Roderich Edelstein :: Opus 1

[gesangvoll]

Who: Roderich Edelstein (Austria), Gilbert Weillschmidt (Prussia), anyone else that wants to show up.
Where: Espoir, later... elsewhere, since Austria does not want to stay in one place. :x
Style: Either. 8D
Status: Open~!

Comments

[gesangvoll]

On his quest to find out where he had been taken, Austria could have sworn he heard an oh-too-familiar voice in the distance. A voice he would prefer to ignore and pretend he did not recognize. He wanted to pass that off as another illusion. A none-too-pleasant trick of his mind. However, as he drew closer toward the source of the noise, he realized that this was either a horrible nightmare of sorts, or an unpleasant situation that would no doubt escalate from here. Austria had apparently came across one of the few people he could honestly say he loathed, Prussia, yelling... at a scarecrow. He had come to expect such crude behavior from the other man, after all, but such actions still caused Austria to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

When he noticed Prussia marching off in his direction, Austria's look of confusion hardened into a cold glare. After all, that was the only expression fit for such a barbaric individual as Prussia. Though his manners told him to do otherwise, Austria decided to wait for the other man to notice him first, since making the first move in any situation involving Prussia had always proven to be a bad idea.

[vitalregionsnow]

Gilbert continued to traipse across the strange, foreign lands, all the while muttering irritatedly to himself about how clearly the intelligence of the "man" he had tried to speak to was seriously lacking. He tended to stare at the ground when he was annoyed, so if it were not for the fact that he spotted Austria's boots out of the corner of his eye, he probably would have bumped into the other man. He glanced up, frozen. It couldn't possibly be Austria... could it? When Prussia last saw the other country he was in terrible shape, with numerous scratches and bruises. But right now, why, he looked perfectly unharmed! No one could possibly heal so quickly.

A minute passed by before he finally realized that no, waiting and blinking constantly would not make the man standing in front of him disappear. The look of surprise on his face quickly turned into one of fury yet again. "YOU," he hissed, "I should have known you were behind this." He pointed a finger dramatically at the nation's face, close enough that if it had moved only a few centimeters more it would likely poke Austria in the eye. "You never learn, do you? I thought you would have known better after Fritz and I gave you such a beating only a few weeks ago."

[gesangvoll]

Austria couldn't help but find amusement in Prussia complaining about the lack of intelligence of a scarecrow. As such, he couldn't help but turn up the corners of his mouth into a half-smirk (not a smile, for smiling when Prussia was around was not something Austria would allow himself to do). It seemed as though Prussia's behavior did not change, whether or not he was in a familiar environment.

Prussia's outburst caused Austria to raise his eyebrow in confusion once more. After all, even Austria knew that 'Fritz' had not been Prussia's leader for some time now. Some time being an understatement. Ignoring the finger pointing rudely in his face, Austria addressed the other nation.

"Your ignorance never ceases to astound me, Prussia. Please, enlighten me. How on earth would I manage to do something like this? You are well aware, of course, that if I were somehow able to move to some unknown village such as this at will, that I would most certainly not bring you along with me, yes?" he asked. Knowing Prussia, these questions would do nothing to help this situation, but Austria asked them regardless. "And what in the world do you mean 'Fritz and I gave you such a beating a few weeks ago'? Your leader has not been Frederick II for some time, Prussia. You should know that very well."

After a short pause, Austria spoke once more. "Kindly move your finger away from my face, Prussia. Pointing is rather rude, after all," he added.

[vitalregionsnow]

God, Prussia could not stand it when Austria smirked at him. Why was he smirking?! It felt like only yesterday that Prussia had been the one smirking, laughing with mirth as he drove Austria's army out of what were once his own lands. Prussia had won the war. Shouldn't that loser be off somewhere, drowning in self-pity? How dare he look so smug? Just more reason, Prussia thought, to think Austria was behind his sudden appearance in this strange place.

"Hah! What do you take me for, an idiot? You honestly expect me to believe that you had nothing to do with this, that both of us somehow managed to wake up in an unknown place and just bump into each other on accident? Don't think you can trick me by asking such stupid questions. I bet you know exactly where we are! And clearly you brought me here so you could get back at me for taking Silesia." His lips twisted into a small smirk at this. He had surely outsmarted that fool! --Wait, wait, wait, what? What had he said? Prussia understood his words, but they didn't make any sense to him at all.

