For gargleblasted
IC:
Character name: Austria/Roderich Edelstein. He may not use the last one much, circumstances being what they are, but it's there.
Fandom: Axis Powers Hetalia
Timeline: 2011
Age: 1035 as of 2011; this is fairly average as far as countries go. Physically, he appears to be somewhere in his early-to-mid twenties.
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths:
He can get lost in his own backyard and lose a fight with a particularly non-threatening rabbit. Otherwise, Austria is a wonder for the ears when he's playing a piano or a violin. This is assuming the listener parse the same notes as human ears, of course. He also sews and gardens, and barring a few explosions here and there Austria is a mean old hand at cooking, especially when it comes to desserts.
On the more ~magical~ side of things : being a nation, Austria is pretty difficult to kill. While the implications of being a nation without a planet is somewhat unclear, he probably will retain some of his old regeneration capabilities. Probably.
How would they use their abilities?: Austria uses music as anything between antidepressant, food, and sign language. He can't live without it and sometimes he talks in it, it's arguably easier to figure out his moods by what he plays than looking at his face. His tendency to get lost is there to be abused when writing posts with no convenient inspiration and getting him into more situations than 'today I also played the piano. It was Chopin. And it was good and everyone agrees.'
As for cooking, gardening and sewing...well, that's for him to reduce his expenses, unless the ship comes up with a bake sales or knitting club event. Or unless some enterprising villain wants to explode the city's kitchens in a kind of Russian Roulette way. His wimpiness? ...You got me there.
Appearance: While his physical dimensions are never explicitly stated, Austria appears to be a reasonably tall young man without much weight on his body. If you need a guesstimate, I'd say he's around 170-176 cm. He's mostly neatly dressed (some would say pompously dressed), in either his trademark blue longcoat or some sort of vest, with gloves as an option and a white jabot as a must. His hair is chocolate brown and he combs the front of it back whenever he's awake, save for a recalcitrant curl that stands for Mariazell. There's a fairly conspicuous mole right below his mouth, and he wears a pair of glasses that stands for 'something' in his music over his violet eyes. He doesn't need them, really, his eyesight isn't so bad, but he keeps wearing them anyway because he thinks they make him look less forgettable.
Background/Personality:
(Note : I'd like to split this section into two parts because, omigod, trying to write an integrated personality section into History of Austria, Extremely Abridged Cliffnotes Edition is like trying to smash a car with an egg. )
Austria was born in 976 as one of the marches granted to Leopold of Babenburg, recorded varyingly as marcha Orientalis in Latin and Ostarrîchi in local dialect, and his first identity was that of a knight. A toddler knight, yes, because this is Hetalia and he was literally just born, but it was his important duty to guard the Holy Roman Empire from the Magyars to the east. Austria was super serious about this and never backed down from a fight...which might be worth something if he wasn't also completely useless as far as battles are concerned. His personality was the furthest thing from 'knight' as possible, being sweet, naïve, gentle, and possibly clumsier than the entirety of 10th century Europe put together. He never won his battles with Hungary and had to constantly get bailed out by his best friend at the time, the taciturn Switzerland, whom he greatly admired as a prime example of what a country should be. For a while their relationship was sweet and saccharine and otherwise pleasant, until the Hapsburgs (Austria's and Switzerland's joint boss) decided to elevate Austria to a duchy. It was likely during this period that Austria began to develop his 'young master' personality---short-tempered and no-nonsense like Switzerland, controlling, arrogant and snobbish like you would expect out of a land ruled by heirs to the Emperor. Eventually the Hapsburgs made one too many demands out of Switzerland and they rebelled, leaving Austria as the main seat of House Hapsburg and thus the de facto caretaker of the Empire, even though he himself was no more than an archduchy at the time.
