AN: Moi! Guess who's back from their two years of unannounced hiatus! I'm sorry. ;w; Life got a hold of me, as well as this thing called roleplaying. Before anyone asks, I'm still planning to continue my earlier stories "Mats og Joa" and "Faraway Heavens" at some point, when I find the time to write such long chapters. xD
And about this story, well, it's centered to one of my roleplay characters. This is my OC Mariehamn, the capital of Åland Islands. Say hej!
I bet you have never heard of her place unless you live in either Sweden or Finland. Therefore, this story is about her quest to find friends and become better known around the world. Lots of other OCs will show up as well (my friends and I had a Capitalia verse almost a year ago and some characters still remain active, my Lils included). And because this story sort of bases to my roleplay world, I'm likely not going to use my own characterisation even on canon characters, but copy my friends' style on portraying their characters. It amuses them.
Also, this story is going to be completely mobile fiction! I write these chapters on my smart phone during boring classes and breaks at school, and only send them to my laptop for finishing, proof reading, and publishing. This kind of procedure because when I come home and have access to my computer, there will likely be lots of other things calling for my attention. Sorry. The first chapter is kinda short, I try to make the next one longer. ;w; But now, enjoy the story!
Hello World! Jag är Mariehamn!
Basic info of Mariehamn:
Mariehamn is the only city and the capital of Åland Islands, which is an autonomous region of Finland. (Åland is the bunch of islands in between Sweden and Finland.) Åland's culture is largely influenced by Sweden and the region is monolingually Swedish-speaking. Mariehamn is a seafaring little city with 11,500 inhabitants. It was founded by a Russian czar in 1861.
Mariehamn's human name is Lilja Eriksson ("Lilja" means "lily" in both Finnish and Swedish) and she appears as a 16-year-old girl. She shares her appearance with other Nordics with her pale complexion and blonde hair, but differs from her Finnish relatives with her height. Her best characteristic are her ever present crochet beret and a camera around her neck.
Lilja has amber eyes and honey blonde hair that goes a few inches past her shoulders, she usually wears it in a braid or a bun hidden under her hat. She's 5'6" (167 cm) tall and dresses fashionably. Her personality is cheerful and naive, she's a young city and has never been involved in big wars, so she has no burdens of mental or physical scars from those. She has quite a limited understanding of bad things in the world. Because of the Swedish influence, Lilja very much idolises Sweden and shows dislike to the Finnish side of her family (and her Finnish is awful). She'd very much like Åland to be a part of Sweden instead of Finland, or alternatively be independent. Mariehamn is known for its culture and maritime history, and Lilja's hobbies include theatre, photography and sailing.
The Finnish stereotype for Fenno-Swedes (Swedish-speaking Finns) is that they are better than Finnish-speaking Finns in everything. Healthier, richer, more beautiful, more educated, etc. Oh, and that they all own a boat.
Chapter 0: Introduction
Lilja was jolted from her daydreaming and a calming cup of green tea when the oven set off the smoke alarm. "Oj nej!" She shouted and hurried in to kitchen to pull out the burned and shapeless oatmeal crisps and sighed. "Not againn..." It was established that baking wasn't her bravura but it didn't stop her from trying. What sort of girl couldn't bake anyway? The sort that would never get a boyfriend!
It may be a little silly, but she was a hopeless romantic, and being the kind of small, little known city she was, she desperately wanted to be recognised. Find some friends outside the Nordics, and maybe that special someone... Her knight on a white horse.
Stockholm would be an ideal option but the Swedish man hadn't shown much attention to Mariehamn. He was more interested in Oslo.
After dumping her failed cookies in the trash and finishing her tea without the snacks, she decided to go out. Maybe there would be something good going on at the city theatre or something picturesque would catch her eye in the downtown and she could photograph. 'Yup, that sounded like a good plan,' she smiled in thought. Being a little capital of an autonomous territory, not truly independent, she didn't have as much duties as real capitals. She would rather have her country independent than under Finland, but sometimes her position did have pros. She could live quite carelessly, blend in with her people. She was happy.