Frederick II... wasn't his leader? How could he not be Prussia's leader? Unless... he died without Prussia knowing? No! That was-- that was absolutely impossible! He bit his lip, glowering at the aristocrat. He didn't mind so much when Austria spoke badly of him, that he could tolerate. That he usually simply shrugged off and ignored. But to tell such lies about his king, oh, that was simply unforgivable. "What kind of garbage are you spewing from your mouth this time?" he cried out harshly. "Of course Fritz is my leader!"

And--just to spite Austria--he moved his finger even closer to the other man's face.

[gesangvoll]

If Austria did not have the manners he did, he would have replied to Prussia's first question with a 'yes, I do take you for an idiot,' or something of that nature. Fortunately for Prussia (or for Austria himself, as he was not too keen on being punched by Prussia), Austria managed to bite his tongue and not say a word. Austria's eye twitched ever so slightly at the mention of Prussia's forceful takeover of Silesia; he would never understand how Prussia's mind worked, nor did he want to. After all, Silesia (Austrian land, by the way) had been taken from him by that brute's king hundreds of years ago. Why on earth would he need to get back at Prussia for such a thing now? Not that the idea of putting Prussia in his place wasn't appealing, though, but he would need his army for such a thing.

"Prussia, did you hit your head when you arrived here? The War of the Austrian Succession happened hundreds of years ago. I have no need to take revenge on you for such a thing at this moment. If I knew exactly where we were, Prussia, I would not be walking around, searching for someone that can explain this place to me," he replied stiffly.

The fact that Prussia didn't seem to know that Frederick II was no longer his leader shocked Austria; After all, even someone such as Prussia should know that humans didn't live as long as they did. "Have you forgotten that your king is only human, Prussia?" he asked.

...he should have expected Prussia to do something like that. He really should have. Asking politely never got anywhere if Prussia was involved in the situation. Austria narrowed his eyes at the offending finger before reaching up with his right hand and forcefully moving it down, and away from his face.

[vitalregionsnow]

Prussia rolled his eyes at the aristocrat. "Someone likes to exaggerate. It hasn't been twenty years since the War of Austrian Succession. And you know that's like the blink of an eye to us." He paused before adding, "I meant the Seven Years' War, anyway. Don't be stupid."

What Austria said next made Prussia feel incredibly uncomfortable, his anger and irritation replaced by fear. Yes, he had known, of course, that his beloved leader was human. He had known that one day, he would die, just like all his other leaders. But Prussia had not wanted to accept this fact. After all, Frederick was far from a normal human.

He could compose. He played the flute brilliantly. He knew nine languages. And--this was the thing that earned him the most respect from the kingdom--he was the most brilliant strategist Prussia had ever known. All of this he had accomplished in such a short amount of time, too. Surely... surely this meant that unlike the other humans Prussia had known, he wouldn't simply fade away and die. He just couldn't! Because Prussia was not sure he would be able to bear it if he did. It was something the kingdom simply hadn't wanted to think about, hadn't been able to come to terms with.

And so, he wasn't really sure what else he could really say to Austria. He averted his gaze from his rival, glancing at the ground as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. His arms hung pathetically at his sides; he had not bothered to raise his arm back up to point at Austria once more. Finally, he muttered, "I know." He couldn't keep denying it forever, as much as he wanted to.

[gesangvoll]

And even then, Prussia was referring to wars long since past in the present tense. Austria was fairly certain that there was something wrong here, but he couldn't place exactly what it was. After all, the only way to explain such a thing would be to say that Prussia hit his head on something upon arrival. Time travel was out of the question, since surely traveling backward or forward in time was something that originated from and should stay in one of America's bizarre fantasies.

"That, too, was hundreds of years ago, Prussia. I am not sure which century you have been living in, for even you should recall that both of those happened in the past. The last conflict you and I were involved in was the Austro-Prussian war of 1866," he said matter-of-factly.

Prussia's reaction to Austria's remark about the humanity of Prussia's 'great leader' was rather unexpected. Austria had never seen Prussia behave in such a manner before, after all. Normally Prussia was loud, obnoxious, laughing manically, and demanding all of his vital regions. He honestly did not know how to react to that behavior, so he chose to ignore it, averting his gaze, and pretending such a thing never happened.

