Chapter 2 - The Bathroom
Elsewhere, in a bathroom.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Madeline, the cultural personification of Canada asks her sister, who is currently in the shower.
"It's not like they can see me," Amelia shrugs behind the curtain. "Plus, I thought that I would have enough time."
"You do know that this is going to be on display in front of half of the entire world," Maria, Mexico's cultural personification, reminds Amelia.
"Yep!" Amelia grins as the Skype call begins.
"Hey- Amelia are you kidding me?" Alfred's voice is heard. "You're seriously doing a Skype call in front of the whole world in the shower?"
"It's only half of the world, little brother," Amelia reminds her brother cheekily.
"I can't believe you," he says simply.
"Love you too, anyway, down to business," Amelia says. "It's come to several of our attentions that the cultural and political personifications don't interact much. Sure, we interact if we're representatives of the same country, or if we're the same type of representative, but other than that, we don't. That, plus it seems that our political counterparts are really good at making fools of themselves."
"Typical politicians," Maria comments with a snort.
"For one," Amelia continues. "Alfred, a burger-obsessed airhead? Really? Where's the military strategist that helped lead the Union to victory? Or the scientist that engineered the atom bomb?"
Back in the meeting room, Alfred flushes and runs the back of his neck, but he doesn't speak, knowing it's best to let his sister run her course.
"And Matthew!" The Canadian accent of the girl on the phone earlier speaks up. "Invisible? Really? And you let Ivan of all people sit on you? I mean, Anya sits on me all the time but that's for a completely different reason. Well, unless you like it when he sits on you." Madeline comments cheekily.
"Madeline!" Matthew cries, face flushed at what his sister is insinuating.
"Well, have you seen him?" Amelia speaks up. "I mean, damn. If I was into politicians, and not already taken by Sakura, I'd tap that."
"Amelia, one: you're a flaming lesbian," Alfred counters, seemingly not caring that this is a world meeting. "And two, get back to your point."
"Shut up, Gaylord," Amelia replies with a laugh. "Anyway, he's right, back on track." The sound of running water turns off and the camera is flipped to show the ceiling of the room.
"Matthew, buddy, Maddie has a point. Invisible? I know Canada in general doesn't stand out too much but at home you're anything but invisible. Even in our world meetings Maddie isn't invisible, through that might be because she's sitting on Anya and the two are talking about hockey. Do you know how many impromptu hockey games have occurred during your meetings with those two, the Nordics, and I?"
"Amelia," Maria warns her sister.
"Right. Cut it with the extreme pacifism and assert yourself damnit." The camera is flipped again to show Amelia in a forest green crop-top and short dark blue jean shorts.
"Anyway, the purpose of this call is to tell you that, in an hour, there's going to be a series of meetings between groups of both country personifications. Each group will have thirty people, or two reps from fifteen countries. For example, the G8, Romano, China, Prussia, Mexico, Belarus, Hungary, and Spain will be in one meeting. You'll get a text from your counterpart in half an hour with the room number of your group's meeting room. Got it? Okay good."
"And who put you in charge?" Carlos (Cuba) challenges from his seat. Amelia just laughs.
"As the Melting Pot, I'm the mediator and often the organizer of our meetings. You of all people should know that, Carlos. How many times do I have to put up with all of your shit at the Big House?"
Carlos mutters something unintelligent and sits down with a pout. The countries of the North American continent get together for a while once a month for "continental bonding" as a couple of them call it.
"America? A mediator? Don't make me laugh," Arthur comments in amusement. "Cultural or political, America is still an unorganized mess of a country. It's a wonder how it's still standing, seeing as it has no culture."
On the screen, Amelia's face turns from confident to hurt in seconds. Sure, she's heard it all before, even from her own people, but this is different. When her and Alfred's people say that America has no defined culture, it's just that they don't see it because they live the culture every day. Plus, they take pride in the fact that America is a melting pot of people and culture. But this, this blatant dismissal of Amelia's existence by another country is different. It hurts, despite how small the comment may seem.
"Okay, that's enough," Alfred says, facing Arthur. "Call me whatever you want, mock me for the face I show you, go ahead, that's what it's there for. But don't say a word against my sister or our people. Just because our country doesn't have a conventional culture, doesn't mean that it has no culture at all."
Inspired by her brother's defense of her, Amelia smiles and picks up the torch, so to speak.
"While America may not have a conventional culture, we do have one. As a land of immigrants, we take what culture the immigrants bring with them and then adapt it. We make it our own. By the way, Arthur, thanks for convincing your people to turn away Seamus's (Ireland)* way back when. I really profited from that!"
"Anyway," Madeline takes the camera from Amelia. "You have a bit less than an hour now until the meetings. Attend them because we need to get things done."
"And if we don't?" Alfred challenges.
"Just remember how much blackmail we have on you. That goes for all of you countries." Amelia's voice is heard, but Madeline stays silent. Instead, a creepy aura surrounds the northern personification, one that only appears while she's playing hockey and has a score to settle.
"Right," Alfred says with a nervous squeak in his voice.
"See y'all later!" Amelia waves from over Madeline's shoulder and the call ends.
*Long story short, back in the 1800's Ireland had a huge famine and millions of people left the country. The English at the time didn't like the Irish and turned them away. Large numbers of Irishmen and women immigrated to America. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbow at first because the Americans didn't like the Irish all the much at first either, but then we grew to love the little leprechauns! (Don't kill me for the joke pls. I too am part leprechaun.)
