The Best Laid Plans [Venezuela]
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2015 22:20:45 GMT -5
It only takes Peter about an hour to finish doing a bit of basic math, but that doesn't take much for him. He's good at math. Math is concrete. Math is structured. For someone who loves interpersonal relationships so much, he likes the concrete, the obvious. Must come with being half-machine. But he's a bit rushed. He's very rushed. Because it's just hit him that he has a member of the Joint Pact, a leader on the South American front, unless he's much mistaken, asleep on a metal cot in a guest room on Fort Roughs, recovering from a plane crash. This is insane.
He has absolutely no idea what to do.
Okay. Okay. No. He's got a- well, no, he's not got a plan yet, but he WILL have a plan! He's just got to figure out how to get around his older brother first. Speaking of, he really had to make sure that Arthur didn't suddenly drop by uninvited again anytime soon. That would end badly. So much of this could end badly. Not that he has anything against the Joint Pact (the United Allegiance is just as bad), or anything like that, it's just that Peter's literally surrounded by the United Allegiance and recognises quite suddenly that this puts him in legitimate danger. He's on shaky ground anyway, but there's a chance those more ridiculous people who saw him as a threat would suddenly have an excuse to do something about it if England found out.
So. Okay. Arthur shows up for any unexpected visits, hide Vicente. Peter could do that. Hopefully, Vicente wouldn't be stuck here that long. Priority number one. Get him un-stuck. And that's why Peter needed a plan, a plan that was reasonable. Fake IDs could work, but, in a move that he supposed Arthur would find very much unlike Peter, he recognised that Arthur would catch them and wouldn't ignore something this big. Britain had one of the largest CCTV networks in the world. Peter didn't even really think he went uncaught all that often. He'd just gotten good at hiding. Vicente would make things harder, though.
The original idea involved airport security tricks, too, actually, so scrap that one. Scrap it entirely. New plan. They're both still better off if they end up in Sweden. He'd probably get a disapproving glare from his Daddy, though. It didn't take good people-reading skills to catch that, while neutral, his Daddy mostly did it because he disagreed with war, not because he sympathised deeply with both sides; no one doubted that his Daddy would enter the war on the United Allegiance's side if push came to shove. But it was better off than Britain, and, more importantly, there was a minor chance he could still get a flight out into Joint Pact-controlled territory. If not, well, he could at least refuel and get into Eastern Europe from there, though that upped the general danger level of all of this...
Right. So using the helicopter for a few days to get all of this done was a given, it looked like. The hardest part was always getting through the area that was completely British airspace. Luckily, Peter had been doing that one for some time. Getting the helicopter set up for a long haul like getting it to Sweden would be tough, though. Getting it to carry enough fuel would be too. But Peter wasn't going to use the gamble that was "are Russian submarines trying to hide nearby?", especially given how the last time Peter had seen them wound up going. Even if he did have a better idea on how to contact them, he wasn't quite certain he wanted to. Last resort, then.
Peter paced his room. A recorder blinked on the desk. He'd always found it easier to dictate his thoughts out loud to himself than to write them down, though he certainly wrote them down when he could. "Okay. So we clearly have a fuel issue. I'd have to change the design of the helicopter some, that could take some time, but it would probably be safer in the long run to know the fuel capacity and distance rather than to hope that the wind's just right for it to work... I'll have to get my hands on fuel, too? I mean, I get enough, normally, but this is a bit more than the normal enough and I certainly can't..."
He paused. And then he grinned. He could figure the rest of this out later. His radio was buzzing, and it was almost definitely Vicente this time. He paused the recorder and, skipping, went towards an elevator (he was nowhere near Vicente at the time). He hit the button to answer the radio. If Vicente was awake, he could bounce ideas off of him! Plus, a new person to talk to was always fantastic in Peter's book.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2015 15:27:04 GMT -5
How many hours has Vicente been asleep? He has no idea. Many - that much is certain. Even when he isn't quite badly hurt he's a good sleeper - lingering in bed long past the time one is normally supposed to. Of course, that's offset by the fact that he stays awake longer than he's supposed to at night. In any event, it's many hours after falling asleep that he finally stirs, and he immediately wonders why he's not in his bed - he can tell the difference instantly because his own bed at home is really very comfortable. Opening his eyes, it takes a few moments of puzzling for him to wake up enough to remember where he is and how he got here. Oh yeah, the plane crash...
Normally upon waking he might still linger in bed for awhile, but since this isn't his comfortable bed at home and he has other discomforts to attend to, he doesn't. Instead he remembers the change of clothes that Peter offered, so he decides to try them on first. They prove to be quite a bit tighter than he's used to, but not so tight that they don't work, so he decides to put up with that - beggars can't be choosers, and it's better than having to wear clothes with weird holes all over the place. Once he's dressed he grabs the radio that Peter left him, laying back down on the bed as he turns it on.
