#IAATD

[oumaheroes]

'You and your creche of children. I can't decide whether you're trying to emulate and romanticise all of us in your long forgotten youth with Rome, or whether you're actually aiming to be matronly and domestic, a mock run of a human family. Either way, you're doing neither of them very well.

Anyway, to the point of this letter...'

A first draft of a letter from France to England in Canada's folder in It's All About The Delivery. Wasn't used in the end but it's definitely something that Francis would write

[oumaheroes]

Thank you Anon! I'd love to do more works in the IAATD universe some day, lemme know what you're interested in

hi! adore your work. Is it okay to ask if we'll see more of the delivery universe when you finish it? It's fabulous.

I think this would be best addressed to it's author, anon! @oumaheroes.

[ameliajane8]

Find the Best Place to Get Small Business Loans for Your Business: https://shorturl.at/iaatd

[nick148601]

iaatd

I anit afraid to die, I got Briella on my side, Taylor Alison Swift on my mind, that all I need to ride

[oumaheroes]

Ooh, can i ask about that scar Matthew dreads to explain??

Hahahah oh dear. You can find a hint about it in chapter 13 of It's All About The Delivery:

...............

'It was an account of a ball, written by an English gentleman as a review on the proceedings. Whether it was published or simply written for a friend the PM had no clue, but it read as followed:

Of course, one of the highlights of the evening I was lucky enough to have witnessed for myself. It was around the time of the third set of dances: Lord Kirkland’s ward -a younger brother, it is believed, perhaps a bastard of the father for he is not oft mentioned in a family of known recluses- was dancing with the young Lady Hillby. Her mother, speaking with Reverend Oakly’s wife, suddenly gave a sharp little gasp upon seeing them and exclaimed that she not only knew the young Master Kirkland, but seemed to imply that they had once been rather intimate many years ago.

  Of course, I assumed that I must have been mistaken in my hearing. The young Master Kirkland is but a lad of five and ten, and a lady of Lady Hillby’s standing and good breeding would not speak of such things in public. But a ripple went about the room, and that was all I heard for the rest of the night.

Once again, it was notable that there was no comment from Mr Williams to explain the situation.'

...........

The situation was that Matt got involved with a human girl (poor Madam Hillby). This would have been very scandalous behaviour at the time for she was unmarried, the daughter of a rather well placed Lord, and her family would have had big plans for her marriage-wise. To be found cavorting with the lower born, almost tradesman, Lord Kirkland's son would have been the end of her reputation

Horny little teenagers have other plans, however, and Matt would play high games of risk to spend time with beautiful young ladies.

For the one particular instance Lady Hillby senior was remembering in chapter 13, she and Matt had snuck away from a ball to an upstairs bedroom. Matthew was not even supposed to be at that ball- family not high born enough- when Lady Hillby's brother had come looking for her, hearing that she'd snuck away with someone.

Hearing him coming, Matt was trying to escape out of the window in a hurry and fell, landing in a bush and impaling himself in the arse cheek. He never told Arthur because of the damage it would do at the time if it had got out and because he was then caught by Arthur many years later at a different party with her daughter

There are some conversations he still can't face having with his father and that is one of them

[oumaheroes]

Okay boys and girls we are not, I repeat we are NOT, going to talk about how the only save file I had for It's All About the Delivery on ANY of my harddrives or PC was missing the last 2 chapters and the only complete version of it was sitting delicately on Ao3 we are NOT

[oumaheroes]

Me, seeing exactly on AO3 how many days it's been since I last updated It's All About The Delivery

[oumaheroes]

Yo! Just reading your PM fic and I've been dying to know who the Prime Minster is based on. I at first thought it may have been Justin Trudeau but Trudeau would have been raised around Matthew and would have recognised him from when he was a kid so he's out.

He isn't based on anyone! He's my own little man, just doin his best

[oumaheroes]

Chapter 14 is here

It’s All About The Delivery

Summary:

The new Prime Minister of Canada is already in love with his job. Everyone seems so nice and friendly and he can’t wait to get started trying to do some good. Shame there’s that really weird kid who thinks he’s Canada. 

Characters: Canada, England from chapter 6, mentions of others

Link to AO3

I tell you what, this is such fun to write. A lot more light-hearted that my other things! Canada is not having a fun time, poor bean.

[oumaheroes]

‘Tan’

Okay, I cannot help myself I have to explain

In, ‘It’s All About The Delivery,’ Arthur titles a doodle of Matthew ‘Tan’ In chapter 13:

‘It was a pencil sketch of a young boy, the lines faded and smudged with age. The subject was hunched over on his elbows, head close to the floor with a cheek pillowed on one hand and a book underneath. He was covered in a blanket, the roll of his back indicating tucked under legs, knees close to his chest. Tiny feet peeped out from the folds; toes bunched as if the child were about to shift or bolt but the expression on his face was open, unobserved and relaxed.

