed a step in his stride.

He blinked.

He really should have expected this. Time jumps never worked in his favour, after all.

When he ran to that room for the third time – it was empty.