"Peter! Do you have any food in this place?" he asks. Not that he at all questions that he would, but there's a certain urgency in his voice. He hasn't had a thing to eat since he left home, and that was quite some time ago at this point. In fact, he was probably already hungry even before he slept, but he hadn't cared at that moment because sleep had felt more pressing. But now that sleep isn't an issue anymore he's quite sure that he's starving to death.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 28, 2015 20:12:31 GMT -5
Peter was still skipping when he heard Venezuela's voice through his crackling radio. The radios had been specially designed, though, so the signal didn't cut out. This was good. It had taken a while to come up with a way to make sure the radios didn't constantly lose signals around the large amounts of water, concrete, and steel their signals had to crawl through. Peter had partially solved this with what were essentially signal-boosters, but they'd still been known to cut in and out upon inconvenient occasion. For now, though, the thing seemed to be working just fine, which was great. Still, his face momentarily scrunched up when he heard the first thing that Venezuela would ask for. Of course that would be it, it made sense, it was just a reminder that Peter had, not for the first time, taken on what could probably only be described as a rather large situation. Actually, if handled wrong, it could probably be described as a potential massive disaster. Starting with the fact that it was another mouth to feed, actually. Not that Peter couldn't handle it. He could totally handle it. It was just... when had he started to become worried about rescuing people (one of his biggest goals in the first place) because he didn't know if he could actually help them anymore? Maybe he was getting all responsible and grown-up. Peter thought about it. He wasn't certain if that was an entirely good thing. Certainly, the whole "getting responsible" thing would be at least mostly a good thing, but the getting "grown-up"? He wasn't so sure. The more he tried to prove himself as an adult, the more he kinda wanted to just cling to his Daddy and his friends and play a ridiculous prank and take a ridiculous bet over Pokémon cards or just sort of play around in a way that wasn't very "grown-up" at all. He pushed the thought aside. He still wanted to grow up a bit. People would take him more seriously that way. Just not too much. "Yep!" he said, changing his direction in order that he could actually get Venezuela some food in the first place. "Hope you like fish!" he said, altogether too cheerfully. He'd get something nicer for Vicente later, but for now, Peter was just going to grab the first rations that he could easily account for and get his hands on, which were his own, which were mostly consisted of things that they very nearly had extras of in the first place. Hence, fish. He'd work out what he could give Venezuela specifically later, because, of course, he'd forgotten to account for that. He was normally relatively careful about these things, too. He supposed he was just distracted. At least it wouldn't be permanent (though he really would keep Vicente around as long as he needed to stay, even if it made making ends meet require a mobius strip- it wasn't like it didn't already). "I'll get you some water, too, while I'm at it," he adds, and he supposes that was a given, really, but Peter still felt it had to be said. Hydration was important! That was another thing that Peter had become hyper aware of recently! As one of England's authors had once said of being on the ocean, he'd found himself in a situation with "water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink." Luckily, technology and science had come a long way since then. It hadn't been too hard for Peter to set up a filtration system in order to get actual, drinkable fresh water. Still, it gave you a new appreciation for the stuff, when it hit you that, despite being surrounded by it, there was surprisingly little of it in the world to keep everything running. He left the radio silent for a few moments, humming to himself quietly as he went to a storeroom. "Anything else in particular you need? How are you? Are you feeling better? I hope you're feeling better. It's supposed to rain later, but not thunder; that always makes me feel better!" His cheery voice carried a little past other people as he walked, people having their own conversations. One of them nodded their head to Peter. The others didn't pay any mind to the young kid wandering around into relatively restricted areas completely on his own. Everyone knew him, here. That was one thing that was different from everywhere else. I'm using constant notes recently but I must always attribute my quotes! That's from Rime of the Ancient Mariner (I can't decide whether to italicise that one or to put it in quotation marks because it's a rather long poem), which is by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who is an old dead English Romantic guy. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2015 19:29:02 GMT -5
"I don't care what it is as long as it's edible!" Vicente declares. Which isn't entirely true - while he likes a lot of different kinds of foods, he does have his limits. But while fish are far from being his favorite food, he'd not turn up his nose at it either - at least, not when he's this hungry. When he's not wondering if he might be literally starving and has a better idea of what his other choices might be, then he'd have a much stronger opinion. Right now he's guessing the first offered food is probably quick and easy, and that's by far the most important measure of what he most wants to eat right now - whatever he can eat right now.
