#❂ ┊ ❝ 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐧𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 ! / headcanon.

[aethele]

A Cursory Collection of Delightful Headcanons Regarding The Beach And Seaside Activities:

•   ferdinand is a very good swimmer !   aegir is a coastal territory so he grew up by the ocean.   on any beach trip he will make a beeline for the water and that is usually where you will find him. 

•   he likes diving for big shells,   and he will bring them back to the beach and give them to his significant other and say  “ this beautiful seashell reminded me of you :) ”  which may be sweet the first few times but not so much when you have a huge pile of conch shells at your feet by the end of the day.   what are you going to do with all these conch shells ?!

•   do not build sandcastles around him.   he will critique your castle for being inaccurate.   why did you put the ramparts there ?!   it is utterly defenseless like that   ――   a sand army would seize it with ease !!! 

•   you will have to remind him to put on sun protection because he will forget.   sometimes he will be sneaky and try to get out of putting it on too.   this is bad because redheads are extra sensitive to sunlight !

•   he will do ridiculous,   dangerous flips off cliffs to show off.   please stop him.

[aethele]

A Miscellany of Headcanons Concerning Ferdinand’s Magnificent Mane That We All So Dearly Adore,   Henceforth Referred to Simply as  His Hair: 

•   he grows it out due to depression.   i am not really going to beat around the bush on this because it is pretty explicit in canon:   he canonically grew his hair out because he was too busy trying to pick up the pieces of his house’s fall from power,   and in CF he threw himself entirely into war.   he simply did not have the time nor frankly the wherewithal to do anything about it,  and someone previously so concerned about his physical appearance forgetting to cut his hair for  over five years  says a lot about his mental state.

•   it was pretty bad during the skip,   more so in non-CF routes.   he did not take the best care of it as it grew longer,   usually just throwing it into a small messy ponytail and ignoring it.   he gave up tying it back when it got so long to be an annoyance,   and only started taking proper care of it again once the professor returned and the stalemate was broken. 

•   once he is in a better place mentally,   he takes much better care of it,   returning to his usual over-indulgent grooming habits.   he washes it in the evening with nice vetiver and amber soaps,   as hygiene products end up being the one thing he is willing to splurge on given his financial situation.   being clean and presentable,   like the noble he used to be,   makes him feel better.  

•   for these reasons,   he does not particularly like when people excessively compliment,   touch,   or refer to his hair as  ‘fashionable’   or any similar terms.   to him it is nothing but a physical reminder of the worst years of his life as well as his own irresponsibility.   a compliment here or there is fine,   but too much flattery will make him upset.   he is always  this close  to impulsively cutting it at any given moment,   in any given route.  if you must compliment him,  he reacts most positively to compliments that compare him to a dashing prince or daring knight in a storybook,  or a lion-maned warrior of eld. 

•   he feels a lot better about it post-war.   all of those negative associations are behind him and it  …  grows on him,   hee hee.   bonus if his spouse likes it,   because  “ oh,  i keep it long because my wife / husband / partner likes it ”   is a much easier explanation than   “ well,   you see,   a few years ago i was  Really Going Through It …… ”  he also like it a lot more when he remembers that many of his ancestors wore their hair long in battle before the empire was founded and such things were less socially acceptable. 

•   he sleeps in a braid every night.   his hair gets its wavy texture partially from its natural wave and also from drying in a braid.   some nights he is too exhausted or falls asleep at his desk / couch / whatever and does not braid it,   and it shows the next day because his hair is noticeably flatter.  while he can braid a horse’s mane with ease,  he is not the best at braiding his own,  though he improves over the years.  if his beloved is noticeably better at it than he is,  he will often ask them so so sweetly to please do it for him. 

•   he does not go bald.   the jokes are funny but that is,   however,   not how genetics work.   he keeps his hair long the rest of his life,   and red hair naturally maintains its pigment longer than most other shades.   when it does start to fade late in his life,   it streaks with a rosy blond first,   then a silvery white.

[aethele]

A Fun and Jovial Compendium of Brief Headcanons About Dear Ferdinand’s Tasteful Yet Simultaneously Insufferable Choice of Attire,   Finery,   and Regalia: 

•   ferdinand has a personal tailor in enbarr that he has known since youth.   when he receives his uniforms for the officers academy,   he immediately sends them straight to the tailor to be custom fit.   he dislikes ill-fitting clothes and will quite blatantly point out if  your  clothes are ill-fitting,   then offer to send them to his tailor for you. 

•   he prefers to wear warm colors,   heavy patterns,   and fine fabrics.    that is not to say his wardrobe is limited however;   he does own cold colors and solid pieces,   and he looks particularly striking in dark blues and greens.   he simply does not wear them as often. 

•   another staple to his wardrobe are cravats,   as well as brooches and cufflinks.   he puts a great deal of thought into the style / fold of his cravat and choice of brooch and cufflinks in the morning.   he never wears the same combination within the same week,   even moon   -----   his collection is extensive.  these make very good gifts for him,  for any occasion.

•   he adores capes and is rarely seen without them.   capes are very popular in the empire,   though unlike most ferdinand prefers half-capes or 3/4th length capes.   he does have a few full-length capes but saves those for more formal events,   as they tend to get in his way and cause annoyance with how much he is on his feet.

•   he owns a lot of fancy hats.   his preferred style is cavalier hats,  as seen below,   with the big poofy feather.  he wears hats relatively often post-war and always has them commissioned from small,   local millineries.  they are absolutely on a first-name basis with him there.

•   there is in fact reasoning behind his choice of greaves + gauntlets + pauldrons without any torso armor.   this is entirely so he can stay defter upon horseback while keeping only the most exposed part of his body protected,  and so he can quickly get up in the unlikely event he is thrown from his horse.   it is a bit risky but he is more than confident in his horsemanship skills;   likewise,   though he wears spurs,   he rarely makes use of them.

•   he almost exclusively wears thigh high boots,   with or without laces.   he does not own very many short boots or fancy shoes,   and he is not the sort of noble to worry about getting his boots muddy.   in fact,  he has a bad habit of wearing his muddy boots indoors. 

•   he has a lot of,   ahem,   objectively ugly and gaudy clothing.   ‘ it is unique, ’   he will say in defense of his toile-patterned doublet that looks like this:

for whatever reason,   he almost always pulls off the look anyway.   he is just one of those people.  he is a very stylish prime minister and history denotes him as such !