{Seventeenth Maple} [Voice: English/French][Also transcribed to TEXT]
As I'm sure most have probably heard, I'm awake now. I'm really sorry to those I might have worried, especially with Kumajirou's little message a while back. I'd come visit everyone, but I'm kind of under, well-meaning but still annoying, house arrest at the moment.
I CAN GO TO THE BATHROOM BY MYSELF AMERICA!
If anyone wants to visit though, I, and Kumajirou, would love to have the company.
Anyway... Since I've never really done well with doing nothing, but lie around and count the ceiling cracks, I'd thought I could try explaining something. Something that needs to be said in regards to the existence of several residents of Discedo, including myself.
I'll start by introducing myself. My name is Canada. I gained my independence in 1982 so I am no longer a colony of England, but my own independent nation.
Now to explain what I mean.
Firstly, I AM NOT CRAZY/INSANE/MENTAL/OR MAKING ANYTHING UP. I, and my fellow nations, really ARE the countries of the world that some people are familiar with. You can do a psychiatric test on us or check our mental stability, but we are most definitely not crazy.
When I say that we are the countries, I mean that we are anthropomorphic personifications of the countries. The land you see, the people who live there, the history, the culture, the spirit of the people, and everything else that makes up a country's identity is what we are. As such, yes, we do have some common mannerism and interests of our people. I like maple syrup, hockey, and lacrosse for example. And yes, I do have a Canadian accent.
I am also a lot older than I look. Granted, I'm no where near as old as some nations who've been around for centuries, but I'm still a lot older than the 20-odd years I might look. Because I'm a lot older than I look, I've also done a lot more than most people. It's a mutual thing for all of us, but any major historical event that affects our country, we tend to participate in somehow. I was there in 1812 when America and I burned down each other's houses, and I had enlisted as a solider during the two World Wars.
During all this time however, I hadn't really physically aged very much. Maybe some so that I didn't then, and don't look now, so much like a teenager and more like a young man. The same goes for all of us countries. We have this odd physical age cap that we seem to reach and the cap for each of us is different. Italy's been around since the time of the Roman Empire, but he doesn't look older than Germany, who's been around for much less time.
I don't understand the age cap myself, though I know the how's and why's behind why our aging process. We age as fast as our countries develop to show the country's progress. The countries in Europe developed over centuries, so the aging process for those nations took centuries. America and I, in comparison, went from being children to young men in almost no time at all.
So I've mentioned what makes us up, how we're involved in our countries, and how we age. But before that, there's how we are born and how we die.
I think that it's because of the chips, but back home, it's impossible to kill any of us with normal means. A person would have to somehow kill the entire country, and a majority of the people, before managing to kill one of us. I've been stabbed, shot, and smothered to the point where I should have died, but I haven't died because Canada and Canadian people still exist.
That's why I thought that Prussia was supposed to be dead upon first arriving here. The country was dissolved and became East and West Germany after World War II, and then when reuniting in 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the lands became known only by the singular title of Germany. That's the only way that I know of that anyone can truly kill a country.
While we can't easily die, we do get hurt. Not only from things that affect our physical bodies, but natural disasters, large scale destruction of cities, and a mass death of our citizens. Earthquakes and forest fires hurt like you wouldn't believe.
We can also get sick, but that's mostly affected by the state of the economy. I think everyone had a cold of some kind when the Depression of the 1920's hit.
The reason why I haven't mentioned much about the beginning parts of our lives is because I can't remember much from when I was born. America and I are the youngest real countries around and before us, everyone else had already been around for decades. I don't know what's the deal with Sealand, but his physical age does suggest that he's a little too young to be taken very seriously in his claims of nationhood.
I do remember from when I was little, having a sense of belonging and connection to the forest and rivers that surrounded me. Like they were just as much a part of me as my arm was. I felt right at home in the wilderness without another person nearby. Except for Kumajirou, who's been with me since I was small and doesn't really count, I didn't see another human being until I met up with some Native Americans. And then, I didn't meet anyone who looked like me until France came and started colonizing.
So if I have a mother who gave an actual physical birth to me, I wouldn't know. But that doesn't mean that I don't have a family, even amongst the other nations.
Countries that have a closely entwined history, language, and culture, with similar people and shared borders tend to be siblings. Liechtenstein and Switzerland are brother and sister, as are China, Korea, and Japan. America and I are brothers at the very least, and are can also be considered twins if you take our similar faces into account.
France and England are also my brothers, but they're also a bit like my parents because they were the ones who raised me. Italy and his brother Romano are a little different in that they represent the same country, just different halves of it. That's because Norther Italy and Southern Italy were two different countries until their unification, but Romano still exists because his identity as a country was never changed or taken away from his people. Countries that were once a single entity but are now two are the reverse of what happened to Italy.
Finally, just because a person is from a certain country or that they have ancestors from a country, that does not make them THE ACTUAL country. As I've tried to explain, what we are is something different from a regular person and we are more than just ourselves.
With everything that I've said and everything that I've tried to explain the best that I can, is it a little more believable when we say we're the countries now? If there's anything else I can try to clarify, I'll do my best, but I mean, we've all been pulled here into this world to find out that vampires, death gods and spirits, monsters, and talking animals can exist in other worlds. Why is it just OUR group that's regarded as the ones who don't make sense?