There's a slight pause as Peter asks how he's doing. He's still recently enough from waking that he actually has to think about the answer first. But then he says, "Oh, I'm feeling much, much better! Almost as good as new! Except that I think that my stomach will eat itself soon if I do not give it something else. I don't remember the last time I was this hungry." Probably because he spends most of his time making sure that he's happy and comfortable to the exclusion of all else, so the last thing that he'd neglect is to eat on a regular basis. He regularly forgets that others also have such basic needs, but he certainly wouldn't forget himself.
"Have you thought of a good way for me to leave yet?" he asks now, "And where are you? I would come and find you, but I don't have any idea how to do that - I haven't had the full tour yet." Not that he thinks that he'd get that lost - this place just isn't that big. He's even pretty sure he'd not get disoriented by the fact that it's so much up and down - he's accustomed to going through the rainforest, after all, and that's way more complicated. Or at least he's sure it would be, since the rainforest was never designed by someone.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2015 22:36:37 GMT -5
Peter smiles to himself. "Good thing, then," he explains, "'cause it's fish." His tone is joking, but that really is the truth. Peter doesn't have much of anything in excess, but fish is one thing that's fairly easy for him to get more of, if occasionally a pain, given the United Allegiance training and patrols in the area. Another thing that's blessfully easy for him to get is salt. This is less because he would have immediately thought of that- when he first started out, he hadn't thought of these things properly at all- but the process of extracting fresh water from salt water had the useful side effect of giving him a whole lot of salt.
There it was, another thing he hadn't realized would be so very useful until he suddenly had to figure out how to store food for long periods of time in large quantities. Certainly, he could freeze a lot of it, and he did, but salt made it significantly easier to make sure the food kept. He could almost see why it used to be a currency a long, long, long time ago, before they had the technology to freeze things. Luckily, Peter could just get it from the ocean.
For some reason, people liked to sell salt as "sea salt", often for money. Peter always found that funny, because sodium chloride was sodium chloride wherever you got it from. But hey! He had that! If he could find someone who would buy it legitimately and in quantities not so high that it would dent the amount Peter had to use for his own things, maybe he'd sell it for more money, too. It would be silly, but it could still work! People were weird sometimes, after all.
Peter smiles again to himself. He does that a lot. His resting face is practically a beaming grin at this point. It makes him feel happier, just smiling, so he figured he should smile as often as he could, and then he'd feel happier. "Oh, I'm glad you feel better!" He paused, just barely held back from a confused 'really?' to the statement that he was the hungriest he'd been in his life. Venezuela was older than Peter, and Peter had definitely gone longer than Vicente just had without food, at least once, if not multiple times... H'ed chalk it up to over exaggeration, then.
He scrunched up his face. "I've been trying to think of something... I think it will involve me now having an excuse to do an efficiency upgrade on the helicopter, but I'm not certain. I mean, I could probably just flat sneak you out, I know how to fake a passport, but that's potentially a really bad idea..." He shrugged. "So, uh, I'm working on it. I'll figure something out! Maybe you have some ideas?" He opened the freezer door, hitting a code on a keypad as he did. The numbers were slightly worn down where they were pressed more often. He probably should fix that. Oh well.
Peter blinked. "You can't come back here to where I am anyway, I'm currently in a freezer, getting you food, but..." He paused, bit his cheek for a moment. "I'll be up there soon, I just need to get this stuff, then sure, I can give you a tour of some kind!" He looked through the stored things, looking specifically for any of the extra stuff that Peter normally would have taken to grab some for Vicente.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2015 2:51:55 GMT -5
To be sure, Vicente has been this hungry before. In fact, he's been much, much hungrier before. He just can't recall exactly when that was right now. And while it probably wouldn't be very hard at all for him to recall that bit of information, he'd rather not. He's just plain not used to the least bit of deprivation, at least not since the oil money made him so wealthy that it's hard for him to not be able to afford everything he wants. He still manages to do it anyway, but it's hard. But even in the worst of times, he still usually manages to eat on a regular basis, unlike right now.
As Peter talks about his ideas, Vicente frowns to himself in dissatisfaction. But when the question is turned around on him, he sighs and says, "I have a lot of ideas, but not very many good ones. Which is really very frustrating - I'm a nation, and a strong nation. Do you have any idea how many helicopters I have? Good ones - I buy a lot from the Russians. And planes. And ships. But most of them are very busy with the war, and even if they weren't your brother has more than I do. And that's assuming that I could tell Pablo to send them without anyone finding out about it." He lets out an exasperated sigh. It's just so incredibly frustrating to know that you have so much power and yet to find yourself in a situation where you pretty much have no power at all. And he has no power this deep into Allegiance territory, while Peter of all people has some - even if it's just a little. It's really unfair!