[vitalregionsnow]

What? What was this guy talking about? With the issue of Frederick II's mortality quickly forgotten and pushed to the very back of his mind, Prussia once again looked up to glare at Austria. How dare he act like Prussia was an idiot that couldn't even remember what century he was in? His memory was perfect. Perfect! Clearly, if anyone was wrong, it was Austria, not him. "This some kind of a joke? That year hasn't even happened yet. Next you're gonna tell me I lose most of my territories and become smaller than you," he said in annoyance.

Something about this was still bothering him, though. Austria had no reason to lie about this, did he? It wouldn't help the other country in any way, surely. Prussia frowned, furrowing his brows. No, he couldn't think of any way Austria would be able to benefit from this. So then, the other nation had seriously believed what he was saying to be true? Surely that couldn't be possible. No, Austria had to be joking. "Man, Specs, you have one messed up sense of humor."

[gesangvoll]

Prussia honestly did not know about that war? And he seemed to believe that he was from... before that time. This all puzzled Austria; dealing with Prussia from the current time was difficult enough, but dealing with a Prussia that was from back then might be substantially more difficult, if only because he was more obnoxious than he should be, since Austria would clearly have the advantage in battle, due to the advanced weaponry he possessed. When Prussia jokingly mentioned the possibility of his land area becoming smaller than Austria's, he couldn't help but gain some amusement at that image. Averting his gaze from the other country once more, Austria decided it would be a good idea to not mention the early parts of the French Revolution and the times following it to this Prussia.

"Prussia, this is the year 1914. The year 1866 happened quite some time ago. Why on earth would I joke about something such as this?" he asked. Though, perhaps a better question would be 'when did he ever joke around?'

[vitalregionsnow]

Prussia had considered that it would be incredibly stupid and pointless for Austria to lie about what year it was, already, of course. But even after thinking about it, he really had come up with no reason as to why the other nation would joke about such a thing. Wait, no, maybe-- it was possible that he'd simply done it out of pure dislike for Prussia. "Maybe because you just enjoy seeing me confused. Does it give you a feeling of superiority?" He was really just guessing and hadn't any reason for thinking this way, since Austria seemed sincere enough. But there was no way what he was saying could be true, so this was the only possible explanation that Prussia could think of.

After all, Austria insisted that it was the year 1914. That was more than one hundred years in his future.

[gesangvoll]

Austria did dislike Prussia quite a bit. 'Dislike' was putting it lightly, though, he supposed. After all, Prussia had been involved in countless wars against Austria, and most, if not all, resulted in Austria losing. Though he acted as if he were above such things, losing to someone such as Prussia was not exactly something that Austria enjoyed looking back on. However, despite his hatred of the other man, even Austria would not sink so low as to play a dirty trick on his rival upon arriving in some new, strange village. He narrowed his eyes at Prussia's remark; see if he ever decides to give up a shred of information to clear up any confusion the other may have ever again.

"Honestly, Prussia. If this is the sort of thanks I get for telling you information you should already know, that hardly makes me feel as if doing anything that may help you ever so slightly in the future is worth my time. Though, I do suppose I should have expected such a reaction from you."

[vitalregionsnow]

That's because you're a loser, Austria. Prussia scoffed loudly at that remark. Yeah, Austria was dead serious, as usual. That fact didn't make what he was saying to be any less ridiculous, however. "Information I should already know? You're the one that should know it's the year 1763. Looks like I hit you a little too hard. You're making even less sense than usual."

Then again, Austria wasn't the only person not making sense there. Nothing that had happened to Prussia today had made any sense at all. After all, he had woken up in a place he definitely had not fallen asleep in. The whole thing felt like a really crazy dream.

[gesangvoll]

And Prussia was being his usual irritating self. Austria then decided that he did not wish to deal with Prussia and his blind ignorance of his surroundings anymore. After all, he was beginning to get a headache from speaking with the other man, and he hadn't even been here a full day yet. Casting another cold glance in Prussia's direction, Austria began to speak.

"If that is what you believe, then so be it. I have other priorities I must attend to, Prussia, all of which are far more important than standing here and engaging in idle chatter with you. I ask that, in the event that we both remain here for some time, you refrain from contacting me. Good day to you."

And with that, Austria brushed past Prussia, continuing in the direction he had been walking in before this 'engaging' conversation. And of course, don't contact him means spam the voicemail post.