Chapter Text
Spinning and spinning, everything went distorted. Basch and Lili’s thoughts were distorted. Everything was walking towards madness, including space and time. Colors were spinning. Everything was spinning.
Burn the witch stop that hail Zeus it’s a cloak, non you bloody frog you must be exorcised there’s a sinner you’re going to hell shut up PASTA draw a circle here’s the earth draw a circle here’s the earth draw a circle here’s the earth I’m Italy Jesus loves you! yikes a ghost to be or not to be there’s the question burn the witch burn the witch burn the witch someone’s dying long live Germany! Germany, Germany, Germany, is a really, really nice place their food doesn’t suck unlike English food. . .
Liechtenstein and Switzerland are suddenly thrown to the giant clock once again, as they were hearing breaking sounds. Crack, crack, crack. Once they got up, they saw two other nations, destroying the clock with their clumsy magic. Arthur Kirkland, also known as England, and Norway. Dressed in their wizard outfits, and cracking the mechanism of the giant, time-coordinating machine, who was making the spirit to cause enough chaos and trouble. As both siblings tried to interact with them, England accidentally fell inside the clock, with Norway sighing and having to get him once again.
“Hey, Norway, could you help us out of here?”
With Basch being the one who asked, the rich nation just stared emotionlessly at the other two, just shrugging and grabbing his book.
“I would really like to help you two, but unfortunately, I can’t. I know this world; I just don’t know its name. The only way you may exit is to know the reason why you’re here. Consider that it’s not easy to figure it out, but I helped you a lot in this part by breaking this clock, which was messing up with space and time.”
Both siblings looked at each other with a bit of confusion. Looking at Norway again, he simply disappeared without any warnings whatsoever. It was their turn to figure it out what was the whole reason why they were in the strange world. Getting out of the clock, they see a dark sky, and stars everywhere. It was Space itself. Some stars were larger, others were smaller. Some planets were gaseous, others were rocky. Galaxies tried to claim the Universe.
As they swun around the boundless, dark void, they saw a strange, shiny swirl that looked like a drop of milk. According to Greek Mythology, the milk from Hera’s breast made that celestial body. A cluster of stars, dust, gas, and many more than just stars. It seemed like a whirlpool in pure space, which wanted to suck everything around it. It was our very own galaxy, named the Milky Way. Galaxy even was derived from the term “milky” in Ancient Greek.
Entering the bizarre, real life portal, the stars were way too shiny to perceive what were their real colors. Lili couldn’t wait until NASA made glasses in which makes everyone able to see stars, in the way how they really are. She kept being curious about their real structures after learning that white was our star’s real color. What’s the real color of the universe? Maybe it’s black, she thought.
Traveling in an extremely fast speed, they both saw many stars in which Alfred F. Jones’s programs won’t shut up about: Antares and Betelgeuse, two red super giants in which people always fight to see which one is bigger, Rigel, a blue star which was really hotter than red ones (Basch complained about how he and his sister could really sweat when they came near it), Pollux, the famous orange giant, and many dwarf stars around them, which didn’t seem to shine at all. The majority of the stars around them were dwarfs in which were desperate to shine throughout their whole lives, but couldn’t. It was like minor celebrities in which wanted to be known by the whole world, or minor internet users in which wanted to become famous by the any and every single social web ever.
They also got the sight of many planets around them, proving the bodies on our Solar System aren’t the only ones in the universe. Many were gaseous, others were rocky. Lili always wondered what if a rocky planet was with rings, or if Earth had rings, like Saturn. We could see a Milky Way-like ring every day and night, but what if the asteroids came closer to Earth? That would be the risk, she thought. She didn’t know very much about Astronomy, she just reached the beginning of adolescence, after all.
How would the human race be if we lived in a planet as small as Pluto or in a gaseous one like Jupiter? Would the human race come to extinction early? How would us nations live? Would we all be micro nations, in a very young age? Would the world go to poverty? Would the economies be unstable? Would the world be a dictatorship?
After a few minutes, Lili and Basch were finally inside their home planet, landing inside the medieval version of Switzerland. Walking around the villages, every person was a strange position, looking like they were desperate to move, but couldn’t, as time was frozen to them. There was no sound at all, just the sound of the siblings’ voices, making the journey rather dull in that aspect. They echoed everywhere, for the whole universe to hear (In which didn’t). Walking more and more, they see the classic Swiss Alps, something both of them lived with every day. Seeing further, there was a small barn-like house, which wasn’t in the era of reformation yet. Birds were loving to sit on its roof, while there were some cows chewing on the grass. Strangely, its door was open.