"But I agree, just trying to sneak me out is a very bad idea. Too many things can go wrong - it's better if I can get out without setting foot on Allegiance soil," he adds. Flying through Allegiance airspace is bad enough! It's a good thing the pilot died in the crash, or Vicente would have so many nasty things to do to the man for putting him in this situation. "I don't suppose it's possible for Sweden to meet us halfway or something?" he asks, because while flying out on a helicopter sounds more promising than trying to get around with a fake passport, he's pretty sure he doesn't like the sound of one needing an efficiency upgrade.
Hearing the little nation explicitly state that the food is coming causes Vicente to have to fight off a wave of impatience. He wants it now! But in an effort to not be too pushy, he forces himself to say something that isn't an attempt to convince Peter to hurry. "I would like that very much! I have never been in a structure of this kind. Well, except that I've been to an oil rig, but that's a different thing," he comments.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2015 21:56:33 GMT -5
Peter listens somewhat sympathetically to Vicente, though inwardly, he thinks it would be rather nice having the capacity to know he had solutions he couldn't get to, if that made any sense at all. It would be kinda nice, in a weird way, to be able to say "I have lots of helicopters" and mean it, and know that those lots of helicopters were out there somewhere, even if they couldn't get to him. Maybe it would be frustrating, sure, but it would mean that Peter had gotten somewhere. He'd be strong, and that would be good in its own way.
Not that Peter could focus on getting things like helicopters now. He'd learned surprisingly quickly to prioritize. Despite occasionally aiming for ridiculous things and loving ridiculous ideas, Peter's first goal would always have to be to take care of himself and his People- planes and helicopters could wait, even if they were fantastic. (He still wanted a seaplane, if he could find and/or build one, though. Even if that was just a bit of a pipe dream at this point.)
He smiled, shrugging to himself. "I don't actually have any idea how many helicopters you have, or planes, or ships, really." There's a slight pause. "I'm actually a little bit out of the loop on any intelligence like that, really. I mean, I get it sporadically, and my half-brother, he's basically built for hacking, but there's only but so much I can offer him at a given time to get that because I'm really, really bad at it myself. I'm better at concrete things." Although he's rambling, Peter is also offering, in his own, Peter-ish way, a more thorough explanation of the situation to the older Nation. It's a little way of trying to show Vicente some of the details so that maybe they can come up with something, if together they can add all the variables up.
He hummed to himself. "I might be able to get Daddy to meet us halfway or something, yeah. I would say Uncle Nils- that's Norway- 'cause he's closer, but he's also currently basically locked himself in his house and is moping, so I don't think I'll be getting him to help much." Peter's tone of voice conveyed just how silly he thought his Uncle Nils was being at the moment, though there was a slight twinge of worry in there, too. That wouldn't last long, though. Next available opportunity, he was planning on picking the lock to his house if he had to and cheering the man up! He'd appreciate it. Probably. Sometime. In the distant future.
"You shouldn't worry about the helicopter too much, though, I'll test everything first myself if I do mess with it again. I'm pretty good at stuff like that, too! It sorta comes with the territory, I guess." He shrugs. He's walking back to where Vicente is at this point, having grabbed what's probably a little more than Peter should probably spare but it's all coming from stuff that he's supposed to be eating, not anyone else, anyway, so it doesn't really matter, right? He does want the older boy to be comfortable, at least, and he had implied that he was used to eating a lot. Not that Peter really had grabbed a lot (he didn't really have that capability), but he wasn't just going to grab a tiny amount, either.
Half-skipping, half-running to the elevator at this point, he smiled. "Sure, then! I'm pretty unique!" This wasn't really bragging on Peter's part, actually- as far as Nations went, Peter was very much unique, to the point where he'd definitely gone through a "why do I exist?" phase (also, unfortunately, a "I'm probably just a mistake" phase, but that was mostly not a problem anymore). He was also pretty unique in a lot of respects, just in general, given that, when he'd run out of room normally, he'd had no lateral space, so he'd gone with "put stuff underwater".
That was also when he was still working with the money he'd been given by his brother that he was supposed to use to make himself easier to defend, though. Expansion was going to be a whole lot harder at this point. But it would happen eventually. It had to. He wouldn't have space forever (he was constantly trying to find ways to save space at this point).
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2015 23:42:26 GMT -5
"Well, I have a lot," Vicente replies rather simply, leaving it at that. He knows some exact figures, of course, but it's never a good idea to randomly throw around exact figures during wartime and the exact figures aren't necessary for him to make his point anyway. He does catch that Peter mentions that he knows someone who is apparently good at hacking, though he's not sure how that might be able to help him in this case. Not unless England is stupid enough to directly connect his military to the internet, but not even Vicente is stupid enough to do that anymore so he doesn't think that idea has good enough odds to look into it.