The quick, light lines indicated that the sketch was something done in a rush, or maybe conjured from memory alone. Something absentmindedly done, rather than with any wish for accuracy or detail. But it was undeniably Mr Williams: his wavy hair, the large, heavy-lidded eyes. Even the expression was one the PM had seen before- Mr Williams on the plane on their way here, head against his fist on the window as he held a kindle on his lap. In the sketch, the young boy was recognisable both as the one from the painting the PM had seen, and the Mr Williams he knew, a peeled back look into an unseen childhood.

It was titled ‘Tan’ (3)

‘Location: From the collection of books relocated from England’s London house to the Kirkland Manor in 1940. Was being used as a bookmark to hold page 76 of “The Illustrated Stock Doctor and Live-Stock Encyclopaedia including Horses Cattle Sheep Swine and Poultry, 1883 (4)”. I have replaced this ad-hoc bookmark with a real one and it is unlikely to be missed.’

This is in reference to an ancient, rural counting system that still somewhat persists in England and southern Scotland today, ‘Yan tan tethera’, which is descended from the ancient Brythonic language (mostly in the north of England, although there are several southern variations.) The language itself died out in the British Isles around the 6th Century, but the counting system remains to count important things like sheep, knitting, and children ;u;

Arthur was reading a book on sheep rearing and his mind wandered to think about his own children. He doodled Matthew as ‘Tan’- two. Second child of his. I love this counting system because they go in pairs, like his children do: ‘yan tan' as one and two, and ‘tether mether’ as three and four

The date of the book doesn’t match up with the age of Matthew in the doodle; I imagine Arthur does this a lot and there are a lot of small quick doodles of his lying about on scraps of paper and hidden in books

Shout out to @historia-vitae-magistras for being a clever lil egg who got such a random and niche linguistic reference (and all that this small detail entails <3)

Other references

[oumaheroes]

hii!! I'm currently re-reading It's All About the Delivery for like the third time and I just wanted to tell you i absolutely love it!! i love fics that are about nations from an outsider perspective and if they were kept a secret and IAATD explores this really well!

Thank you, lovely anon! 🥹 what a kind thing to tell me ajsbjsddkdj

I am feral for that concept, describing these creatures in all their Eldritch strangeness is 🤌🤌🤌🤌 delicious. Poor ol' PM surrounded by these strange things- Canada’s embarrassed, Stephen is horrified, and everyone else is highly amused

[oumaheroes]

Speaking of It's All About the Delivery, please know that I think about it guiltily a lot and I very much want to update it soon

[oumaheroes]

I have to tell you that you linking IATD and Reset into the same world is absolutely brilliant because I can't get this out of my head:

The video of England being shot in the hotel room released to the public and Stephen just seeing that video and thinking 'Is that- is that LORD KIRKLAND?'

Because this eldritch creature who was your introduction after Canada to just how old and scary these nations can be, who has been proud and well-mannered to a fault around you, and who has disappeared from the public eye for literal years at this point working at a care home, has just been basically publicly assassinated online. I can't- Dirt has been shot!

I know this is so random, but it has been on my mind for literal DAYS and I had to let you know because your writing gives me life ❤️

Jdjdkdbdkdf7r7f!! I've never thought of this interaction before and now I'm ruined

Stephen accidentally finding out before any official report by innocently scrolling through Facebook memes and choking on his coffee in a panic because he knows that guy and oh GOD what does he do now??? Because everyone's joking it's CGI but that's Lord Kirkland so it's n o t

Matthew doesn't step more than one foot into the office before he's being dragged into a sideroom for the PM to awkwardly guess at how normal this all is whilst explaining that his dad is now dead

Maybe?

[oumaheroes]

It's definitely a matter of delivery. Since Matthew looks pretty natural, it's normal for Stephen to doubt him instead of insisting the file method. Some people are just more keen on verbal than visual presentation, and yearn for more immediate result. He can, idk, ask his co. to shoot him or sth. Would be much faster haha.

Oh you're totally right- he certainly could!

Honestly, though, it's not something that's even crossed Canada's mind. Their kind revealing themselves to humans is an honour they are granted, an experience very few get to have and poor Canada never even considered that he'd have to make someone believe him. That he'd need to use any kind of 'proof' was really low on his list and, as much as he'd like the PM to believe him, he'd never hurt himself or put himself in a vulnerable position just to get one mortal man, PM or otherwise, to see something that he considers to be obvious. As sweet as he is, Matthew is Arthur's son and he does have a degree of pride in him- he shouldn't have to do those sorts of things or lower himself to that level (as nice as the PM is lol).