Although Austria at this time controlled no territory except that of his own, his bosses were cunning and manipulated several well-arranged political marriages into netting them huge territorial gains. Once more, these lands technically did not belong to Austria, but he was responsible for their administration anyway. It was not until a giant fluke (which must have felt like winning a lottery to his bosses) that netted the Hapsburgs the entire holdings of Spain, including Italy, the New World and a good portion of Africa that the arrangement began to change. While sensibly concluding that no one Emperor could control that much territory without going insane and separating their hereditary territories and the new acquisitions in practice, the two were considered united under one ruling house, resulting in the marriage between Austria and Spain. Officially a marriage of convenience, it nevertheless enhanced his status and range of responsibilities greatly. His aristocratic traits grew more and more prominent as he involved himself with more and more of those, from administrating his 'household' of vassal states (which included Italy and Hungary) to arranging the education of the still-childlike Holy Roman Empire. His tongue grew sharper, he suffered no idiots, and sometimes he showed his displeasure with physical violence and mental abuse. Still, somehow parts of his household managed to grow to like him and stuck by his side when the vassal states of the Holy Roman Empire began to secede, isolating both Holy Roman Empire and Austria. This marked the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, which resulted in massive losses for all the German states. The boy who was the Holy Roman Empire went missing in this fight, but the name of the realm still belonged to the Hapsburg and Austria's household still remained the seat of the 'Holy Roman Emperor'.
Shortly after this, the Spanish Hapsburg line died out, leading to the Wars of the Spanish Succession, which resulted in Spain 'divorcing' Austria as the Bourbons of France became his boss. Although they parted on good terms, this and his isolation during the start of Thirty Years' War appeared to have change Austria a little bit. He seemed to have mellowed out and grown more passive, less prone to yelling and more reclusive. His Empress Maria Theresa had to literally drag him out to fight his battles during the War of the Austrian Succession (he preferred to stay home and attend orchestral concerts), he fainted instead of raged when he was forced into an alliance with much-hated France, although he still retained one trait from bygone days : he completely failed at his attempt to battle and had to get Hungary to bail him out and recover his territories. Well. Even at the height of his power, Austria was never great at fighting. He was kind of aware that he himself never raised a level above 'pathetic' in that sense, what with his national motto being (essentially) 'let others fight, I'll just marry them like Pokemon' and all. He suffered for a time under the occasionally crackpot theories of Joseph I after Maria Theresa's death and began to bounce back during the reign of Leopold II, only to find himself looking straight into the eyes of the French Revolution and the gigantic mess that was his involvement in the Napoleonic Wars. Twice abandoned by his allies and losing most of his engagements against France, with an especially disastrous one at Austerlitz, Austria's boss eventually had to sign away most of his Empire legally in order to broker peace. It was meant as a humiliation, but as a result Austria stepped up as the Empire of Austria in his own right and not simply 'The House of Austria Which Happens To Be The Seat of The Empire', claiming the territories the Hapsburgs had left after the war with the French. After several years of attempting to improve relations with an unreceptive France, he eventually joined the war against France once more. This time the battle was won and the Napoleonic Wars were over.
The nineteenth century was generally a mixed bag for Austria. The rise of liberalism spurred by events in France and his boss' censorship bent brought separatist sentiments to the fore, which gave him a headache, but on the other hand it spurred his industrial revolution and wonderful growths in Austria's intellectual circles. He lost to Prussia again in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and was excluded from having any say in the future of Germany whatsoever, but that in turned allowed him to marry Hungary, who constantly stood by him through all the years and whose companionship he valued greatly. Generally, however, things were calm compared to what they had been in the past, and Austria mostly spent his days in quiet contentment with his wife, watching over what he thought was the dawn of a new, more enlightened era. Nationalist sentiments from his vassal states won't just die simply because he felt relatively calm, however, and in the second decade of the twentieth century, things went to hell in a hurry. The assassination of the Austria's Archduke triggered the Great War, which ended in disaster for nearly everyone involved. For Austria, it meant the end of his acquaintance with the bosses he had been with since the 10th century, a divorce with his wife, his economy was broken, his population decimated, most of his territories lost. While the terms he faced as an Axis state were better than those served by, say, Germany, he really didn't have much strength left after that war and had to use a wheelchair to remain functional. Some wondered if he would even survive as a country. His better years, those weren't. And, er, the next part should be known to most people and I have no idea how much is tasteful to write, so I'll be brief.
Oh, you know what I'm talking about. Yes, you do, even if you're Vogons.
Bitterness over Austria's postwar issues led to his boss taking a new direction towards fascism, and when the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany) happened, there wasn't a great deal of public dissenting. Austria himself seemed to look at the event favorably, writing votes saying 'yes' by himself, although his real opinions on the matter seemed to be rather vague. He was part of Nazi Germany to the end of WWII, where he was split up by the allies much like Germany was. Unlike Germany, however, Austria was able to convince the allies that he originally wanted no part in the war himself and could be considered pretty much Germany's first conquest, and he was allowed to regain his sovereignty after vowing to be neutral forever. For a time he was one of the democratic world's footholds in Central Europe, which is kind of both important and unenviable, until the end of the Cold War in the 1990's. These days, he has rebuilt himself to a relatively stable point, and has been accepted as part of the collective headache known as the European Union.
