The meeting started out normal enough. Countries were speaking, and it was terribly boring, so America couldn't make himself pay attention. He tried. He really did. but he just couldn't do it. He started doodling on his notepad, and that was when someone noticed.
"America!" England hissed. "Pay attention!"
With a sigh, America turned his attention from his current doodle (a remarkably accurate representation of the Statue of Liberty) to listen to Germany's lecture. It wasn't fair he had to pay attention-he wasn't even a member of the League of Nations! He had only stopped by to talk to his brother, as they hadn't seen each other in a while, and then England had forced him to stay, spouting nonsense about the whole thing having been his idea or something, and so he had to attend at least one meeting.
Something wasn't right, but America couldn't tell what. He tried to catch Canada's attention, but England noticed first and shushed him (England's shushing was louder than America's trying to get Canada's attention, the younger thought grumpily).
Germany was going on and on about terrible inflation in his country, glaring at the countries who had beaten him in the Great War all the while. It wasn't their fault that Germany's economy had gotten out of control! Well, maybe it was, but the war had ended over ten years ago. Germany had to get over it already.
God, America felt terrible, but he couldn't place what was wrong, much to his chagrin.
They took a break for lunch, and America tried to grab Canada then, but his brother had already left with France, the latter babbling on in French about a cafe they had to go to.
America removed his glasses to rub his eyes. He would kill for a drink, but the government had taken that option away from him with their stupid prohibition law. He didn't think the speakeasies opened this early, and he risked his head if he was caught in a speakeasy again, anyway. He had gotten majorly chewed out last time it had happened.
"America, you want to grab lunch with me?" England asked, probably to make sure that the other nation didn't run off between sessions. He shouldn't have worried-America really wanted to talk to Canada about how he was feeling.
"Nah," America replied. "I'm not hungry at the moment."
England raised one of those ridiculous eyebrows. "You, not hungry?" He shrugged. "Oh, well. Okay, then."
Once he left, America put his head down on the desk, closing his eyes.
He hadn't meant to fall asleep, and so it was much to his surprise when he was woken at the end of the break by a grumpy-looking England.
"I see. You skipped lunch so that your lazy ass could get some sleep."
America just replied by sticking out his tongue like a child.
The meeting continued, and America continued feeling like shit. He tried to go back to sleep, but was kicked roughly under the table by England.
"Don't you dare."
Irritated, America stood, intending to leave. He would just call Canada. It wasn't that urgent, after all.
But then the feeling got worse and worse, just kept growing. He thought he could never handle it-and then it broke, reached the peak and went over.
America collapsed to his hands and knees.
England rolled his eyes. "Oh, sure, you're so tired that you can't even stand up. Sure."
"Shut up!" Canada snapped, loud enough to silence the room as they all stared at him in shock. As they all stared, he rushed over to his brother. "Al, Al, focus. What's wrong?"
America closed his eyes, searching. As a nation, if he focused, he could locate any problem within his borders, even if he didn't know what it was.
It was harder than usual, with how much pain he was in. He coughed, and Canada freaked out.
"God, Al, you're coughing up blood." He sounded terrified. "Please, what is wrong?"
The searching was hard, but then America found it. He found it, and his eyes shot open, staring at nothing as he panicked.
"Billions...billions...God...I've lost billions...everything gone…"
Canada shook America. "Straight answer, Alfred."
America's eyes refocused. "The stock market crashed," he whispered, and Canada gasped. "It gets worse…that's billions of dollars gone-my entire economy is gone." He blinked, eyes blurry for a second. "People are running on the banks, but there is no money. People are jumping out of buildings-they know they're broke. What do I do?"
He collapsed against Canada. "What do I do?"
The League of Nations was the precursor of the UN. The entire thing was basically the idea of then-President Woodrow Wilson, but the United States never joined.
There was hyperinflation in Germany following the first World War (then called the Great War, as no one anticipated a second world war. The name was changed around the time WWII started and people realized that Great War was no longer accurate). This inflation is alluded to in at least the English dub, when Italy comes to Germany for a job and the latter is making cuckoo clocks.
Prohibition (the banning of alcohol by the United States government) started in 1919 and ended in 1933. Speakeasies were basically underground (figuratively, usually) bars.
The United States stock market collapsed on October 29th, 1929, the day more commonly known as Black Tuesday. Over sixteen million shares of stock were being traded in a single day, and billions of dollars were lost. This crash sent the United States into the Great Depression (it was not the sole cause of the Depression, but it was a huge contributing factor. Huge. A nation can't lose billions of dollars like the US did in the crash and be okay), and it dragged the rest of the world down with it. Once the market crashed there were bank runs, people taking out all of their money, and the banks just didn't have the money-people were taking all the money out of their accounts, and the banks didn't have the money to handle that (if you know how banks work, you'll understand why). Obviously, this didn't all happen as quickly as I wrote it-I condensed it all for the story.
I'm so sorry if anyone thinks I'm talking down to them with the historical notes...I doubt all of my readers have had American history (honestly, who has American history other than Americans?), which is what most of the historical notes allude to, and it's better to explain everything anyway than have people confused.
Yeah, so, if you like it, let me know. I might write another oneshot or a multi-chap about the Depression if you all want. I'm almost done with the initial writing for Dark as a Bad Dream, so I will have plenty of time to work on other projects!