Discedo app
OOC Information
Name: Sam
LJ: starfish32
Contact: stromlo @ AIM, saminabox @ plurk
Characters played at Discedo: N/A
IC Information
Name: Gilbert Beilschmidt / Prussia
Canon: Axis Power Hetalia
Timeline: Modern day/2011
Canon Resource Link: Here! and this too!
Personality:
Prussia is a menace. He has spent the majority of his existence either in battles or engaging in activities that are generally frowned upon by others, yet seems immune to the obvious odds this puts him at with his fellow nations.
He is seen as meglo-maniacal and arrogant to the point of narcissistic, referring himself and all things related to him as “awesome” and no one can tell him otherwise. He even owns diaries that starts off with a praising himself how cool he is and that what he did that day was absolutely awesome.
As a military state, he is aggressive, opportunistic and power hungry; the Seven Years’ War, the Silesian Wars, the German Civil Wars and many others are proofs of that. In the Seven Years' War, Prussia more or less took on the entire world and it ended in a draw. As one Prussian government minister had said, “Prussia was not a country with an army, but an army with a country.” - Friedrich von Schrötter. This made him strong, a lot stronger than his appearance would make it. His reason for his lack of stature and muscles compared to his little brother, Germany, was attributed to his poor nutrition, which might refer to the period before Frederick II modernized the “European backwater” that was Prussia in the 18th century. At the height of his power, Prussia occupied more than half of present-day Germany, stretching from Belgium in the west to Lithuania in the east.
He is also shown to be vulgar, rude and generally unfit for more refined society. This is mostly because Prussia takes on characteristics of most stereotypes of East Germans - noisy and impudent with a tendency to make saucy puns or inappropriate comments. Alternatively, Prussia's personality is also the same image held by Polish stereotypes of Prussian soldiers. In canon, which was stated to be due to a “bad transition period”.
Reality can sometimes paint a different picture, but not in this case. Prussia is actually quite narcissistic, mean-spirited, opportunistic, power hungry, meglo-maniacal, vulgar and rude. The only difference is that he does know how to behave himself when he puts his mind to it, much thanks to his past leaders. Still, if he's not interested, he'll either sneeze or get distracted easily. The other more complicated difference between his perceived appearance of awesome to his inner workings is his unaddressed sense of inferiority. This is evident in his clear denial of his situation of a freeloader, dissolved country, second in the hierarchy of German politics and an unnecessary player in the world game. But this could be traced back even further to his very early beginnings. While other children countries occupied land and all the resources on it, Prussia represented the Teutonic Knights, who moved across Europe too many times, switching headquarters location from Venice, Italy to the Baltics and then to Hungary and modern day Austria. There was no solid place Prussia could call home, no land of his own. This, the wars with pagans and being loaned out as a bodyguard, reared Prussia into a man of significant envies, where the aforementioned feeling of inferiority began. It is a subconscious thing, one that Prussia lives with to this day, and it drives Prussia to overcompensate, shouting his awesomeness for anyone with ears to hear.
It also sparked another sort of feeling: lust of power. And back then, the root of all power was land (arguably still is today). By the time he was a full bodied man, he wanted land and status bad enough that he renounced the root of all his beliefs and the reason for all his wars, the Catholic Church. In the Prussian Homeage to Poland, his 37th Grand Master turned in his cross and took a knee in front of his uncle, King Sigismund I the Old of Poland, thus becoming the first duke of the Ducal of Prussia - the first Protestant state. This lust for power will inspire Prussia to be the militaristic nation he became.
That aside, there are times when some other side of Prussia shows through the chinks in his personality. Despite acting as if he does everything with reckless abandon and pure unadulterated stupidity, part of Prussia still clings to the old deep roots of his religious order and strict Prussian virtues. At times, he displays a shocking amount of discomfort in dealing with females - since he was brought up by a group of religious men (Teutonic Knights) - and rarely, his arrogance slips to reveal someone more focused, serious, and capable of impressive military feat, a faint resemblance to the former country that led the economic and political unification of the German states - with all the intention of seating himself as the most influential and powerful of all. It was said that his true nature is that of a punctual and diligent soldier and in fact, historically, Prussians are often depicted as authoritarian, militaristic, and extremely orderly, a characterization based on the unswerving obedience and loyalty to their army. If he puts his mind to it, he can accomplish a number of things - like be very good at cleaning and gardening. Though he is quick to spoil all of these moments with a smirk and insistent egoistic bragging.
Despite his flaws, he is surprisingly loyal. His loyalty can be intense to the point that he will turn to denial than to admit the faults of those he is loyal to. Old Fritz was his most favourite boss, and his mood still goes to the deep end when he is brought up in conversation and Frederick II, King of Prussia, passed away in isolation at his home more than 300 years ago.
He is very social. His favourite topics include his awesome self, complaining about anything and everything, himself, how sexy his dfseaports were, how bored he is, and then maybe about how the awesome he is. The only problem is, no one seems to want to talk to him much, except Germany, France, Spain, and Japan. He was one who made first contact to the Asian country, and that eventually spawned Germany-Japan alliance in World War II. Spain and France were his allies from the Austria War of Succession. Some how he still remained friends with both them even after the Franco-Prussian war.