Personality
To really understand who Austria is, one must answer this question : if your underwear is stolen, what kind of person do you have to be to traipse across a whole city to get it back? In nothing but a shirt?
Yeah, he's that kind of guy.
At first glance, Austria is nothing if not the quintessential aristocrat. He's prim, proper, elegant, refined, dignified, et cetera; the very air around him practically oozes the fact that he was well-raised. His lifestyle is the lifestyle of those with too much money and time on their hands, perfectly organized in its structure but loose with details (his housekeeping, his attention to the minutiae), full of idealism but lacking in drive (an entire afternoon on the piano, anyone?). He dresses like he just walked out of the 19th century, he walks as if he doesn't know the meaning of 'hurry', he seems completely unaffected by anything that goes on around him in a perfect stiff-upper-lip style. To top all of this off, he's also proud and seven flavors of arrogant and takes himself far more seriously than most of the red-blooded population of the planet. Even when used as a de facto gardener in somebody else's house, he still chided and commanded the master of that house with his chin as if he was the master of the household all along.
This is what Austria wants you to know. He will do his best to convince you of it, and a lot of it is true. It's just not the entire truth. To figure out what that truth is, we need to think about the sweet, naive little boy who used to be the Babenburg Margraviate. By all accounts, Austria has changed so much that the little boy might as well be dead and gone.
The important thing to remember is that he isn't. Not by a long shot.
His reticence hides it well and the aristocratic flair he has developed has nearly completely masked it, but that little boy isn't difficult to spot if you know where to look. In spite of all his elegance, Austria remains clumsy and has no sense of direction whatsoever, although he'll maintain that it's all just 'unexpected detours'. He can still be unbelievably naïve about some things, as demonstrated by the 'stolen underwear' case, in the sense that sometimes it just doesn't occur to him that his matter-of-fact solution is absolutely bonkers to everybody else. Even part of his 'aristocratic air' is attributable to this. Old clothes, 'classical' hobbies? That's because he's too much of a penny-pincher to buy new things (his underwear are all patched; Austria enjoys sewing) and he still enjoys the popular songs of the 1700's like it was yesterday, so why bother? He can be childishly stubborn about some of the silliest things, such as his insistence on Beethoven being one of his citizens, and he is still as easily embarrassed as he was when he was a child. Even at his strictest he ultimately meant well, although how he chose to display this could certainly lead to a host of misunderstandings, and as arrogant as he seems, he doesn't have a terribly high opinion of himself when disconnected from his citizens' past glories, no matter how proud he is of his Austrians. (Save a few.) He has passions that run deep, mostly shown through his love for music, which is arguably the One True Love of his life. At the same time, it's not as if his aristocratic side is simply his woobie mask. It's a shoe that he has grown in, something by which he measures himself, others, and defines his comfort zone. It's what he created out of his past mistakes and regrets, the relationships he had lost and gained and the things he wished he could say or unsay. His aristocratic side allows him to interact with the world that confuses his inner self in relative calm; he parses it all through passivity, logic and patience. (Though maybe the latter might better be called 'tolerance for annoying things displayed by ignoring it ignoring it lalala ignoring ignoring it until it goes away'.) While he is easily annoyed and thrown out of his comfort zone mentally, thanks to this side of him it's difficult to get a raise out of Austria unless you know exactly which buttons to push and how hard to push them; even if he is annoyed by a subject, he'll seldom let it show. The only times he'd nag at someone with his oft-heard 'moron' is when, well, someone was (in his eyes) being a moron. He hardly smiled. He doesn't think he needs to, most of the time.
