#virignia

West Virginia is the smarter than many give her credit for being. Her “Hillbilly” reputation hides a very intelligent little state who reads (and understands) books as much as her older sister Virginia, and is often more capable of adapting what she has read to her advantage. She appreciates the tutoring she got from Virginia, but resents what she interpreted as her older sister being too greedy to let her go.  

West Virginia’s biggest fault is she is fiercely independent. She spent so much time trying to prove she could be her own state, that now she often rejects any outsider help, even when she clearly needs it, and in fact, will vote against allowing Uncle to help her or anyone else as she sees reliance on others as a form of weakness. The only “charity” she accepts is when Kentucky buys her fancy clothes for the Kentucky Derby or her birthday, and that is because Kentucky successfully argued that it was her right as an older sister to spoil West Virginia upon occasion.

West Virginia’s self reliance also makes her extremely tough to go up against. This is great when applied to things the states want to happen. In fact, despite her looks as a small child, she can be one of the hardest states to fight during a war (although to their credit it is partially because she looks so young and older European provinces are reluctant to fight her). However, this trait is bad when applied against the states. For example she became notorious for her ability to get her moonshine around the country despite collective efforts that even overcame CEO on his Mob. However, West Virginia was always able to outsmart them. Everyone knew she was breaking the law, but no one could catch her.

West Virginia is not as racist as Kentucky or Virginia, and most of her racial issues stem from ignorance as both Kentucky and Virginia attempted to keep her from interacting with non-white states. She has realized her shortcomings and has begun to visit Delaware to try and shake of the terrible behavior she learned from her older sisters.

Kentucky is another very self reliant state; however, unlike her youngest sister, she is not as unwilling to ask for help if she needs it. However, asking for help is still seen as a last resort. Of the three sisters, Kentucky is the most conniving and the most self serving. Despite the Southern Belle Aristocratic airs she puts on, she is no lady and happy to go through the mud of she comes out ahead in a race. She had no qualms taking advantage of the Civil War to steal much of Virginia’s tobacco trade, often sides with whomever she thinks can help her the most.

This is why she sided with the North as she thought it was clear the South had no chance, despite her views being about as racist as South Carolina’s. She is in fact still likely to agree with him on social matters, only she hides it better as she knows being open with such opinions looses her economic opportunities and allies, and again, won’t risk her money.

Despite this economic ruthlessness and racism (ok those are really big issues and she is not a very likable character BUT), she is a very good older sister to West Virginia, and doesn’t just buy her things, but takes her to museums and another places that she doesn’t really enjoy, but knows her baby sister does.  She also goes out of her way to visit Georgia, who she feels is cut off from “proper” lady friends. Georgia though (and many other states) find her somewhat condescending and hard to be around for long periods of time.  

She did date South Carolina while her and Georgia were on the outs, but she broke up with him after a decade or because she could tell Georgia was still sweet on him and she felt awkward (and she got tired of him being bitter about the war).. She has also had some relations with Tennessee, but she prefers him as a friend and he prefers to peruse Arkansas. Tenn and her have been close friends since childhood, often exploring the wilderness together, and Tennessee thinks she is the only state other than Missouri who is his equal in backwoods living. She is almost as close to him as she is to West Virginia, and closer to him than she is to Virginia (in fact, as children they bonded over complaining about the “caretaker states and plotting to be free of them).

Virginia is a quiet, reserved state, preferring he books to other people. As mentioned above, she is on the Autistic spectrum, on the more functional end, but she still as problems because few states make any effort to accommodate her, in fact many just write her off as rude and stubborn. She finds it hard to talk to others because she can’t feign interest in a subject she doesn’t care about, and when she does care about something, she can go on well past the point another state is interested, so it makes it hard for her to have one on one conversations.  She also hates being in groups of them because it usually gets very loud and very uncomfortable for her. So she spends most of her time at home reading and writing and making maps. She is not unhappy about spending most of her time alone,though, she just wishes people would understand it wasn’t done because she is rude and/or dislikes everyone.

She is very VERY book-smart. Possibly the smartest state in the Union; however, she is extreme trouble applying what she reads to situations when the situation begins to change. She clings to the comfortable patterns she knows and gets very angry when she feels people are trying to change what she perceives to be right. Virginia hates being asked to speak because she is well aware she is too blunt, but she cant’ figure out what she should say. When she write things down, she feels she is able to express her thoughts in ways that people find more pleasing because she can self correct against notes she has taken on “acceptable” phrasing.

Another problem she has is a near pathological fear of being poor because of the starving times and Jamestown and the cannibalism that occurred. This fear drives her to do just about anything to protect herself from being poor and fuels many terrible and illogical decisions that contradict beliefs she otherwise tries to hold do. For example her biggest objection to her sisters independence was a soul crushing fear that without their land, her people would be poor. She knows they hated her for it, but she couldn’t bring herself to let them go. This was also why she embraced slavery, despite it’s conflict with her own personal beliefs, and sided with the CSA. Mississippi, Alabama, and Delaware though do not forgive her anymore than they forgive South Carolina, especially given her huge a part she played in the CSA and the fact that well, she started it. Unlike South Carolina though, she is not proud of i and hates herself for it. However, unlike Georgia, she has made no attempt to apologize, and instead and tries to sweep it under the rug and pretend it was not a thing, which does not endear her to any state who suffered under it.