#fairybait || baby alfred being chunky and cursed

[historia-vitae-magistras]

You’re my favorite blog <3 luv u

Oh god okay I love just like... ordinary domestic history. I love it so much. The history of childhood is so my wheelhouse. In 1629 the Kirk brothers raided and captured the tiny little shit pile colony that was Quebec. Acadia had already been raided by English Virginians in 1613. So Matt's a wee tiny little sad baby who got snatched up by Arthur and Alasdair. Scared shitless because they either filched him off a boat or kicked him from a burning settlement. He's sleeping in a drawer and tbh not doing great.

Alfred's about four or five, and he's a rambunctious four or five. Baby boy is busting up wooden shields and swords pretending to be a knight. He's chasing after Cadwaladr and coming home lightly singed when he does manage to get a good yank on the poor buggers tale. Does he know why the 'cat' is breathing fire? No. Does he love harassing it anyways? Yes. He loves the cattle and the horses and he's finally old enough the creatures have stopped harassing him so much. There are bright spangled sailboat tapestries in his room that catch the light because this home is the first Arthur ever installed big beautiful windows in. This kid has three chins and a Shetland pony, okay? baby boy is living his best life.

No one is quite sure what he'll do with a baby around. Matt's maybe walking, maybe toddling about but he's very quiet. He likes listening to stories and other people's words but he's not got a lick of English. And honestly I can't see Arthur being thrilled if Alasdair committed grand theft tadpole but Alfred got wind of the baby and he's absolutely going bonkers. Bouncing on his toes trying to see, trying to look up into Arthur or Rhys or Alasdair's arms to get a glimpse babbling about it. And they're a bit hesitant. Alfred's not exactly known for being gentle or careful.

But as soon as Matt's in his arms it's the calmest, sweetest, most cautious hold. For the first time in his life, Alfred has a peer, a friend, a sibling who cannot die. Who will not leave him. He didn't know he could miss someone before they existed. It's hard to quantify with how much intensity Alfred just automatically and instantly adored Matt. He's got so many goddamn emotions. Alfred's still little himself, and he's feeling so many things he's crying a bit and someone asks him what's wrong and he's just like "😭I don't know I just love him so much!"

[historia-vitae-magistras]

maybe when they were children? maybe???? 😭 i'm just imagining someone pointing a flintlock at Arthur while he's holding Alfred and instead of protecting him Arthur just tosses his tungsten baby like a fucking brick at the guy's head. like shit I need a weapon....alright son! make daddy proud!

Yeet the baby! Look at the wee bowling ball! He could knock someone over like ninepins! Baby boy and his army of chins could absolutely do the job. 10/10 best cannon ball. Fat baby boy my beloved.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

Wait wait wait Arthur's cat can breath fire? What kind of cat thing is he?

Oh, no! I'm actually following canon for once because I've been back in the trenches reading about just how wild human belief is so why the fuck not? Cadwaladr was a 6th century Welsh king who initially bore the standard of the red dragon who is on the Welsh flag today. I couldn't find a canon source that named the little bastard so now he's Cadwaladr. And he's a small, fat, cranky red dragon who can only partially penetrate Alfred's dense ass preternatural defenses so sometimes Uncle Rhys has a 'cat' that breathes fire. Or maybe a corgi. Not sure which I like more. But he's very fond of Alfred for some reason, despite Alfred harassing the hell out of him when he was small.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

I'm so late for this but, how does Matthew scare Alfred with his Catholicness? My own personal experience is just seeing an altar at my friend's devoted Catholic household 😭

So this is a very large and very complicated topic but I'm giving it a go. It's something that's mostly historical, a good chunk of the US is Catholic now but even 100 years ago that was a lot more controversial and 200 years ago unthinkable

Catholic Canada to the north, Catholic Mexico to the south. Early British colonists feared encirclement. This is the period in Americans history where colonists hadn't yet made it across the Appalachians and New France technically does surround it, it's just not settled.

Early American colonists, especially extremists in New England who later became WASPs were regularly raided by French Canadian settlers or First Nations groups aligned with France. Those settlers were often hauled to Quebec City to be ransomed if they were important, often in retaliation for the British seizing French ships which could easily cause food shortages in Canada. I wrote this happening to Alfred once and Matt bailed his ass out. It was probably the first time Matt disobeyed Francis actually. Also racism, because the French had much higher intermarriage rates with First Nations than the British though rather lower than the Spanish.