Plus, Matthew is seriously analysing the implications of 'Stephen doesn't believe me.' As he says to England in chapter 9:

He stopped and sighed, ‘What if it means something?’ He looked up to meet England’s gaze, ‘that he doesn’t believe me?’

England stayed silent and Canada continued, ‘What if Stephen not believing me means that he doesn’t believe in Canada, that he isn’t in office for the good of people?’

‘You mean, if he’s not actually a worthy leader of your nation?’

‘Yes,’ Canada felt the shame of that admittance sink into him. He didn’t want to distrust Stephen, but what if his failure to believe and refusal to try meant something? ‘I don’t want to think badly of him, especially if this really isn’t his fault, but what if this is a sign that he’s not working in my best interests?’

He's wary. It is not as important that Stephen believes, more so what this implies. To force someone to believe in their nation doesn't sit right with Matthew and he'd much rather let this play out as fate intended to see what will happen

I think if Canada's government was more harsh on its people and the PM was to be there for a lifetime, Matthew would consider more deaperate options to make sure the PM believed him so he could keep a foot in the political door.

[oumaheroes]

4 & 10 for IAATD and 19 for you, pretty please? ❤️ I love your writing btw 😘💕

Thank you so much!! <3

4. Did you have any ideas that didn’t make the final cut of It’s All About The Delivery? 

I did! For a large portion of time, I was going to have a moment where something bad happened to Canada and the PM doesn’t quite get it. Like okay, the stock market has crashed and that’s… bad for you? I suppose? Or something like that, like maybe Matthew gets hurt and the PM was going to handle it wrongly because he doesn’t quite believe or understand the connection Matthew has to his land and people.

I was going to use it as a way to explore my headcanons for this and also to push Stephen to want to understand his nation… thing a bit more. Arthur’s maybe there and angry at him, Matthew’s disappointed and Stephen is confused, concerned and somewhat panicked as he realises wait, okay this actually means something.

I decided against it eventually though as I really like writing IAATD because it’s so light-hearted and I can be funny, in my own silly way haha. I didn’t want things to get too serious as it would take the story in an entirely different direction, so although I toyed with it for a while, I eventually decided to drop it and stick to my original plan.

10. What is the line you’re proudest of from It’s All About The Delivery? 

Okay this is really difficult. I narrowed it down to a few and I don’t have lines, I have parts:

‘‘He’s a bit of a pack-rat,’ Mr Williams explained as the PM’s eyes roved about the stupidly ornate ceiling, (2) ‘all of the older ones are, mostly. Me and America used to laugh at him when we were younger for keeping hold of what felt like every object that he owned no matter how out of date it was, but now I find myself doing the same sort of thing.’ He flashed the PM a quick, sad smile, ‘the older I get, the more I wanna hang on to older things from when I was younger. Especially now as everything is changing so much faster than it ever did before…’ he trailed off, walking to inspect a very old, feeble looking table more closely, ‘for the older ones of our kind, things have changed so much in their lifetimes that I’m not surprised they keep hold of as much as they can.’’

I like the way I explained something akin to age and longing here, Canada coming to terms with how old they really are and what that means.

‘Kirkland was not a tall man, not short in any sense but certainly not tall like Mr Williams. Mr Williams was long and thickly proportioned in the shoulders but it was something the PM himself had often failed to notice; his size was something that snuck up on him when he turned to see Mr Williams’ shadow looming across the floor, or when he caught him reaching up to brush something from the ceiling and meet it easily. But whereas Mr Williams was naturally tall, Kirkland seemed to be large, far larger than his size actually was. He held himself very firmly, despite his informal tone and words, and he seemed ready to go at a moment’s notice, energy coiled and held stiffy in his legs and back. It made him seem bigger than he was- more commanding out of the two of them without even trying.’

I like how I described Arthur’s and Matthew’s appearances!

‘As Canada stepped into the room, England clicked off his phone and straightened up. The curtains weren’t drawn and Canada could see himself in the half open glass of the window behind him, turned into a mirror by the darkness outside- a flash of a younger version of himself.’

Same for this, I’m quite proud of the visual this gives

19. What words do you think you tend to use the most? 

Here’s where I call myself out ahha

I think I over explain facial expressions too much or direction, so ‘smiled’ and ‘looked’ are probably my most used words. I’m aware of it and I hate it, but hopefully no one else has noticed.

[oumaheroes]

Please help me find this one fanfic where Canada gets a new prime minister and he doesn't believe that Canada is the personification and they meet England and his Prime Minister and there's a book that has everything explained and the Prime Minister makes his wife read it

Stephen would make Leigh do no such thing 😤 Mr and Mrs Stupid together all the way

It's called It's All About The Delivery and the tag for it used on my blog is IAATD