As Peter talks about his father and uncle, Vicente finds his interest in the conversation quickly waning. Not only are both of those neutral countries, but they're ones that obviously would have sided with the other side if they weren't, so he can say that he cares at all what 'Uncle Nils' is doing. But he attempts to at least indicate that he's paying attention by commenting, "Well, if there's any doubt about the helicopter making it, it would be a good idea to make the distance as short as possible. Waking up at the bottom of the sea is not something that I can recommend as a fun time." And it's certainly something that he wants to avoid doing on a regular basis. Especially since he was extremely lucky about who found him first - he also doesn't want to count on his luck doing him the same favor again.
Once they've both confirmed that a tour will happen, Vicente doesn't really know what he says, so he simply says, "Cool." And then there's an awkward pause. Though it doesn't last very long because his impatience immediately boils up again and he can't help but ask, "Will you be here soon?" Perhaps the wait wouldn't be so trying, but he literally doesn't have anything to do but talk to Peter and think about how hungry he is right now. He doesn't see anything in the room that is of particular interest to him, and since he's waiting for the young micro-nation he can't leave the room either. Otherwise he'd already be wandering around and exploring on his own instead of laying in bed (probably looking for food) - he's not afraid that he might get lost, no matter how complicated Peter indicated this structure is to navigate.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2015 17:07:38 GMT -5
Peter nodded to himself. He accepted "a lot" as an acceptable metric, or at least, one that would be acceptable for now, to enter in analogue, qualitative logs. He'd prefer numbers, though. Everyone knew that qualitative data was subjective, and therefore not very useful compared to solid, quantitative figures. Plus, only quantitative figures could be analyzed and could have math done with them- not that it mattered much in this case. Peter described things qualitatively all the time. It just wasn't necessarily useful intelligence, was all.
He also nodded sagely to Vicente's next statement. "No, it's not much fun," he agreed, though to Peter- well, he was unusual, he supposed. He didn't mind being underwater for long periods of time, his lungs could take a lot more time without air than a lot of other Nations. If he actually knocked himself out, managed to drown himself, the worst part of it wouldn't be the feeling of being waterlogged, the choking, not-breathing. The worst part would be the accompanying emotions. He would have almost had to have been trying, after all, or at least in extreme distress.
"I'll see if I can get Uncle Nils out of his brooding corner, then," he said, clearly considering this. "Honestly! If he and Uncle Mathias would just talk, so much of this would be avoided. Or maybe just kiss and make up? I don't know, that's what I'm pretty sure I heard Momma say when she thought I wasn't listening..." He shrugged. "Families are hard. But worth it. Very worth it." There was a clear smile in his voice, though there was also a slight twinge of exasperation. At least it wasn't Uncle Mathias and his Daddy. There was a relationship that Peter still couldn't understand to this day...
He stood, tapping his foot outside of an elevator. There was a notebook in his pocket (there was always a notebook in his pocket). "Yeah, just give me a moment!" he said, and the signal was promptly cut off when he got into the elevator. Peter hadn't figured out how to make the repeaters work in the elevator shaft, too, not given the strong materials he'd made the thing out of. A few moments later, he stepped out of the elevator. He skipped down the somewhat emptier hallways, skidding down them in places on his slightly-damp shoes.
He opened the door to Venezuela's guest room, grinning. "Here you go! Sorry I took a bit, I wasn't that near storage when you woke up."
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2015 3:06:43 GMT -5
When Peter starts talking about his family again, Vicente finds it very difficult to pay attention. It's all so... warm and cozy compared to his own family. He thinks that his uncles have problems? Please... He'd love it if his only problem was that his family wasn't talking. That would be a great problem. His family are all at war with him. That's a problem. And is it worth it? Is it really? He often doubts that. His family are all ungrateful idiots. They'd rather let themselves become puppet nations of the bastard Europeans and war with him instead of fight for real independence. He lost the desire to even try to talk sense into any one of them long ago. He manages to keep those stewing thoughts bottled up, though, and simply says, "Uh-huh..."
When the radio goes quiet, he sighs and impatiently tries to be patient, but it doesn't work very well. He hates waiting! He almost gets up to pace a little, but then thinks better of that idea - pacing requires energy, and if he used up energy right now that would only make him feel hungrier. "Finally!" he says to himself when he hears someone coming quickly down the hallway. When Peter opens the door, he'd find Vicente stretching as he gets out of the bed.
And the older nation is looking significantly better. Even though he'd had no visible wounds before, he'd had that hollow look in his expression of someone fighting off a great deal of pain and upset, and at several points also really cold. His only problem now, as he said, is hunger. And he's not nearly hungry enough for that to actually be visible, so he simply looks like a strong and healthy older teenager - still a little on the short and lanky side to be considered an adult, but as he keeps insisting he's only one good growth spurt away from that.
"It's all right, I'm just very, very hungry," he admits, figuring that the younger boy can understand, "What manner of fish do you have, anyway?"
