I do not own hetalia.
It may not be clear, but the website is called APH, I can also bet you can guess who the creator of the site is… if you can't… orz. Also, as you can see, there are regulars on the website, and the four main ones are Italy, Japan, America and Prussia. (Using their country as usernames)
If you want me to change the format of this so it's easier to read or something, please tell me!
Oh one last thing! (is anyone here from CL?)
Please find some way to enjoy this~
Message sent
Matthew looked at the screen and read his message again.
"Why did I just send out a lame message?" He asked himself as he felt his face grow red.
It was really weird and plain. There was no need to add anything about "Hidden User Canada" but he still did anyway. Gilbert would definitely make fun out of him for adding something weird.
It only took a few seconds for Gilbert to reply to the message, for Matthew saw another email alert from the website. He refreshed the page and there was a reply. Matthew gulped as he clicked the message open, worrying that it was an insulting message. Much to his surprise, it wasn't at all.
Ha, lol.
Well you're not really a hidden user since I remember you.
Jeez... how did they all forget?
Also… Why don't you speak in the chat?
-Yeah, you know who it's from.
Reply?
Yet again, Matthew laughed at the message. It was a surprisingly social message, which Matthew hardly received, since everyone seemed to forget about his existence. It also brought up a question… How did Gilbert remember him?
They spoke once in the main chat, but that was it. Matthew had been on APH for a month and a half and Gilbert remembered him from back then? That would have meant that he either had an extremely good memory or he just happened to remember the country name. The first seemed unlikely, since he didn't seem to remember other members that sometimes came on and recognised him, but only got a reply of "Who the heck are you?" as a reply to their greeting. The regulars seemed to know each other the best but Matthew wasn't a regular or an old respected member. He was just another random user who never posted.
After pondering on the thought for a bit, he decided to just ask Gilbert how he managed to remember him, since he didn't seem to be acting rude towards him in anyway.
"Wait… should I act like my normal self or pretend to be cool?" Matthew asked himself in a tiny panic.
The internet had the advantage/disadvantage of anonymity. He could pretend to be whoever he wanted, as long as he didn't put anywhere real facts about himself. Matthew would feel embarrassed to pretend to be a cool person online, but his normal self might have been embarrassing too. He wasn't sure of which personality to use. He had already been a little bit casual and different to his normal self in the first message he sent out, which might have been why Gilbert had decided to be nice to him.
Matthew leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes for a few seconds, taking time to calm himself down.
"Why am I getting so worked up over something like this?" He sighed, as he realized there was no real need to.
Yet again, he typed out another message to Gilbert and replied. There was no harm in being himself. That was what he was most comfortable with, and that was that. There was no need to change himself in order to make friends, because that way, they wouldn't be a true friend- even if they were just online friends.
I still am a hidden member since no-one else remembers me.
I'm just an easy person to forget… yet you remember. How?
The reason why I don't speak in the chat is because it all happens so fast *.* I just have to read. Also, there's no point if I'm ignored.
Message sent
Italy: I'm going to get Canada speak to me if they're online!
Japan: How are you going to do that?
Italy: I'll keep looking at the online list, and when they're online….
Spain: ?
Italy: I'm going to call out their name until they reply!
Japan: . . .
America: That was pretty unimpressive.
Prussia: You could just message him.
America: When did you get online?
Prussia: I've been trying to lurk.
Prussia: bye.
Gilbert logged out of the chat without saying much. It was really hard to not join into the conversations. When he got Matthew's message, he thought that he would experiment by trying not to talk during the conversations. It was a pretty slow time, so no-one except the more known users were really talking, and they weren't fired up and typing too fast. There had been times like that before where he had spotted Canada online but he didn't say a thing as he usually did, which meant there must have been another reason as to why he didn't speak much.
At the top of the threads in APH, there was the Urban Legend Thread at the top, as they were searching for Canada. Gilbert scoffed at them as he thought they were getting excited over nothing. From what he had read from Canada's messages, he seemed like a normal person and he had noticed that Canada wasn't logging into the chat as much as he used to. The conclusion Gilbert came to was that Canada seemed to be slightly put off from the fact that people were looking for him like a rare animal. In actual fact, Matthew had been quite amused at the way they were searching for him.
The message which Matthew replied to had got to Gilbert. Even though "Canada" seemed like a normal person, Gilbert wanted to continue messaging him. For some reason, he found Canada quite amusing to message. There hadn't been much said between them, but Gilbert felt like this "Canada" person was someone worth messaging. He typed out a reply to the message he read and made it slightly longer than the other messages he sent.
Gilbert seemed happy with his message and decided to send it off. He didn't care about the fact that he just potentially insulted Matthew in the last line and wondered when he was going to reply. The replies so far were sent soon after the message was sent, so Gilbert knew he didn't have to wait long for it. For some reason, Gilbert enjoyed the messages and replies, even though he was irked at the fact that Canada wasn't giving a proper reason for being a lurker.
