Statehouse Table

Origin story: Florida and Carolina

@sssleepyjellyyy this is based off of the headcannon of theirs in their chapter 'More Historical State Headcannons' thats about Texas and young Alaska. I'm measuring the states ages based from European occupation solely based on the fact I could find very little about the native settlements and occupation ^^' I apologize.

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Though he didn't often aft like it, of he and Louie and as a matter of a fact of he and everyone else as well, Florida was the eldest. He watched as first the Spaniards showed up, then came the British. The Dutch followed them and then the French came. He was forced to watch as slowly the native peoples began to succumb to the sicknesses and the devastation the invaders brought with them. 

Back then his appearance was different, his hair was longer, braided off of his neck and his complexion was darker, hiding his freckles. He was the go between for a while of the natives and the Spaniards, easily learning the other language. But it turned out that the natives couldn't withstand the Spaniards illnesses and were almost entirely wiped out. He decided, at that point it would be better to stay away from his natives, to prevent the spread and instead help the settlers. Over time, without noticing it, he became paler. Going from one settlement to the next he was too focused on teaching the farmers and such what types of food from the surrounding area were okay to eat and what signs to watch for incase of coming disasters to pay much attention to himself.

When he finally did realize it, a decade had passed. Mourning the disappearance of his native features, he left civilization entirely and after a few more years, hacked off his hair. He hated his freckles, little spots that were the color he had been before what he had taken to calling the White Wash. Eventually, after another decade he had returned to St. Augustine to find it bustling with life. He heard in passing of another settlement up the coast by an Englishman named Sir Walter Raleigh. 

As had become his habit, he went to visit, to see if the settlers needed help. 

When he got there he found that the settlers already had help, in the form of a native man from the Croatoan tribe. Florida blinked and after a minute the man saw him and waved, confused. After just a minute of the two staring at each other, Florida could tell that this man was like him, unknowably ancient and only wanting to help others. He also knew he couldn't stop this man from making the same mistake he had. 

Over the next few weeks the two of them set about helping the settlers, but only two years after settling Sir Walter Raleigh had to return to his home country for supplies and took about half of the men with him. That left the two states to help care for the settlement. The remaining men got bored easily and the women were unwilling to entertain to say the least. 

One day while the Croatoan man was helping the children learn how to spell by carving the name of his tribe in a tree, one of the women started screaming, and within minutes the whole settlement had devolved into chaos. The remaining men had pulled guns and were trying to shoot the women and children, who fled into the forest. Once all the innocents had fled, Florida and the Tribesman had snuck back in and saved all of the restless infants, carrying them out to the nearby Croatoan settlement because they didn't know what else to do. 

After explaining what happened to the elders, they left to let the tribe decide what to do and the man escorted Florida south, back towards his home. 

"What's your name?" the other asked. 

Florida tilted his head for a minute, thinking. "The settlers in my land have called me Flor de Mar Colorida (Colorful Sea Flower: Google Translate don't sue me). Though, They've taken to shortening it to Flor de Mar," he looked at the other. "What about you?" 

The other got a pensive look on his face. "Carolina, I think. When the settlers came the claimed the settlement in the name of someone named King Charles and named it Carolina, since I'm part of this," here he gestured around at the surrounding greenery and forest, "I am Carolina." 

Florida smiled at the other, relaxing at the sentiment he felt echoed inside of him, "Carolina, nice." 

The two separated ways and Florida went back to St. Augustine with a smile on his face and a renewed bounce in his step. There's others out there like him, so maybe he wasn't destined to be alone forever...

A year later he got the news that Sir Walter Raleigh returned to an abandoned colony. 

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A/N: due to my research, St. Augustine was established in 1565 under Spanish rule and Roanoke was settled by the English in 1585 and disappears in 1587.