The British in America framed the world as Britishness and protestantism against French Catholicism. The perpetual wars between France and England, The war of Three Kingdoms or the English Civil War resulted from religious strife and other factors. Puritan paranoia was fueled by the proximity to Catholic Canada. Alfred's own overly adorable eldritch strangeness that lead to his turn doing the witchcraft conga might have been fueled in a small part by too much contact with Matthew as it was very common for less whacko New Englanders to trade and interact with French Catholics on the frontier. Religious strife was very much a source of pain and trauma for Alfred. Later, The Quebec Act of 1774 which was very generous to the French settlers the British had conquered a decade earlier because they ran out of money to do anymore ethnic cleansing like they did to the Acadians. This was one of the intolerable Acts that led to the American Revolution. It was quite literally allowing the antichrist to live on their northern border. Alfred is just really uncomfortable Arthur isn't forcibly dunking Matt at least into the Church of England. He loves Matt and I can see him being one of those weirdos who go "I fear for your immortal soul burning in the hell of the heretics" earlier in life.

But protestants to this day will call Catholic apostates (I'm technically a Catholic and was called this last year) the pope is the anti-Christ, yadda yadda. This is pretty much a non-issue for Matt now, except he gives Alfred shit like "Still having nightmares about stained glass and joy?"

The Irish had more problems than French Canada ever did, largely because of the French Catholic help the Americans got in their Revolution. But it was still a very real factor of discrimination against Irish and Italian Americans, and still is today for Hispanic Americans and Filipino-Americans especially. French Catholic Canada was scary because French Catholic Canada was armed. The Canada of history, especially for New England was a shadowy entity that stalked settlers in the woods and hunted them, raided them, killed and terrified them. That is not the case today, to put it mildly. Alfred's image of his brother is very selective. Cute broken baby he was when he was conquered, sweet and snuggly baby with too big blue eyes. Alfred is powerful now, he doesn't like to think about when he wasn't and Matt didn't automatically come second. And he loves Matt dearly so letting the religious trauma of their childhood become a thing Matt gives him shit about and Alfred rolls his eyes at was the more appealing offer.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

was thinking of smnth real fucked up but kinda funny. the fae are always after Alfred so in order to trick Arthur into handing him over they steal Matthew and leave a changeling in his place. turns out it's a bit more likeable and outgoing and Arthur takes better care of it than he does Matthew and when the fae try to claim give us the boy and we'll give you back your other son he's just like 'oh this one's quite fine actually" "huh? what- no- please take this son back. he's making us sad"

THAT IS eiorgeorjigioergjeorji. The way I had to lay down so I could get my breath back. That's.... that's so fucked up but you're right it is funny. The imperial bullshit game of hot potato a la canadien gets so bad, even the fucking fae don't want him... god, that's so MEAN. Not wrong but MEAN oh my god. Horrifying, I can't believe how funny I find this holy shit.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

Does Alfred know about all the deals Arthur made/all the work Brighid, Rhys, and Alasdair put into spells to protect him and such? And if so, does he believe that it was needed, or does he think it was just them being superstitious? I guess the overall question is - he can't see the fae stuff, so does he know/believe he's ever been at risk from it? Or does he have no idea why he gets those superstitious urges beyond "it's how I grew up"?

He has this... very vague inkling. Not very much in the context of the supernatural or even the incredibly disturbing incidences of horror the tungsten baby attracted just by existing but in this very abstract way. Things were done for him because he was loved. He doesn't really think about if it was real or not, he doesn't want to think about if his eternal soul is tainted by magic and... existence as a nation. But he knows because Brighid has mentioned it in passing. When he's upset, especially in his somewhat rare moments of self awareness when she lived with him at various points, she's mentioned spells older than the language they are speaking woven into his very cradle. Hand on his cheek, still hoping for his future, looking him in the eye she speaks what is something like a spell in its own right. "You aren't just like your father. I've loved you since the moment I met you, it was as much my magic as your uncles that protected you. Don't forget that as you take my people and make them yours."

He attributes his childhood beliefs to his people. Early Americans were extremely superstitious and much of that superstition is what marked them as witches to the Calvinists who rejected most spirituality in their worship. Alfred is scared shitless of most magic, I think. He won't even use a ouija board and probably decried spiritualism and the mediums as unscientific heathenry. When his brother dances with the peasants on the eve of the solstice, jumping over fires hand in hand with Katya, Alfred does whatever the protestant version of crossing himself is. He would very much not like to believe in fae or witches or wizards, but he's an immortal dirt fuck who's caught glimpses of his father and uncles carving blood runes into the floor before the door was shut. It's something there, a part of him if he ever wanted to look for it. But his perception of himself is counter too all of that so he doesn't dig much.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

don't think I'll ever get enough of faenip chonky baby Alfred. Arthur had to put him in a wood cradle made with iron nails and a horseshoe over every entrance into the house

faenip chonky baby Alfred attracted everything supernatural literally under the sun. His cradle was wood with iron strips through it because the nails didn't get the job done. It was also the shape of a ship and hung from a frame, so it rocked. Alasdair and Rhys were out there with iron swords that constantly blunted, slicing up wraiths and revenants because Alfred's screaming would quite literally wake the dead. Arthur had to put in blocks of salt around the foundation of the house to keep out some things. Iron for others.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

How do you think alfred would handle Matt being taken back after having those years of carrying him around, doting on him, overall enjoying having him around?