To pass a few minutes, Gilbert went into the main chat again and checked out how things were going. It was pretty decent speed when he checked a few minutes ago, but as he stared at the screen, nothing was moving at all. The chat was dead, while the usually chattiest members were all online. There were twenty of them online, with everyone either leaving the chat tab open or just waiting for someone else to break the silence. When things were as dead as they were, Gilbert couldn't sit back and wait for someone else to break the silence.
Prussia: Why is everyone dead?
Prussia: There are twenty people online! With our amount of members, that's a lot.
Prussia: . . .
A few minutes went by, and still, nobody said anything.
"What the…? How dare they ignore awesome me!" Gilbert scoffed at them as he thought of a plan to make the chat move.
Prussia: Canada, I can see you.
Not even a second after, the chat moved lightening fast as the "ninja typers", as they called the few regulars who got the chat moving in APH, all smashed a reply into their keyboards. Gilbert sat back, feeling triumphant, even though he knew they were going to get mad at him for pretending.
Japan: inbeforeItaly
Italy: CANADA!
France: WHERE?
England: hmm?
America: Mattie!
Hungary: :o where?
Italy: Gilbert, you lied to me! DX
America: lol, good one Japan.
Japan: :)
Italy: I just realised what you did D:
Russia: I saw Prussia up there. *v*
Belarus: And I see big brother…
Belarus: 3
America: He's gone offline now Belarus.
Lithuania: Umm…
Lithuania: Natalia, wanna meet up again sometime?
Poland: Liet, she like, left already.
Hungary: Feliks~
Poland: ELI!
Italy: POLAND!
America: Italy!
England: It's call out time again huh?
Gilbert left the chat again, and realized how quickly Matthew fell out of subject despite him being one of the most discussed members at the time on the forums. The subject went by surprisingly stealthily, just like the user. Perhaps if he was really online, then they would have been more excited.
Recently, Gilbert felt that APH had been losing its charm, as he spent time on there a little less often than he usually did. It was getting slightly boring, but he couldn't stop visiting, because even if they were online, Gilbert had friends there. Not to mention all the haters who had been attacked by him before. However, that user Canada seemed to pique his interest and for some reason made APH live again for him.
Gilbert looked at the corner of his screen to look at the time. He shut down his PC and went out to meet some people he knew in real life. The reply from Canada would have to wait until later.
"Hmm RL or APH?" Gilbert thought aloud as he took he locked his door and felt the sun on his skin.
Matthew saw a reply from Gilbert, but it was late where he was. The time zones were a pain for replying messages to. Sometimes it meant waiting for longer because the other has to do something, or they are asleep because it's late. It often makes things go much slower. Matthew hoped that Gilbert wouldn't think that he was ignoring him and the result would be Gilbert getting angry. Matthew had seen the "computer rage" with "caps mode" on before and it wasn't very nice.
Maybe I'll reply quickly… Matthew thought as he clicked the message open.
When Matthew saw that the message was long, he gave up and shut down his laptop. He had been staying up writing part of an essay which wasn't due until a few more weeks, but wanted to write it up and then edit it during the time before the deadline. Also, it meant that he could go onto APH more after the bulk of the essay was done.
Matthew walked from his desk to his bed and collapsed into it. It was cool and the sheets were refreshing. After taking off his glasses, Matthew pulled the blanket over himself and snuggled up with his big polar bear plushie. Even though Matthew enjoyed APH, he had to think about his life as well. It had a lot more for him out there. The things that made his senses feel worthwhile were mainly in real life, whereas online, he could laugh at things he saw, and look at picture to see beauty, but seeing them in real life and laughing with friends was more enjoyable than a picture or video.
"Friends…" Matthew said to himself.
It was partially one of the reasons as to why he joined APH. He didn't really have many friends, and even though he never really spoke to people on the chat or the forums before, Mathew felt they were closer to him than some of the people in his classes. He thought that maybe he could go make online friends… maybe.
He sighed. It was probably never going to happen. It seemed easy to make friends with users like Italy who seemed to be friendly to everyone, but it was hard to join conversations because he felt like he would say something wrong and get on the bad side of the some of the other users. Prussia was a name he used to look out for when he was new. They had spoken once and he didn't seem that bad, then Matthew saw him insult a few people and decided that maybe he wasn't as he thought. The messages seemed to be leaning towards a better view on Gilbert, but Matthew couldn't help but think that he'll be put down by him.
"I'm going to sleep." He decided as he shut out thoughts of APH.
Gentle warm sunbeams flowed through the window of Matthew, as the curtain was kept undrawn from the night. It often acted as something to wake him up from his sleep if he didn't set his alarm, but it wasn't as accurate. The fact was proven when Matthew shielded his eyes from the sunlight and turned over to look at the clock on his bedside table.
"What?" he said as he looked at the time from a distance.
His glasses were sitting next to the clock on the bedside table, so he picked them up to check the time properly. When he saw it, his eyes widened and Matthew jumped out of bed to get ready for his classes. After speed changing, he grabbed his bag which he thankfully packed the day before and took his laptop with him. There was some work on there which he needed for his work.