“Hello? Anyone home?”
Nobody was there. Some spider webs were built around the dark wooden walls, while the floor was making its basic creaking when stepped on. Suddenly, inside a bedroom, Liechtenstein noticed a paper on the rather tiny bed, covered with green blankets, and next to it was a closet – small military clothes inside.
Her delicate hands grabbed the paper as Switzerland followed.
An upside-down, deformed bell was roughly drawn with paint. The lines were thick, made by someone who was still trying to choose the right brushes, and its clapper was quite small. The details weren’t very well-done, being completely messed up. “Die Glocken aus Kristall” on the top of the paper, “Schweizerische” on the bottom. The syllables “TA” and “CO” surrounded the drawn object, an attempt at onomatopoeia. Handwriting – completely incomprehensible - obviously from a toddler, in the age of still inverting the letters S and Z.
Switzerland hugged his little sister tightly, tears running down his face, and sobbing hysterically. She wouldn’t expect her serious, older brother, to cry like a little child. But she was happy to find out where the source of the strange memory was, and to know that he had his moments of innocent and acting like her too. Looking at the tiny bell inside his pocket, a strange thought generated by the imagination-land inside her teenage mind passed through. What if… The tiny bell is actually a descendant of its crystal ancestor? Is it supernatural? Or did Norway or England make it to remind Basch Zwingli of his childhood?
Taking the bell out, Lili swung it, wanting everything to go back to normal. Around the two siblings, darkness came out of nowhere, at the transition from them to the real world.
A beautiful Sunday morning surrounded the seemingly utopic city of Zürich. The sun shining, and a few kids playing in the playground part of a park. Birds and bugs – especially butterflies – treated the place like their home. Well, Earth was their home. Lili and Basch were sitting on one of the many benches on the park, appreciating the trees and taking a time to rest, relax and hang out. The thoughts in Lili’s mind won’t stop, as she constantly questioned many stuff about life, even more about the bizarre experience she and her older brother just had. What’s the meaning of life and memories? Why do we get attached to things? What are the purposes of traumata? What feelings do memories bring and what are the purposes of them? Why does a trauma suddenly completely change a person?
“Brother, I think I know the meaning of life, though I’m not sure about it…”
The question got Basch’s attention, seeing that she had such mode of thinking at such a young age. Sure, it wasn’t as critical as an adult’s, because she was still very young, but her thoughts were ahead of other people of her age group. His face was a bit curious, wanting to know more of what she thought about important subjects such as life, feelings, traumata, psychology, and memories.
“I honestly think we’re made to evolve more and more with the time until we reach perfection. It’s to make us think and question, but some people waste life in a rather wrong mode, spending it on unnecessary things all the time instead of separating stuff for fun and serious stuff… Seeing you, you’re a simple and loving spirit. Simple in the sense of humility, you know, poor in the spirit. Not in the sense of ignorance.
Seeing some of the other nations around us, they’re very imperfect, yes, but you shouldn’t hate on them, personally, with a passion just because of their flaws. They’re learning for their mistakes, after all. Pity them, and think they just don’t know what they’re doing. But some of them are already very evolved, considering you, Japan, Germany, Norway… But that doesn’t mean everyone with a rather impure, badly-evolved spirit is bad. They are just a bit slower when it comes to moral and spiritual evolution.
I realized how each generation is becoming more intelligence, in the sense of spirit, sense and morality. We wouldn’t do such things like our ancient ancestors did, that is killing people for being different than us, or something like that.
I’m not really sure about memories, they mostly define our personalities, and make us learn about things we see everyday lives, you know, essential life lessons…”
The older brother was impressed with her mode of thinking, but wasn’t surprised to see how curious she was. Lili was always curious and asked him a lot of things, like many children do. But he was surprised at how she was already a bit ahead of people her age. Questioning life, its lessons, and more important subjects. Suddenly, his ears hear Sealand running around the trees and the playground, carrying a paper on his hands.
The thirteen-year-old decided to follow England’s brother, who looked at her when he was about to climb at a slide. She stared at the paper, and clearly knew who drew it, seeing the crystal bell.
“Hey, do you know who drew this, girl?”