Mercutio Water Slide Still Open Seven Months After Nation Closed

Icarus—Seven months after the Council State of Mercutio ended as an independent nation and became a political region of Icarus, its famous water slide remains fully operational, sources confirmed Monday.

“Governments come and go, but a good water slide is forever,” said a former councillor, speaking from the bottom of the slide. “Honestly, the slide was always the main thing people came for. The nation was more of a gift shop.”

Founded in the jungles of Karydia in November 2022, Mercutio was governed by a council led by an elected speaker and was best known, according to historians, for its hospitality and its slide. The slide is now believed to be the longest-serving institution in the region, having outlasted every speaker, every council and the state itself.

Ridership has reportedly increased since the nation dissolved. Officials in Icarus credit the change to “fewer meetings,” and say many visitors now arrive specifically for the slide, ride it several times and leave without realising they ever passed through a country.

“I didn’t know there used to be a whole nation here,” said one visitor, dripping wet. “I thought it was just a water slide with a really long history.”

Historians also note that Mercutio gave away the land on which the Grand Republic of Exegol was founded, in a deal remembered as the Chicken Accords. Asked what the chickens had to do with it, a former Mercutian official said the matter was “before my time” and went back down the slide.

The government of Icarus says it has no plans to change the slide and has formally recognised it as a protected landmark, giving it more legal standing than several small nations elsewhere on the server.

The slide declined to comment.