It was lunch time and Matthew was just saving a document before he would start to eat. It was hot, so he was sitting outside, but next to the area with the best wireless connection. It had been a tiring day for Matthew and he felt like he deserved a break. His neck hurt from looking down at his work for so long. Although there was a lot of work that needed to be done, Matthew could still afford to check his email and maybe he could be on APH for a bit.
When he logged into APH he realised that the creator had added a new feature to the profile pages of the members. They had "Online Now" on their profiles to help people know if someone was online and not just in the chat to keep track of their friends so they could message them. Matthew thought it was a nice feature and then realized that because of that function people would be looking for him more often than they did before because they knew he was online now and if he was checking out the forums instead of being on the chat. It wasn't like he minded being found online or anything, but he thought it was bad to make a fuss out of him being online or not. He really thought there was nothing special about him at all. While Matthew was checking the new feature, instead of clicking the button "Profile" He accidentally clicked "Inbox" and realised he had opened a message before.
"Oh, I forgot to reply." He said aloud to himself as he read over Gilbert's message properly.
Message:
Well your name seems to be quite recognisable now. Have you even seen the front page recently? This "Hidden User Canada" stuff is on fire.
You say that the chat moves too fast, but I know you've been online when it's slow and dead. I've seen it before, gimme a better excuse next time! :p
Also, you definitely won't be ignored, especially since Feliciano (I'm guessing you know most of the regular user's real names.) is staring at the "online" list looking for your name until you come online and speak to him.
Oh yeah, I know Alfred calls you Matt. How do you guys even know each other?
COME ONLINE AGAIN.
AND ACTUALLY SPEAK.
-Awesomer than you.
So far, all of Gilbert's messages seemed to magically make Matthew smile. The humour was probably not intended, but they made Matthew smile anyway. There was more than enough time left for him to reply to the message before lunch ended.
Well I'm still a hidden user because people don't ever realise I'm online. Although… I haven't been on the chat since this "Hidden User Canada" stuff. I've been writing an essay, so I just read the forums.
Well when the chat is slow, I'm afraid that everyone will just stop talking and I feel uncomfortable when I'm the last person to post or say something. So I don't speak when it's quiet.
lol Italy is doign what? Well now there's online now on every profile does that mean I'll be super stalked?
About Al, he's my brother. Matt is short for Matthew. (I'm thinking of other names that it could have been…)He sent me an email before about this site and said that I should join. He then proceeded to forget all about my existence on the site a few hours after I joined. -.-
Ah! It's not like I've been avoiding the chat or anything, I said before that I've been busy and I've been hanging around the forums.
Also, I've been wondering… if everyone is doing some weird search for Canada, why is it that nobody else has thought of messaging me?
(I've realised that you've been signing the bottom of the other messages with your name even though when the message is in the inbox, it comes up as "-Username- sent you a message)
Message sent.
Matthew glanced at the clock in the corner of his screen and decided that he might as well try logging into the chat. He just wanted to check if he missed anything important recently, like a random marriage to another user, or if anyone announced that they were going to leave for a bit to get on with things they have to do in their real lives before they came back to APH. When Matthew remembered what Gilbert said about going back to the chat because he hadn't been on in a few days, he wondered if Gilbert was online for him to even see that he had logged in. He clicked Gilbert's username and was brought to "Prussia's" profile page. It said he was online so Matthew decided that he might has well log in quickly and leave just before his lunch break was over.
The familiar chat button at the top of the page was waiting for Matthew to click it again. When he did he was familiar names on the screen, acting the same as they usually do. Matthew noticed something odd when he realised that Italy was online. From the message he read just a few moments ago, it said that Italy was supposedly staring at the list of users online within the chat, getting ready to callout "Canada" when he saw him online. It took a few moments for Matthew to come to the conclusion that Italy had simply given up on his search.
Italy: ;_;
Germany: What now?
Italy: Germany~!I didn't see you get online~
Japan: Italy's sad because the Online and Update functions for the chat are broken. It happened when the site was updated.
America: So he can't find Mattie.
Italy: Maybe he's online now!
Prussia: -.- He better be.
Italy: CANADA!
Japan: It feels empty here because I can't see who's online.
Italy: Canada are you there? Are you ignoring me? ;_;
Germany: … Why am I even online?
Prussia: Because you know I'm awesome and you want to be with me.
Prussia: Oh yeah, CANADA START SPEAKING.
America: How can you tell he's online?
Prussia: Awesome senses...
Italy: So he IS online? :D
Japan: If he is, then that means he was ignoring you. :)
Matthew wondered if he should have said anything. It was obvious that if he did say something, there was going to be a screenshot of whatever he said floating around the website. It was tempting to say stay quiet, but he had a feeling that Gilbert had checked his profile and saw that he was online. He could either just log off the chat without anyone realising due to the fact that the function to see so, was broken, or he could say something.
Matthew sighed.
"Sorry guys."