#hetalia Albany

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

part 1 of 2 for a little halloween comic. posting the rest tmmrw >:)

[asking-gereng]

How many pets have you two had over the years

[scandi-rose]

Meet Albany

So I’ve been playing around with Artbender again so I decided to make an Oc

Her Albany Capital City of New York State USA.I tried getting her eyes to turn ot more blue than this because uhh...it messed the colour balance with her hair up on the ap but she’s is meant to have blue eyes similar to Alfred’s

Getting her hair the way I wanted it was a nightmare too, it’s meant a but more curly than this, but it still has the wind swept and wild feel to it which is what I wanted.

[astrogeekery]

Howdy! I've been following you for awhile now but I've been trying to work up the courage to just say that I absolutely love your Hetalia fanfictions. You are actually my favorite fanfic author! In all of your fics, I adore how you portray each character and the way you write ameripan is so great and cute and just,, pure serotonin. 'Of Crop Circles and Sakura Trees' is probably legitimately my favorite fanfic I have ever read (Kiku and Albany are so wholesome ahh), with 'Nefarious' as a close second.

Anyway, I personally think you are very talented writer and please do keep up the good work!!

!!! Aww thank you so much; you’re so sweet! It’s a HUGE compliment to be someone’s favorite author & it’s so cool that OCCaST is your favorite—I always thought that one could’ve used more love 💙

Thanks a bunch for reaching out—it means a lot to hear my writing brings folks some joy :)

[flyingsassysaddles]

Holy pajamas I actually got them all thank you Internet and conventional wisdom!

@flyingsassysaddles

1: All incorrect!

2: Also all incorrect!

3: You got it! Number 3 is Albany, New York! The motto of Albany is ‘Assiduity’, which translates to ‘constant attention’ and their nickname is ‘Cradle of the Union’!

One down, 3 to go! More/new hints:

1. The Cradle of Liberty walks among us!

2. An apple in the melting pot!

4. The leaves begin to change!

[omuii]

‘Sup dudes! I’m Tessa, and I just became an ambassador for @hetaliafandomhub!

A little about me, I live in South Jersey in the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area and I’ve lived here my whole life! My parents as well are both born and raised in the same area, but my mom’s side of the family is actually from Albany, New York.

There are already a couple of really cool United States ambassadors, but I’m the first one representing the northeast! A lot of my knowledge will be coming from the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, but of course I’ll also be talking about Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont! Informally, Washington D.C., Maryland, and Delaware, Virginia, and West Virginia are also considered a part of the northeast. You can also ask me general USA questions if you like, but there are plenty of other American ambassadors.

I’m currently 18 and just about to graduate high school. I’m a little unsure of everything at the moment, but my current game plans are to either start community college in the fall or take a year off to work. But for now, I just plan on having an awesome summer and hanging out with you guys!

I’ve been a Hetalia fan since December 2013, so it’s safe to say I’ve been around a while. Above all, I’m really looking forward to being an ambassador and getting involved with the community!

For those who aren’t sure what an ambassador is, it just means that I’m here to answer any questions related to the area I’m representing. Anonymous or not, feel free to hit me up anytime with questions about the northeast! Whether you want to know about the people, the food, or even the climate, I’m here to answer all your questions.

Now that that’s out of the way, here are some facts about the northeast to get things started!

※ The Northeast is divided into New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. New England consists of all states east of New York, and the Mid-Atlantic states are New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

※ The tallest building in Philadelphia is the Comcast Center, but a second building, the Comcast Technology Center, is being constructed right now. That one will be taller than the original Comcast Center, making it the tallest skyscraper in Philly and the 8th tallest skyscraper across the country.

※ All of the states in the northeast as well as Washington D.C. were a part of the original thirteen colonies; even Vermont and Maine were colonies before the American revolution.

images: x x

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

Some Hudson Valley holidays that occur in May ft. my idiots. Just wanted to draw some costumes ngl 💀. Anyways I’ll give some explanation to each of the little Polaroids cause ik most of these holidays aren’t well known.

Just a drawing of Emma celebrating Pinkster. I haven’t drawn Emma in years lolllll & I don’t work on her much anymore, but I thought she’d partake in the festivities. In this region, Pinkster is a Pentecost celebration brought over by the Dutch, but became more associated with the traditions brought over by enslaved Africans especially as their enslavers would allow them to travel and see their families and celebrate during this time. European settlers also partook in these festivities as well, but it just became more associated as an African-American holiday within New York & New Jersey.

