concerned muse is concerned...

[fuckyourtaxes]

... Ma'am? Ma'am!!

--Oh, you don't want me to call you ma'am? But then, how should I address you? If I use your first name that's kinda informal and disrespectful, ain't-- uh--isn't it? I wanted to say somethin' but I forgot...

OH! Yeah!!

I understand I have to be assertive, but this name you gave me--it seems really... rude. Couldn't you have picked something else? Sure, it gets the point across... but I'd like something that sounds more grand! Like "landofthefree" or "allforliberty"!

Swearing won't impress anyone, and I have to do my absolute best!!

Comments

[english_dignity]

Sounds like you've got a really bad king.

[fuckyourtaxes]

You bet I do! We're recovering from a war and he keeps giving us more and more taxes! It takes six months just to go see him! It's not fair at all. We're trying to pay them, but we're struggling and people want their voices to be heard by the king, that's all. People should have the right to be heard.

[english_dignity]

Sounds like some of the ones I've had. We had one who even had people go around and wrote down every goat and sheep people had so he could tax them.

Makes me miss Alfred.

[fuckyourtaxes]

Wow, that sounds awful!! Mine made us put stamps on everything so all the stuff we import and export gets taxed!

--Hey, my name's Alfred!

[english_dignity]

[Blink blink, smiles.]

Your mother must like you then. It's a good name. My best king was named Alfred.

[northernmaple]

[Nope, Matt thinks that name is pretty fitting but he thinks his now little brother is so cute.]

Don't worry, Alfred, you've always impressed everyone even without the grand name.

[fuckyourtaxes]

Oh... I don't have a mother. I have an older brother, but... I'm at war with him right now.

[english_dignity]

[Sneaks forward to pat his hand.]

It'll be okay. I've always been at war with my brothers. Big brothers are bastards.

[fuckyourtaxes]

--!! MATT--! [HE STOPS, ARMS UP, ABOUT TO HUG CANADA, but... he's not supposed to. Alfred drops his arms. He doesn't notice Matt looks years older and there's something different about his post 20th-century eyes.]

Hello, Matt...

[fuckyourtaxes]

D--Don't say that about England! He's-- he's just following his king's orders, that's all! He's not a bastard. He raised me.

Kind of.

He was gone a lot.

[english_dignity]

Wha- I'm England! Your big brother can't be England too!

[fuckyourtaxes]

You're not England! England's older. You have his hair and eyes and eyebrows though. Really thick ones, like fuzzy caterpillars! [laughs, but then that means he has to think about England, and now he's sad again.]

[english_dignity]

I am too, you jerk! And don't you call them caterpillars! That's what that jerk France calls them and he's picked on me since I was little.

[GLARE.]

[northernmaple]

[Matt looks a little sad at that so he closes the distance between them and gives his brother a hug. He's lived through that time before and he doesn't like that it got between them that time and he won't let it do so now.]

Hi, Alfred.

[fuckyourtaxes]

Hahaha!

...

Wait what.

You know France too? He's helping me fight England.

[fuckyourtaxes]

[Alfred's will wavers when he's hugged. He tries to resist Matt, but he can't. He caves and embraces Canada in a big bear hug.]

I thought you were angry with me.

[english_dignity]

Figures that bastard is helping someone else fight me.

[Doesn't even know this guy and he's sulking.]

He even teamed up with Scotland to attack me.

[fuckyourtaxes]

Scotland's helping England this time, but I dunno how he really feels about it. He likes to smoke a lot and it makes me cough.

[he doesn't seem to be listening to what this kid is really saying.]

[english_dignity]

Ha. That asshole never helps me.

[fuckyourtaxes]

Why would he help you? I mean no offense, but you're just a kid.

[northernmaple]

I forgive you. [Matt had forgiven Alfred a long time ago. He loved his brother, he knew that they had been torn apart by circumstances. He had been angry for the invasion but he couldn't lose his brother.]

I couldn't ever hate you. I was mad but you're my brother, Al.

[fuckyourtaxes]

[Alfred pulls back and looks Matthew up and down, chewing on his tongue.]

You better not be saying that just to get me to surrender. When did you start wearing those specs? [points at Matt's glasses]

[english_dignity]

I told you, I'm England! He's my big brother and he keeps shooting at me and sending me curses!

Rome even built me a wall to protect me from him.

[northernmaple]

I don't want you to surrender. You're a great country, Al, I wouldn't do anything to ruin that. [Matt said firmly as he pulled back a little as well, smiling as he reached up to adjust his glasses.]

Oh these? Right after the- well, I guess not for some time. I went through some tough times and my eyesight changed.

[fuckyourtaxes]

I know some of England's history! But you're not him. You're not old enough.