fierybluebird | [voice]

[voice]

[Marco's voice starts off cheerfully enough.]

Hey everyone, I think I found the place where the cave-in for the train-thing is. The currents here are pretty weird so if we can get ... some ... strong swimmers then...

[He starts trailing off, obviously seeing something.] Pops...? [His voice is quiet, barely audible. It's not possible, he knows it's not, he watched the man die. So it's just like Luffy's food and an illusion. Has to be. But then it gets stronger.] POPS!! [He starts running, sandals hitting the wood of the deck.] Pops... [This time he just sounds anguished. And then suddenly there's a splash. Uh where did Marco go?]

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[Pauses herself]

...My Nonna, in her prime was very much like that too... No one thought she would fall, she only seemed to get stronger. And yet that's what caused it all, she stretched herself too thin. Strength is troublesome like that. Difficult to keep the right balance.

Pops wasn't stretched too thin, but larger than life or not, he was still only human.

Everyone has to go sometime, eh? At least for mortals.

Yes. And your lives are so much more shorter... Gone in a flash really.

... Nations fade too. If our people forget, if they all start identifying as part of another nation we can die, in a way.

I'm not human, so it's a little... stranger for me.

Aye. I've seen nations die before.

Oh? The... phoenix thing? Does it mean you'll live forever?

... here? With that... thing inside us? Or was it to someone who had taken it out?

I certainly haven't died yet.

No, in my world. It's not pretty. Obviously.

Well that's something then, I suppose.

... How. Do we exist in your world?

And if Japan asks you tell him I'm 20,100 years old. It's a game we have going.

As countries, not personifications. Or if you do, I haven't met you, and since my Pops and I were in charge of protecting several countries, it'd be unlikely that we wouldn't, eh?

... Are you going to explain it or just leave me to assume you're crazy.

Si, if you were the... King, or leader of a country, we would show ourselves. But I don't understand how you've seen us die in your world then.

I'm a phoenix. He doesn't believe I could be older than him so he keeps trying to find ways to prove I'm not. Each time he does, I add more to the age I tell him.

Countries don't have to be personified to die.

... Phoenixes are immortal, he's just being stupid. Even I could tell him that. Besides, he shouldn't be much older than me, how could he even prove you were older than ... 20, 100 was it?

...Si, that's true, I suppose... destroy the land, the people, the culture, and you destroy us.

Aye. Twenty thousand and one hundred. Thanks for understanding.

[Small pause of silence and just a quieter tone.] Indeed. When someone no longer cares about it... It's just that people often do care about their countries, no? And thus nearly immortal.

Si, si... I don't understand it, really, but whatever. I doubt Giappone will even ask me.

[She has her own pause for a few seconds] It... depends. People still remember the Roman Empire but when it collapsed, my Nonna went with it... I suppose it's because she had us, me and Venezia to take her place in Italia.

He stalks my conversations, so you never know.

Aye. It's not so much that they're forgotten, as replaced. The future keeps progressing forward I suppose.

... Strange. He doesn't seem like the type to do that if he's anything like Gia... Sakura.

Si... that's basically it. If we don't keep up we're left behind.

Oh? Well, he basically used to ah what's the word, "ship" me with someone. And now that we are close allies, I think he still sometimes gets worried; or he can't believe it. But it's cute, so I don't mind.

Yes. That's how the world works I suppose.

... He... that sounds insane. How can you be a ship with someone, it makes no sense. Sometimes... sometimes you have to wonder if they were isolated for too long...

Si, si...

[Chokes back his laugh.] It's short for relationship. The trolls do it too, although theirs is more sophisticated.

It still sounds stupid! If he means relationship, then why doesn't he say that... how can you even relationship someone with someone.

...How is there's more sophisticated they... sound like children, most times.

I'm not even sure it's his word. He tends to borrow others.

They have quadrants to deal with friendship allegiances and feelings of hate or the need to balance each other out.

... Everyone does that now. Inghilterra started it.

That sounds overly complicated. If you are friends you are friends, if you hate people you hate people, and people who... mediate are just that.

Oh?

Eh, simple, but in human terms confusing. There's a lot of overlap and too much ambiguity I think. Take France and England. They've killed each other in this world, hate each other so much they drive each other to ridiculous heights, but at the same time have a special sort of bond that made them allies against you and Japan. In troll terms, that's a kismesis. Someone you live to hate, who makes you stronger with constant fighting, who you unleash extreme rage towards, and who you wouldn't actually permanently kill because sometimes all you have is each other. Love-hate.

Friendships are also complicated, there are so many types, and it's easy to be in love with a best friend, but ... For a troll moirail, they keep each other in check, and you never fall in love with yours because you need them to keep you from going on a killing rampage.

I'm probably explaining it badly, but I find it very useful.

I... it sounds strange though. Why does a relationship like... Francia and Inghilterra's need a name. It is who they are, si, but Spagna and Inghilterra do the same but Spagna feels no love for Inghilterra.

In fact most people are constantly fighting with Inghilterra. Even when they have alliances with her... him. Either one.

...and what if you have no one to fill all those things. Are they needed? Can you not be whole without all of them?

In troll society, everyone has a moirail, and by the time they're approximately fourteen in our years, they have to find a kismesis and matesprit, or they're deemed too dysfunctional to survive. Although that's changes what with their world being destroyed.

... So they get destroyed because they're not in a relationship, with two people at the same time. At the age of 14. And this is more sophisticated then a normal relationship?

[This tone says Marco are you craycray?]

Edited 2011-11-03 13:05 (UTC)

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