Elise & Jennie being nice for a moment and taking a photo together lol, they probs went back to bickering after this cause they have issues 💀. Jennie is there cause this is her state capital, Elise was probably just invited cause she’s Jennie’s sister and both were alive during the Dutch colonial area. But anyways this is supposed to be them at Albany’s Tulip Festival. Tulip Fest began about 76 years ago celebrating Albany & Nijmegen’s friendship especially as the citizens of Albany raised significant funds and sent much needed supplies to Nijmegen following the Second World War. Also many Dutch-Americans in this area can trace their ancestry back to Gelderland. The Anyways Tulip Festival is a celebration of that friendship, but also of Albany’s Dutch heritage. The particular costumes Elise & Jennie are wearing is associated with the street sweeping ceremony + these costumes were only introduced to Albany 76 years ago. These are new here. Actually Emma & Will’s costumes are older.

Ok just a little silly doodle of Lynn giving Will a kiss during Pinkster.

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

NYC and rest of the state basically solidified its wealth &power in the northeast with the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825.

This was really the beginning of Lynn/NYC’s present “girl boss” arc as she began to get a taste of excessive power in this era.

Also the beginning of her rather let’s say tumultuous relationship with Will/ Albany. The Erie Canal already brought these two cities closer by making trade even easier to conduct along the Hudson River.

Will tends to be rather reserved, and very stubborn- talking to him is like scratching nails across a chalkboard. A lot of people calls him boring (and a pain in the ass cause he tries to act impartial but he’s always partial to Lynn- even when she’s being a nuisance and driving him crazy). Sometimes Lynn can be let’s say overly ambitious to a fault that can harm everyone else, and Will tends to pull the breaks on that which is often the source of conflict between them. They’re opposites fundamentally. But they compliment each other. Lynn can get him out of his shell, and actually be sociable. Will keeps Lynn in reality lol, and he is a calming influence on her most of the time.

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

Spring 1775

This is from a scene in a fiction piece I’m writing called “To Prevent Consequence.” Anyways this scene occurs in 1775, basically Jennie/ New York State is being more or less threatened by Arthur due to the rebellious activities her relatives like Elise/ New Jersey and Will/ Albany, NY, and neighbors like Henry/ Massachusetts and his cousin, Alfred.

Now at this point in time Jennie DID NOT want to partake in what was becoming the revolution (they were not quite here yet). She was still perceived as too Dutch (and Sephardi) by her peers as she used to be a Dutch colony so she didn’t really receive all that much respect from them other than her business expertise. Jennie didn’t want to rock the boat too much and risk her businesses, and she saw these rebellious activities especially from Henry & Alfred as just another inter-English conflict.

The 13 colonies were becoming difficult to govern following the French & Indian War (North American theatre of the Seven Years War) because this was the first time Arthur would’ve actually had a chance to properly govern them hence why the operated under salutary neglect. It’s not that he didn’t care to govern them, but other than his first colony Rich/Virginia, he never got a chance to spend much time with any of them because he was either in his own civil war or he was in non-stop European wars (which also dragged his 13 colonies in as well). He also began to show up because Rich had forced his hand into the French & Indian war and he realized it was time to like get these colonies under control. Initially, he tried to be like maybe a stern uncle, or teacher when he first got a chance to properly meet all of them. However he had let them all essentially do their own thing for so long that they all had separate cultures and ideas*, and he knew he had to start ruling them with heavier hand hence why he started taxing them more, and made some attempts at state religion. Simply put, the colonies were not fond of this, especially the New Englanders like Henry/Massachusetts & Alfred who saw this as another attempt to suppress their “rights to be new Englanders.”

ANYWAYS her younger sister, Elise & cousin, Will on the other hand saw the brewing conflict as a chance to assert their Dutch-ness. A lot of American ideas about plurality of religion and ethnicity can be traced back to the plurality seen in the New Netherland colony (which was mostly New York & New Jersey- Pennsylvania also had these ideas but that’s cause of the Quakers lol). Meanwhile, her long-time neighbor, and frenemy Henry/Massachusetts & Alfred were starting shit with Arthur mostly cause they just didn’t want to be ruled so heavily by him. Henry & Jennie have a complicated relationship, but one thing you can count on is that Jennie annoys / enrages the ever the fuck out of Henry for just being there; and she gleefully antagonizes him enough that sometimes he just stops. Arthur generally likes Jennie, but he still wasn’t the biggest fan that she was still rather Dutch despite being a colony of his for a little over 100 years at this point.