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2015 22:11:42 GMT -5
It takes a minute for Peter to remember that Vicente's actually at war with his family, at which point he winces. Thinking about it, his comment wasn't very sensitive... He rubs the back of his head as he hears Vicente's skeptical sounding reply and wishes that maybe if the war ends, he's able to make it up to his family, because it always hurts to have family members that don't like you. That don't trust you. That think of you as less than you are, or maybe just are terrible at communicating, or maybe just are t- no. He wasn't thinking about this right now, especially since he did have family who loved him perfectly well.
Even if the signal hadn't cut off, he probably would have just been quiet for a while after that. He really hadn't meant to upset Vicente at all. He really hoped he hadn't... Then again, he didn't sound very upset, so he was probably just skeptical in general of Peter's claims, or maybe just knew that he had worse problems or something. That was sorta sad in its own way to Peter, actually. Stupid war. Peter wished that he could do more to get rid of it, somehow make everyone apologize and hug or something like that. Wouldn't that be nice? But it was also just a little bit... a little bit childish, maybe.
So what? The world could do with a little bit more childishness if that meant they all could just get along for once. And if that was childish, Peter didn't really want to get rid of it. Even if it wouldn't work, not really. He wasn't so naive to think that a few hugs and some apologies and some handshakes could fix everything. It would take more than that, but the first thing it would take would be an end to the fighting (if he could end it, though...).
By the time he got to Vicente's room, he'd already shaken himself out of his thoughts, and was thus skipping down the hallways. When he opened the door to see Vicente standing up and stretching, he was happy to see Vicente looking much better. That was significantly better than the times Peter had been forced to recover from drowning, but then again, there had been other significant factors then that had done a number on things that were much, much less easy to recover from, to say the least. He actually looks very healthy and strong, and that makes Peter glad. It meant the war hadn't done too much damage yet, he figured, and since he thought he might be making friends at this point, he definitely didn't want to see him hurt.
"Makes sense!" Peter chirped as Vicente said that he'd just been very hungry. A moment later, he was blinking. "Uh... various kinds? I... actually didn't check what kind this was, though I can say that it's probably whatever we caught most of," he said, shrugging. "Going to guess haddock? Maybe whiting? Yeah, that's probably about right..." Okay, so it was more like eighty-percent likely. There was a lot of that, it was edible, and it was less likely to be overfished than some other kinds of fish. It could be something else, but he had taken it from his own rations, so it wasn't going to be anything terribly interesting that other people might particularly want for variety's sake.
He shrugged again. "Either way, it's food," he said. His tone of voice just said it all: he wouldn't be picky. He didn't particularly care what it was, so long as it was safe to eat, personally. Peter had actually been somewhat picky when he was younger, but he'd not so much grown out of it as been suddenly forced to get over it. He handed it to Vicente, paused, and then grabbed a bottle of water. It was hard plastic, the kind that could be washed and used over and over again. "Also you'll want this."
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2015 19:02:06 GMT -5
Is Vicente upset? No, not really. The rifts within his family are nothing new - they've existed in approximately their current form for about as long as he can remember, so he's used to the bitter feelings. He's always hated his father, he's always has his points of contention with his siblings, Izalene has always been a big bully, etc. The war only brought to a boil the feelings that had already existed. And Peter isn't the first, nor will he be the last person, to bother him with their rosy relationships. So he certainly won't blame him for reminding him how terrible his family is.
Besides, when it comes to the war, he's doing extremely well. His army is funded on oil money, and it isn't difficult for him to buy all the supplies that he could ever want from his allies with it. Yes, the price of anything required to continue the war has skyrocketed, but then so has the oil prices. His enemies to the east are too weak to stand against him without those bastard Europeans helping them, his siblings to the west are a bit more of a challenge but don't have as many advantages as he does, so his main opponent is Izalene. And while Izalene is among one of the primary reasons why he has so much trouble doing anything by sea, even with all her strength she has a huge disadvantage in the land war - both because her supply route through the rainforest is much longer than his and because he's team tackling her with Bolivia.
So while the war has had terrible effects on so many nations, it's actually been a boost for him - especially by comparison. He feels stronger and healthier than ever. Of course, that's partly because he certainly wasn't the strongest or the healthiest before the war, but it's also because it's just plain been going well.