[ooc: CANADA! Leading in the UN peacekeeping role for a reason. Mostly because he can keep talking until you see things his way.
I CAN GO TO THE BATHROOM BY MYSELF AMERICA!
If anyone wants to visit though, I, and Kumajirou, would love to have the company.
Anyway... Since I've never really done well with doing nothing, but lie around and count the ceiling cracks, I'd thought I could try explaining something. Something that needs to be said in regards to the existence of several residents of Discedo, including myself.
I'll start by introducing myself. My name is Canada. I gained my independence in 1982 so I am no longer a colony of England, but my own independent nation.
Now to explain what I mean.
Firstly, I AM NOT CRAZY/INSANE/MENTAL/OR MAKING ANYTHING UP. I, and my fellow nations, really ARE the countries of the world that some people are familiar with. You can do a psychiatric test on us or check our mental stability, but we are most definitely not crazy.
When I say that we are the countries, I mean that we are anthropomorphic personifications of the countries. The land you see, the people who live there, the history, the culture, the spirit of the people, and everything else that makes up a country's identity is what we are. As such, yes, we do have some common mannerism and interests of our people. I like maple syrup, hockey, and lacrosse for example. And yes, I do have a Canadian accent.
I am also a lot older than I look. Granted, I'm no where near as old as some nations who've been around for centuries, but I'm still a lot older than the 20-odd years I might look. Because I'm a lot older than I look, I've also done a lot more than most people. It's a mutual thing for all of us, but any major historical event that affects our country, we tend to participate in somehow. I was there in 1812 when America and I burned down each other's houses, and I had enlisted as a solider during the two World Wars.
During all this time however, I hadn't really physically aged very much. Maybe some so that I didn't then, and don't look now, so much like a teenager and more like a young man. The same goes for all of us countries. We have this odd physical age cap that we seem to reach and the cap for each of us is different. Italy's been around since the time of the Roman Empire, but he doesn't look older than Germany, who's been around for much less time.
I don't understand the age cap myself, though I know the how's and why's behind why our aging process. We age as fast as our countries develop to show the country's progress. The countries in Europe developed over centuries, so the aging process for those nations took centuries. America and I, in comparison, went from being children to young men in almost no time at all.
So I've mentioned what makes us up, how we're involved in our countries, and how we age. But before that, there's how we are born and how we die.
I think that it's because of the chips, but back home, it's impossible to kill any of us with normal means. A person would have to somehow kill the entire country, and a majority of the people, before managing to kill one of us. I've been stabbed, shot, and smothered to the point where I should have died, but I haven't died because Canada and Canadian people still exist.
That's why I thought that Prussia was supposed to be dead upon first arriving here. The country was dissolved and became East and West Germany after World War II, and then when reuniting in 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the lands became known only by the singular title of Germany. That's the only way that I know of that anyone can truly kill a country.
While we can't easily die, we do get hurt. Not only from things that affect our physical bodies, but natural disasters, large scale destruction of cities, and a mass death of our citizens. Earthquakes and forest fires hurt like you wouldn't believe.
We can also get sick, but that's mostly affected by the state of the economy. I think everyone had a cold of some kind when the Depression of the 1920's hit.
The reason why I haven't mentioned much about the beginning parts of our lives is because I can't remember much from when I was born. America and I are the youngest real countries around and before us, everyone else had already been around for decades. I don't know what's the deal with Sealand, but his physical age does suggest that he's a little too young to be taken very seriously in his claims of nationhood.
I do remember from when I was little, having a sense of belonging and connection to the forest and rivers that surrounded me. Like they were just as much a part of me as my arm was. I felt right at home in the wilderness without another person nearby. Except for Kumajirou, who's been with me since I was small and doesn't really count, I didn't see another human being until I met up with some Native Americans. And then, I didn't meet anyone who looked like me until France came and started colonizing.
So if I have a mother who gave an actual physical birth to me, I wouldn't know. But that doesn't mean that I don't have a family, even amongst the other nations.
Countries that have a closely entwined history, language, and culture, with similar people and shared borders tend to be siblings. Liechtenstein and Switzerland are brother and sister, as are China, Korea, and Japan. America and I are brothers at the very least, and are can also be considered twins if you take our similar faces into account.
France and England are also my brothers, but they're also a bit like my parents because they were the ones who raised me. Italy and his brother Romano are a little different in that they represent the same country, just different halves of it. That's because Norther Italy and Southern Italy were two different countries until their unification, but Romano still exists because his identity as a country was never changed or taken away from his people. Countries that were once a single entity but are now two are the reverse of what happened to Italy.
Finally, just because a person is from a certain country or that they have ancestors from a country, that does not make them THE ACTUAL country. As I've tried to explain, what we are is something different from a regular person and we are more than just ourselves.
With everything that I've said and everything that I've tried to explain the best that I can, is it a little more believable when we say we're the countries now? If there's anything else I can try to clarify, I'll do my best, but I mean, we've all been pulled here into this world to find out that vampires, death gods and spirits, monsters, and talking animals can exist in other worlds. Why is it just OUR group that's regarded as the ones who don't make sense?
[ooc: CANADA! Leading in the UN peacekeeping role for a reason. Mostly because he can keep talking until you see things his way.