Lilja pulled on a heavy, oversized fiskartröja over her long-sleeved shirt and jeggings and slipped her feet into ankle high boots. The sweater was cream-coloured with a red zigzag trim on the hem (that covered her upper thighs) and sleeves (that covered her hands snuggly), Lilja liked to wear light, happy colours. She decided to wear her long, white scarf with soft bobbles on both ends around her neck to protect herself from the harsh winter breeze from the sea, and stuffed her braided hair under her favourite beige crochet beret. Then she skipped back to the living room to get her camera and went out.
Lilja ended up having a rather boring day. She went to check her boat, Linnea, in the harbour before heading downtown, just the usual stuff. Unfortunately, nothing was going on in the theatre, only old plays that Lilja had seen a few times already, and nothing interesting caught her eye in the streets. She ended up returning to her sky blue painted house slightly saddened. The girl thought a moment about calling to her best friend, Reykjavík, to complain (he always managed to cheer her up with his laid-back attitude and beautiful, thoughtful songs) but then remembered the troubles Orri had been having lately with his nation. It was better not to bother him right now, she thought and sighed (she was sighing unnaturally lot today).
"Jag tänker... I think I really should find more friends... It does get lonely here sometimes." She spoke to herself, curled up on the cordon sofa with a poetry book in her lap, in her rustic, archipelago styled living room. She had let her pet birds out of their cages and watched as the two lovebirds, Edith and Tove, basked in the last rays of sunset, and her grey parrot called Albert tried to break into the drawer where she kept the bird treats, all the while cursing loudly in Finnish (a bad habit that a certain Helsinkian had taught to him). Just a normal evening for her. She went to make herself a light dinner of fish and potatoes.
Luckily she had the whole of her Nordic family to ask help from with her problem (except maybe Norway and Iceland, they were scary!) and she knew they all would be willing to help her. Possibly they'd even fight over who'd get to help her... She wasn't usually the one fought over, Oslo was, so the idea was nice. When it was time for bed, Lilja slipped in her sleeveless night dress, or more like a long shirt, rather revealing but it was okay; she didn't exactly have anything to be called real breasts. After checking the underside of her bed for mon- burglars like her habit was, she went to sleep with a smile on her face. She would be able to get around her problem, have lots and lots of new friends... And find the perfect boyfriend for herself.
Although, with a frown she realised that the first people she would be obliged to ask help from was the Finnish side of her family... Tino, and her irriterande bror, Helsinki. Well, luckily Oskar was there, too, and that would make things a lot more tolerable.
AN2: Please review! And please don't flame my story if you don't like my baby girl. Constructive criticism for her character development is welcomed.
NEXT CHAPTER: Finnish relations
Translations: Everything is Swedish, Lils' native language.
Jag är Mariehamn! - I am Mariehamn!
Oj nej! - Oh no!
fiskartröja - fisherman's sweater
Jag tänker... - I think...
Irriterande bror - annoying brother (you will be seeing this one a lot xD)
List of characters who will show up to this story (and their roleplayers):
Lilja Eriksson/Mariehamn (me)
Oskar Väinämöinen/Åland (Bella)
Berwald Oxenstierna/Sweden (Anna)
Tino Väinämöinen/Finland (me)
Rami Gustavsson/Helsinki (Anna)
Orri Ingólfsson/Reykjavík (Cas)
Áslaug Steinsdóttir/Fem!Iceland (Ást)
Eiríkur Steinsson/Iceland (me)
Sigurd Bondevik/Norway (Turtle)
Ivan Braginsky/Russia (Miriko)
Ailo Lanto/Lapland (Turtle)
We can all be found in Facebook and I have been given permission to provide links to our pages for those who want them. See you next time!