He even had a blog dedicated to himself and his awesome activities - created as the April Fool's event in 2009. And if there are disagreements to something that he believes in, he'll won't take it lightly. He will fight you in any shape or form until you admit that he's right. He's stubborn. Very. In a mini game starring Prussia, it was noted that most of German states/siblings are stubborn in nature and that his little brother - Germany - inherited his fellow brothers' stubbornness.
He gets bouts of loneliness induced depression that he over comes by claiming loneliness as a strength - such as seeing Austria and Hungary together and quite pathetically crying at his lonesomeness while stating that it's awesome to be alone. His feeling of loneliness stems from having never made any major alliances (which may sometimes translates to marriages) through out his life and that he could be an enclave, and not a real country.
Because of he has been dissolved as a country and has no land or wealth of his own, he has grown to be a big mooch. He often constantly latches on to Germany and he is quite dependent on him. He has mooched food off of Italy, France and even desperate or daring or stupid enough to be a customer of England's food, and he was seen to demand for Austria to buy him things. It's safe to assume he would do the same to anyone that would allow it.
Powers & Abilities:
He has something akin to immortality since he has appeared throughout history and despite being dissolved as a country, he remains alive and looking pretty much the same without ageing or illness. And it can be presumed that he has quick healing powers like the rest of the nations still. He also seems to be pretty strong even without his status as a country - an example of this is during the Hetalia Bloodbath event in 2010, he retaliated against a Parallel!France who was strong enough to defeat many of the other countries and Prussia tossed him out the window.
What items will they be bringing with them to Discedo?
Gilbert has an inseparable bird that makes his head as its nest. It's a golden canary-like bird, or possibly a baby chicken. This bird is not likely to leave Prussia even if swatted at.
Posting Samples
Third-Person Sample:
He wakes with a feeling of coldness seeping into his body, as if frost jarred spikes into thick layers of calcium and leaked into the marrow of his bones. It reminds him of Russia and defeat, and he quickly buried those memories with triumph on the face of his beloved king. It feels strange to be wake, he gets a feeling that he's not supposed to be. But Prussia never does what he was suppose to do; he survived despite all things, he flaunted his existence in the world's faces with a laugh and a shout, sometimes aided by alcohol. He prided himself in being more awesome than others and went beyond his way to show that he was beyond the rules of everyone else. He wants to convince everyone that the top of the food chain was a minnow.
As soon as being awake occurred to him, there is a murmur that sounded of disapproval. It's a foreign sound his brain tells him, but he recognize it far too well to be anything but foreign. He knows the sound of trumpets and horns, chirps and flutter of birds, they play often between his ears; his own personal triumphant that drowns out all other noises.
His eyes blink at nothing and sees white marred by hints of blackness around his vision. He smiles, even in a potentially threatening situation, he can't help but smile when he sees his colours.
His second waking is more familiar to him. The throbbing of his head, blinding ache of his whole body and tiredness despite waking - it must be a hangover. He's hungover. He opens his eyes and regrets it. Prussia isn't in his too-soft bed or too-hard couch in a borrowed apartment in Germany. He's swallows hard and tries to find answers to his new reality in the expanse of grey and endless piles of rubble upon rubble.
It comes like a flick of a light switch. It's a corny and well used expression, but that process describes the change on Prussia's face the best. His gaping mouth turns sharp and familiar. He smirks as he stares at the left over crumbs of civilization. He is not sadden by the presumed lost of his home (he convinces himself of this in two shaky breathes), he is an opportunist and this is a sign of new beginnings. He doesn't know where he is, but his legs move and his brain tells him to head west and find West in West's voice. So he takes one staggering step after another, wearing that smirk on his face like a medallion. If fate was going to give him a lemon, he was going to make some really awesome lemonade.
First-Person Sample:
Is- [There's tapping and rustling and a German accented voice.]
IS THIS THING ON- Oh.
'Tach! My name is Gilbert. I'm awesomely here to announce that MY LITTLE BROTHER - That's right, that hulking big blond over there!
[He grins, all happy and lost in his joy at embarrassing his brother. As all older brothers seem to enjoy.]
Wow, Lutz. Did you get sunburnt by these lights? You're starting to look like a lobster a bit Oh, I see what you did there. Are you trying to distract me? Bad boy, Lutz. I'll give you a spanking later.
[His attention turns back to his audience with an unfailing grin.]
My brother is great. Not the best, because that's me and I'd hate him if he's the best. Because that should be me. [He waves his hand dismissively and pulls back slightly, sighing with great effort.]
I know, I know, there's never enough about me, but let's focus on Ludwig over there! He's planning.. something about a plan to save your asses or something.... Ja. The point is he's the new Robin to my Batman. Sorry, France. I know how you like tight spandex - and you can keep them! - but the gadget belt has been passed on!
Links: You can take your pick of any of my dear_mun posts here. But this is my favourite thread of Prussia ever. While it was a short one, there was a lot of words in each tag. And this interaction with Old Fritz too.