Though he frowns slightly when the fish is described. "Mystery fish does not sound very appetizing at all," he complains a little, but adds, "I'm not sure what haddock or whiting is, but it sounds much better just because it's been identified." Still, in spite of these complaints he accepts the food readily enough, stating, "Si, food sounds good." All he needs to know is that it's edible if he gets hungry enough. And while he's not quite to that point, he's to the point of accepting mystery fish. In fact, the moment he's finished talking he immediately starts to eat. And based upon the sounds he's making while he does so, it's perfectly acceptable. He also gratefully accepts the water, but actually drinking it will probably remain an afterthought until he's finished the fish.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2015 0:24:34 GMT -5
Peter got an odd expression on his face when Vicente spoke. Oh. Yeah. He supposed some kind of mystery fish really didn't sound all that appetizing at all, now that he thought about it. The funny thing was, the idea that the fish, which was clearly edible and would not make him sick, would be unappetizing because it wasn't given a name didn't really cross Peter's mind at all. He could see why you wouldn't want to eat something if you didn't know what it was, of course, but still- the thought just... never really occurred to him.
Maybe once upon a time, when he was a little younger, he would have actually been picky about food, but- no, actually. Peter was remarkably un-picky, even when he was younger. It was a side effect of having England as an older brother, he supposed, that something would be considered "edible" so long as it was not "actively going to cause food poisoning". And maybe Peter had been mildly more discerning than that at one point, too, but that had been thoroughly driven out of him lately. Food was food, and food was nice. Eating in general was nice, and Peter really didn't care what it tasted like much anymore. Which was probably good, since he basically always got fish. It was also probably good that he already liked fish...
"Uh... yeah, I guess so," Peter said, rubbing the back of his head somewhat embarrassedly and clearly not understanding whatsoever. He paused for a moment before thinking of something. "Oh! The fish is going to be rather salty-" he starts, but then he notices that Vicente has already eating and shrugs. If Vicente didn't notice the large amount of salt on the fish, Peter would be rather surprised. He might not be picky, but he did have taste buds (despite valiant efforts by his brother and his scones).
Peter rather suspected that Vicente wouldn't be finishing the fish completely without drinking the water somewhere because of the salt. Something Peter did not consider: Vicente was used to eating significantly more food in a given sitting than Peter. While Peter had handed what was, to him, an average sized ration, it was probably a bit small to Vicente. He might be able to eat it all anyway. In any case, though, Peter didn't really notice that the small portion or the large amount of salt was unusual, really, anymore.
And on the subject of salt: it was there partially as a flavoring, but partially as a preservative. Making any meats very salty made them last significantly longer, and while Sealand did have perfectly good refrigeration, fish came in seasons the same way any other meat did, and the amount of it that could be caught would be directly related to that. Therefore, fish caught while the fish was in season had to last, at least somewhat, until it was out of season. That meant putting a lot of salt on it. As in, a lot, a lot. The fish Vicente had was probably somewhere in between and fairly fresh, though, as it wasn't quite the season to get things out of longer-term freezing.
At any rate, Peter's glad Vicente's got food. It sounded like he must have been pretty hungry, and also sounded like, in the end, Vicente didn't particularly care at the moment where the food came from. At least, judging by the way he's eating it. Deciding to try to be polite, Peter doesn't say anything until Vicente's finished eating, instead just sort of sitting nearby. Peter didn't have anything for himself, after all (that was what Vicente was eating). Peter paused for a moment, recognizing, actually, that it might not be enough, judging by how Vicente was acting. "...I'm sorry I don't have anything else," he said honestly.
Because really, that was always the part that hurt him most about his situation. That he never quite had everything he wanted to give the people who came to him, willingly or not, because he was doing this to help people, and he wanted to make them happy.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2015 3:35:51 GMT -5
Vicente's experience with food is nearly the opposite of Peter's right now. During his earliest years, he couldn't afford to be picky about food - he had to take what he could get. Lots and lots of rice and beans, for the most part. And then they found the oil. Lots and lots of oil! Since then, he's had the luxury of being able to be picky - he can afford all kinds of wonderful foods - and he never wants to go back! Not that he goes so far as to starve rather than to eat something beneath his standards, but he likes to keep to his standards when he's able to - and one of them is to know what it is that he's eating. One that he didn't consider was that he doesn't like his fish to be overly salted.
On the other hand, he's hungry and this is what's available. He makes a face when Peter belatedly warns him about it, but then he comments, "You are not really old enough to remember before there were refrigerators and freezers everywhere are you? Because when I was younger nobody had anything like those at all - especially not in the tropics, and almost everything tasted like this! Not unless you killed it that day, anyway. Either it was fresh, or it was dried, or it was salted, or it went bad and you ate it anyway because it probably wouldn't kill you and that's all you had to eat."
He pauses and takes another bite. ...And then he realizes that he just sounded really, really old for a second there. Well, he supposes that he is really old compared to Peter, even if he's considered to be barely passable as an adult when he's among other nations. His memory goes all the way back to the colonization of the Americas, after all. In fact, he's pretty sure that he's older than America in number of years, if not physically. Then again, that still makes him really young when compared to, say, those all those bastards here in Europe.