Arthur was hoping by threatening Jennie with like y’know harming her relatives that Jennie could placate both her relatives and Henry and Alfred somehow. And this worked for a time at making Jennie even more hesitant to partake in the Revolution. Jennie does also have a good poker face normally, but like lol her boss is threatening her in this scene so.

I’ll save this for another post, but Jennie does of course eventually participate and she goes hard for these assholes. She starts off as an “outsider” amongst these English colonies and quickly becomes a vital player and honestly a trusted confidant of Alfred’s.

Little tidbits

- Alfred IS NOT Arthur’s son in this AU. Actually they don’t develop a meaningful relationship until much later on. I do see their relationship that of like an uncle/teacher nephew/student. But this post isn’t about him lol. I will say that, I see his early character growth being really developed by his interactions with states and cities and indigenous nations rather than with European nations

- I heavily rely folkways a lot to inform my Nor’Easter verse lore because I really enjoy US history, but I personally don’t like:

1) shoving everything into one character (Alfred) hence why I make use of states and cities (they’re not all related to him nor are they all necessarily friends with him).

2) I like US history, and I really love the social and regional discourses within it. So having states and cities represent perhaps “outsider” groups (ex not WASPs) allows me to do that whilst also explaining the history of that state / city in relation to US history.

- *SO these colonies DID DEVELOP DIFFERENTLY. I’m using the regions put forth by Albion’s Seed to inform the more “English” areas of the nation- so basically the “root” culture of these regions are

17th century East England = New England

17th century English/Scottish borderlands = Appalachia

17th century southwestern English gentry = tidewater south

Quakers are deadass their own thing + 17th Century English Midlands

Everything is regional in my understanding of the world. Modern English national culture was being created and also being enforced in the colonies, and these colonies had developed from different regional English cultures and wanted to continue their traditions within those so to a certain extent the American Revolution was sort of an English civil war and these colonies wanted to assert their right to be English (or whatever else) in their own way.

I look at other cultures, but this is all a case by case thing, my main focus is New York, which is uniquely Dutch.

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

oh whoops realizing I never shared this here, but it’s mostly a sketch page of my New York girlies ❤️🫶 Jennie/ NY State & Lynn/ Manhattan, NYC.

I’ve had Lynn for nearly ten years. Honestly I love her so much as a character, her ascent to power is messy and her decisions are highly questionable but that makes her fun (and a bit of an evil girlboss). Similar with Jennie. I’ll save this for another time tho lol

I’ll explain some of the sketches but I don’t have anything errr super important to say in regards to my au lore and what not in this post. I’m just very proud of how this page came out :) !

Right side

Jennie in a more abstract style

Lynn in this more pencil based style in red

Testing out colors with Jennie

Lynn x Will/ Albany, NY kissing 😳 circa the gilded age maybe doing a little more than that

Left side

Lynn smoking

My hand with my claggadah

WWII Jennie letting Henry/Massachusetts kindly know that she will in fact bully him if he gets hurt

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

Gonna be back 2 asks like rn, but wanted to get some different type of art stuff out of my system. Anyways Lynn (Manhattan) & Will (Albany) used to a date a wee bit- wasn’t really the best relationship cause it’s more transactional like they’re using each other rather than feelings (Ex: Lynn has the money, Will has more legal power but would also like the money). This is supposed to be them during V-E day, and Lynn was in WAVES , Will was in the army.

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

Representative: New York Abstains

NJ: What’s with the abstaining

NY: Well…

whahahaj I’m not sure if I made it clear the rest of the events happen after New York signs the Declaration of Independence & it was kinda what they were fearing would happen if they signed

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

Day 6- first love

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

Albany looks like if Evan Hansen (Dear Evan Hansen) and Bo Burnham somehow had a kid. Also with glasses.

Albany: Thanks I guess…I don’t know who any of those people are

Manhattan: For the record, when he saw this , he was like “I’m not Evan or Bo, I’m Will.”

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

Hey Albany, thoughts on some of the neighboring state's capitals?

Albany: I personally don’t like them— well except Harrisburg, she’s nice.

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

I’m sorry that Philadelphia is actually more of a child than he lets on, please no murder as that’s illegal (and also funerals are expensive) ~ Harrisburg

Manhattan: I can’t stop him now.

Albany: No one is getting murdered.