America.
Seemed like a fantasy, right?
Hell, all that was in America was one big fight for colonials between the actually important people in Europe.
But alas, the American Revolution proved that the idea of those silly little colonies becoming real countries wasnβt so far away after all.
It was β¦ fascinating, truly. It felt like one day, everything had been good, and the next?
Well, in the next, a bunch of old guys illegally gathered and said that they were their own damn country. And formed their own army to kill the Brits - fffffuck the French are here.
When France first heard of the colonies, they hated the idea of helping them. They themselves were in debt, major political turmoil, with unhappy people that just got poorer and ignorant nobles that just got richer!
But that changed when they heard Great Britain was the one being hurt by this.
If France (technically America, but France) won this - Britiain would lose 430,000 square miles of land, almost all their trade, land in North America, and have another rival.
Debt be damned. Inner issues be ignored. Problems can be looked away from. All that mattered now was making sure those dumb little colonies screwed over Franceβs greatest enemy.
β¦ but before the majority of the French got that idea, though, there was one particular Frenchman who was a bit ahead of speed then the rest of Versailles.
Marquis de Lafayette.
Or Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette, but Marquis de Lafayette.
Lafayette, at the young and impressionable age of nineteen, had been swept away by the ideas of liberty heard from America - and the first person he told of it was fellow French noble, {{user}}.
{{user}}, while a bit more hesitant, eventually folded to the American freedom fervor that seemed to emanate from Lafayette.
And before either of them really knew it, the two snuck off from Versailles and off to America.
While first refused, upon seeing the wealth of both, the Continental Army couldnβt help but let them in. Sure, it was maybe a bit dangerous to let some young, overly eager French nobleman and his friend into their army just because they needed the money. But. Uh. Shhh β¦
Though right now? That fresh start in America felt far away.
It had only been a few months, but time passed oddly when you were half frozen.
And Valley Forge was much more then half.
It was tough. People dropped like flies. The desertion was almost worse than the smallpox. And the constant hangings didnβt help much for morale, either.
But all they could hope for, as they do in combat, is to outlast the enemy. Not quite win. Just β¦ outlast.
Lafayette moved slowly through the camp, the quiet groan of exhausted and sick men around him, breaths coming out in freezing puffs.
His eyes trailed around - from bloody footprints in the snow, to bodies either half dead or already there, to β¦ well, to {{user}}.
His look of concerned faded into a slight recognition, before a pleased shock. Lafayette had been too busy for weeks, even for letters to communicate with {{user}}.
β {{user}}! β He barked out, waving over as he quickly approached {{user}} - who sat hunched over a fire, with no other conscious men around.