When he's finished with both the fish and the nostalgic journey into the past that the taste takes him on (which does not require any extra water), he does notice how little of a meal that seemed to him. But when Peter actually apologizes for that, he's quick to give a dismissive wave, "No, that was plenty! I understand, you are in a difficult situation. Frankly I'm a bit surprised that you have anything at all - you don't have any farmland, you don't really have any natural resources to sell. I'm surprised that anyone can live here at all." Though he doesn't say that to say anything against Peter - it's just that this is well outside his experience. Before oil was discovered in his country and all the money that means started pouring in, he was hardly able to manage himself and he had way more to work with than Peter does. In fact, even with the oil and the war making the price of it skyrocket, he struggles to make ends meet pretty frequently. How one could live on a sea platform at all, even with such a small number of people, is beyond him.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2015 21:36:32 GMT -5
Peter blinked at Vicente's comment, and then nodded thoughtfully and with a slightly relieved smile. He'd forgotten, for just a moment, how much older other Nations were than him. Even the Nations that the others called young were much older than Peter, who hadn't even hit his first century of actual age until just very, very recently. Even then, he was young for a Nation- as Sealand, he'd only been 'independent' for seventy-eight years, which was practically a baby by some standards. Not that he was a baby- he was still a child, yeah, but he was pretty great for a kid, he thought!
"Oh, yeah, I'm not," he wound up saying, looking somewhat thoughtful for a moment. "...sometimes it's weird being this much younger." He paused. It was also annoying, but Peter wasn't going to say that part out loud. It wasn't that Peter didn't like being a kid, because sometimes, Peter just wants to be able to act like one. It's nice, still being able to call his parents Daddy and Mama and having no one look at him funny, or to be able to skip for no reason, or lots of things. With Nations, physical appearance didn't always mean everything, though. If Peter was perhaps a few more actual decades older, maybe people would actually take him seriously for once...
It wasn't that Peter wasn't aware that he didn't have the age and experience of some of the older Nations. He'd grown enough both in his maturity and emotionally over the years to grasp that fact. That did not, though, mean that he didn't have worthwhile points to make! It just irritated him sometimes when people refused to actually listen to him. Sometimes, he swore he tried to explain things to people, and all they did was nod and proceed to tell him that he was too young to know what he was saying without even hearing him. (His brother, Peter thought, might just be the greatest offender in this area...)
It shouldn't be that much of a surprise, then, that Peter is somewhat proud for a moment when one of those older Nations acknowledges what Peter's managed to do, suggests that he might have actually taken on a difficult task, as opposed to a somehow extremely easy task or something, the way he sometimes thought people assumed that he had, not really understanding the logistics. The people who did normally thought Peter was mildly insane, but he didn't think so. He and his people, despite the problems, were doing pretty good for themselves, weren't they?
"I've gotten pretty good," he admitted, "at learning which corners to cut." He paused, and somewhat embarrassed, rubbed the back of his head. "Also I figure that my brother won't miss some things... I try to pay for what I can but I've gotten pretty quick fingers," he continued, blushing slightly. He supposed he should feel somewhat worse for that, and occasionally he did. Oftentimes, though, he didn't feel as bad as he thought he probably should, because, well, if he had to steal to eat and had to eat to live, then he had to steal to live. If A=B and B=C, then A=C. Simple math.
"Oh! I've also been working on trying to get some hydroponics stuff to work! It's just taking a little bit and we've been having trouble getting enough materials to get it to work on a large scale but it's something! It's actually pretty cool. We still have to catch a lot of fish, but growing stuff here is fantastic! It's fun to design everything, too." He nodded in a satisfied way, looking proud of both himself and his people. He was pretty proud of himself and everything they managed to do for themselves here, especially when Vicente had phrased something out that other people had probably noticed too: without some real work and ingenuity, this would have all been impossible.
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do not forget me
About thirty years ago, Israel's boss was assasinated. By who, well, no one knows, but Israel immediately blamed Iran. Of course, that alone wouldn't have started World War III, even though Israel and Iran's various allies declared war in quick succession.
Nah, the nuclear bomb in the middle of Jerusalem probably did it.
Now? Now the rest is history. The world's been at war for thirty years, thirty years of bloodshed and pain. No one else has reached for the nuclear option quite yet, but no one's happy. So if we all die- well, do not forget me, okay?
updates
10/15/2020 Do Not Forget Me: a dark hetalia RPG is re-opened!
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Do Not Forget Me was created by Waffles and Jonathan and amazing layout and coding is thanks to SO-4 . Content is copyrighted to Do Not Forget Me unless otherwise stated. The skin is created by Wolf of Gangnam Style. The board and thread remodel is by Kagney The mini-profile remodel is by Trinity Blair of Adoxography. Thanks!
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