Introduction

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It's happening again. On the news, on the streets, everywhere. Politics were destroying her country from the inside out, tearing apart the nation and bringing disorder to her once peaceful world. UK knew she ought to do something, but what could she do? She wasn't a member of parliament or major world authority. Though she was a country, her political power was minimal. In fact, she was only as well-off as her people were, and her people were beginning to suffer, not to mention the headaches of the home nations' recent bickering.

Returning from her whirlwind of thoughts, UK gazed around her living room. Her fire burned in the hearth, its light reflecting on the frost-covered window opposite. The fire burned brightly, but even that couldn't illuminate the entirely of the cavernous room; the bookshelf behind her lay in the shadow of the glossy mahogany table still, which itself was surrounded by matching, well-worn chairs that draped shadows across the room, like thick cobwebs of darkness.

Most of those chairs hadn't been used in years, UK recalled. Decades, in fact. They were her family's chairs originally, but with no family left, they were destined to sit and rot. Maybe she ought to give them to Ame and Nada or something, but something told her that her children wouldn't appreciate her showing up at their door with a load of random furniture covered in dust and tea stains. Besides, they weren't meant to be for them.

They should really be England's, UK recalled, sipping her tea, but he gifted the set to her when she married France, a gift to the newly-wedded couple.

Oh France... Where did we go so wrong...?

No. Don't think about her. Anything but her...

Christmas! That's soon! The happiest time of the year... mostly. Think about that! Not the cold, not France, not the economy, just Christmas.

For a brief moment, she wondered again about her other family; there was still a mural on the far wall of her and her siblings, though she could barely recall the image's origins, if it was from anywhere at all. She wondered what they'd be doing now, what they'd been doing without her for the past ten years...

Arguing over who's turn it is to do the laundry, I expect. I very much doubt England and Scotland grew out of that...

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