He was pissy and moody and lonely; I think he was briefly depressed and didn't want to play with his normal things or harass the blacksmiths and ferriers and the horsemen the way he usually did. But he's also very easily distracted, and it didn't take much to get him back to normal. Matt's gone, but as soon there's a new turtle in the pond or the new lambs to play with? He's good.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

Was there ever a time where baby Alfred, Champion of the Chins, ever thought the spicy ‘cat’ breathing fire was a normal cat thing? Because that would be funny.

It's not helping his case at the witch trial 😭. But in a less horrific way most of the cats I write are these Canadian-Welsh-Manx cymric kitties so Alfred probably sees the weird Celtic witchy cat and goes "awww whose my favourite fluffy boy" as Matt, who's been gaslit to hell and back wonders how the hell he is so insane he's seeing a little fat dragon flapping about.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

Tags

By Character

Aditya || brimful of the wine of truth

Alfred || o beautiful for spacious skies

Alasdair || my heart's in the highlands

Arthur || stone set in the silver sea

Brighid || An Bearna Bhaoil

Egill || Fár bregður hinu betra ef hann veit hið verra.

Eirian || into the nightlands

Erzse || In raptures I embrace

Francois || temperee par des chansons

Gilbert || from this baltic cannonball

Jack || a land of summer skies

Jan || God made Earth the Dutch made Holland

Katya || бо лишало на серці сліди

Kiku || these flowing islands

Leon || A wider view fills Heaven's glass

Ludwig || in deinem Herzchen klein

Magnus || climb the roots of Yggdrasil

Matthew || my country is winter

Maria || lo que viví lo estoy muriendo todavía

Rhys || my word for heaven was not yours

Sigurd || D'er klent Sted som stokk fyre Hamaren

Tolys ||

Yong Soo ||

Zee || ahakoa he iti he pounamu

By Relationship - Platonic

Alasdair and Matt || is mig amharc le dicheall

Alfred and Matt || lonely boys with the longest borders

Alfred and Rhys || Yn fy mhen a’i lond o freuddwydion

Alfred and Zee || freedom and fairness

Arthur and the children || bilge rat and his bouncing baby bilge rats

Britannia and her children || they made a desert and called it peace

Jack and Brighid || bound for Botany Bay

Jack and Zee || pieces of me across the Tasman sea

Jack Zee and Matt || battered bonds once so strong

Matthew and François || Quelques arpents de pièges

By Relationship - Romantic

Alasdair and Francois || an auld and abiding love

Alfred and Ludwig || our shooting stars were supersonic

Alfred and Tolys || with the awe of love realized

Maria and Alfred || De ilusión también se vive.

Maria and Matt || Al mal tiempo buena cara

Arthur and Gabriel || leagues of sincere affection

Arthur and Francois || our most dear enemy

Brighid and Romano || each our unlikely other half

Katya and Matt || the soil of our souls

Jan and Kiku || my favourite hello and hardest goodbye

Jan and Matt || the bells of liberation echo into eternity

Gilbert and Erzse || heart of iron beat for me

Gilbert and Arthur || heart of iron and heart of oak

By Topic

working pages

the great windmill debacle of 1994

the great incineration of 2023

Alfred and the stars || the first golden retriever in space

fairybait || baby alfred being chunky and cursed

Matt and Ferality || 80% uninhabited 100% uninhibited

meatsack mechanics || the sociology and biology of nations

Art History and Aesthetics || our eyes across the ages

WW1 || half the planet having daddy issues in a trench

archives || sing o muse the voices of the dead

By Type

the ask box || probis pateo

queued posts || Between the devil and the deep queue sea

the shitpost pile || forgive me my shitty sense of humour

my writing || cacoethes scribendi

research || sauntering through the stacks

Ideas || i should write this someday

ask box games || chaos coming soon to an inbox near you

moaning || personal/business posts

Character Sheets || bodies and flesh of borders and fences

[historia-vitae-magistras]

I LOVE your new tag for Alfred. It's just so hdfagdbfuhfbfjbfbdijs

Fairybait: baby Alfred being chunky and cursed

The chonky and chubby ball of a baby and the army of banshee coming for him.

LMAO thank you, someone asked me a long time ago to make a tag specifically for Baby Alfred.