Austria will argue to the death that he is not repressed. He is also comfortable enough with his own skin for that to be believable, but it remains that his surface makes him hard to approach and hard to understand. Because he's generally used to making political alliances and other impersonal, ofttimes manipulative relationships, there's a giant wall between him and others that he himself isn't very keen on opening up. When he does open up, he tends to do so honestly and awkwardly, such as in his romantic-but-not-quite relationship with his wife Hungary. (In which he somehow manages to have a UST with her even after 51 years of marriage.) When he doesn't open up, the best you might get out of him would be communication via his piano, the worst might be yelling and incessant nagging and simply snarking at your existence until you stop bothering him. For all his refinement, Austria isn't good with words and tends to err on the side of sounding annoyed or uncaring, and he can nag about everything and anything once he puts his mind to it. Even if his day of expressing his dismay with violence are long gone. It's one of his worst qualities and together with his snobbish attitude, doesn't win him friends. Being introverted and judgmental, it doesn't look like he minds very much. Being all too aware of his failings and having spent most of his life with a 'family', he often minds more than he lets on.
Austria enjoys classical music with a pure passionate love that is almost shippable by itself. He also sews, bakes and gardens, and he swears by How To Manuals for interpersonal relationships. He is positively addicted to coffee (and hipster debates in coffee houses), and he might be an actual health hazard if left without coffee for too long. On the other hand, Austria likes drinking beer a LOT and has a far higher tolerance for alcohol than anyone might guess, which may serve as a substitute for his coffee withdrawal. He absolutely cannot abide by the sight of squids, crustaceans and most sea creatures, being a landlocked country, although this may sound like a bit of an understatement considering how traumatized he sounds at the sight of seafood. Aside from music and coffee, he mostly keeps all of these traits to himself. The rest of the world doesn't need to know.
Headcanon also says that he makes an exception to his lack of interest in outdoor activities with alpine skiing and also enjoys analyzing/discussing German scientific philosophy. But that's my headcanon. (This is largely based on alpine skiing being the Only Sport Ever that Austria is remotely good at in the Olympics, as well as the hilarious amount of philosophical/scientific output Vienna used to produce back before the wars.)
Why should that character be in this game: N/A
Why do you want to continue their history here: N/A
For applicants considering an alternate version of a character already in game, please use this as your chance to explain the key differences between your character and the one already in play: N/A
Have you read up on how the game works?: Yes. The plugin is called the FlamingFerret, and you earn cash by going on missions and freelance work. Depending on somewhat loose definitions of 'earn', you can also mooch off other people.
1st person sample:
I assume this network is being monitored by the relevant authorities. Therefore, I shall make my complaints brief.
Your system is ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. How on earth did you manage to create this bureaucratic disaster, invent an entire department to come up with new and exciting forms which have absolutely no practical use and another department to write forms for them? There is simply no sense in having entirely separate forms in triplicate when a check mark in another would do. I should not need to fill a form to get a form which allows me to stand in queue for a form!
This is appalling. Appalling, laughable, impossible, unbelievably disorganized...
[He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. It's messy. There's still a bit of toothpaste stuck to the corner of his mouth, but he doesn't notice it.]
Also, as I was forcibly abducted here before I could finish my breakfast, I shall require coffee. If there is none to be found in my assigned quarters, please direct me to the nearest machine immediately. Your assistance will be appreciated.
Lastly, if anyone in this network identifies themselves as an Austrian, I would like you to speak up.
3rd person sample: (I'll be honest with this : I feel awkward writing logs and will avoid them as much as possible, but if I need to, it'll look like this)
Austria hadn't been window-shopping very long before he came to a most upsetting conclusion about his new life : like almost everything else on the S.S. Thor and this situation with the end of the world, the price of coffee machines sold was beyond ridiculous. Granted, perhaps it was only so when compared to the miniscule amount of money he was given as a refugee, but setting such a high price on mankind's essential machine was stupid to the point that it bordered on rude.
There were cans of instant coffee from vending machines, yes, but he would rather sit through one of those incoherent alien elevator music before he'd drink any of that. Coffee is not coffee without personally grounded beans, although he would make compromises for the powdered kind, and the prices for the models he found sufficient to his preferences tended to be much more than what he could afford.
And he didn't even know the price of coffee beans. Or even if they have coffee beans somewhere around here.
Sighing, Austria turned to the crumpled pamphlet he was holding in his hand. One of the aliens roaming the ship practically forced it on him, and on it was written some unintelligible language that looked more like chicken scratches. He remembered what it was, however. The alien mentioned something about a poetry recital, supposedly in the pool area. He hadn't been to one of those in a while; perhaps doing so would lessen his post-coffee withdrawal stress.
Then again, he'd have to figure out where he was first.
Questions?: No, really, do they sell high-grade coffee on the S.S. Thor?
Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: Yes!