Cultural Politics

3 - The Meeting

Chapter 3 - The Meeting

A/N: All nyotalia names are not mine, I got them off of Deviantart.

Something else I'd like to add before we start: I headcanon that the Culturals are the older sibling of their Political counterpart. After all, the culture is what makes a country, the government is what sustains it.

"And I thought that you had no filter mon ami," Francis says to Alfred after the call ends.

"Oh yeah, she just bounces from topic to topic. If you think I have bad ADD," Alfred whistles then laughs. "You ain't seen nothin' yet."

"Do we have to do this aru?" Yao complains.

"It all depends, do you want your cultural counterpart releasing heavily embarrassing information out into the world for all to see? 'Cause I sure as hell don't," Juan answers, shuddering at the amount of blackmail his sister has on him.

-_-_-

An hour later, Arthur, Francis, Matthew, Alfred, Juan, Elizabeta, Gilbert, Ludwig, Feliciano, Lovino, Antonio, Ivan, Natalya, Yao, and Kiku are in conference room 252. They sit in the order listed, Ludwig in the middle and Arthur and Kiku at the ends of the large table. After a minute or two, their counterparts all walk in, laughing and talking. They sit to occupy the empty side of the table in the following order:

Maria, Isabella, Chiara, Feliciana, Monika, Anya, Madeline, Amelia, Sakura, Chun-Yan, Alice, Francine, Daniel, Julchen, and Nikolai. (Or, they nyo versions of Mexico, Spain, Romano, Veneziano, Germany, Russia, Canada, America, Japan, China, England, France, Hungary, Prussia, and Belarus.)

The political personifications seem surprised at not only the seating arrangement, but at the obvious couples within their cultural counterparts. Feliciana and Monika are holding hands, Madeline foregoes her seat to sit on Anya's lap, Julchen is leaning on Daniel and is pressing the occasional kiss to his collarbone, and Amelia is looking at Sakura with such adoration that some could call it sickening.

Amelia looks away from Sakura as they end their conversation to focus on Ludwig. She stands, holding her hand out to the German across the table. Ludwig stands as well, grasping her outreached hand. They shake hands as Amelia introduces herself, even though she knows he saw her over the Skype call earlier.

"Amelia Jones, America."

"Ludwig Beilschmidt, Germany."

"It's nice to officially meet you," Amelia says after releasing his hand and sitting down.

"Likewise," Ludwig says, so as to not be rude.

"It may not have been clear over the call, but the goal of this meeting and the others like it is to integrate the two types of personifications. Almost everything we do, we do it separately. While that may seem better for your jobs, it can actually be harmful. You all know each other politically. You've formed alliances and friendships from international trading and during wars. Other than that, unless you were raised by, raised with, or live near another country, you all treat each other as colleagues, not friends." Amelia opens with the small speech.

"All due respect, Ms America, why would friendships benefit us more than political alliances like the ones we currently have?" Ludwig asks, seeing many of his fellow political representatives agree with his statement.

"It's something you Politicals don't seem to understand," Amelia says with a small smile. "We many not be humans, but we are like them. We have feelings, and more often than not, we crave to be with someone. Like humans, we crave relationships, romantic or platonic. We Culturals understand that, especially since it's a part of who we are." Amelia motions to Feliciana and Monika, Madeline and Anya, herself and Sakura, and Daniel and Julchen.

"Unlike you all, we act on our feelings rather than pushing them down and ignoring them for the sake of political relations."

"But as political personifications, it's our job to maintain political relations," Ludwig argues.

"But you're not just a political personification," Madeline argues from Anya's lap. "You can have friends and relations outside of political reasons. Of course, your country's political ties are going to influence your interactions with another country, especially if tensions are high. They're no way around that. But, that doesn't that you can't have non-political relations with someone."

"Exactly, thanks sis," Amelia sends a Hollywood smile towards her sister, who smiles back.

"No problem."

"Ms America, earlier you mentioned that keeping interactions between our groups separate may be more harmful for our jobs than we think, would you care to elaborate?" Ludwig prompts, changing the subject.

"Gladly," Amelia replies. "But I have a point to make first. Most of you Politicals tend to avoid Ivan, except for Feliciano who will make friends with anyone. While you may interact with Ivan, most of you are frightened by him to some degree. Anya, would you like to take it from here?" Amelia asks, turning to her sister's girlfriend.

"Da," Anya answers. Madeline moves off of Anya's lap so Anya can stand. "Even as child, Ivan was not good at making friends. When we were young, many countries wanted our land, and would attack us. As we grew, my brother would have many cruel bosses. To be blunt, it was not good for his mind.

"Later bosses tried to have him make friends, especially during the Soviet Union when many of us were living in the same house. But to others, my brother appeared to be cruel and mean, even though he is really not. When it comes to interacting with people, he is like child.

"He doesn't understand that he is hurting or scaring others. And then he comes home and he cries because it makes him sad. He doesn't understand why no one wants to be friends with him." Anya, instead of going to sit down, goes over to Ivan, who is silently crying.

{It's okay little brother,} she says to him in Russian, wiping his tears. {They know now, and soon you'll have many friends, I promise.} She kisses his head before returning back to her seat.

"See?" Amelia says pointedly. "Exhibit A. All of us Culturals, we befriended Anya and helped her long ago. But you guys? You abandoned Ivan and left him to his own devices. And because he's a political representative, Anya couldn't help him much. You see Ivan as a cruel man who enjoys the pain of others, but really, he's just a child who doesn't understand that it's not always a game."

Many of the Politicals are quiet, some look ashamed.

"I'm sorry," Yao is the first to speak. "I should have helped you as a child, aru. I was close enough, and I knew Kievan Rus, your mother before she faded. I should have at least checked on you and your siblings."

Ivan smiles sadly. "Being alone is not fun. Russian winters are cold and long, but those who are used to the cold north never visit."

"Come down to China aru," Yao suggests.

"Da, maybe I will," Russia smiles again, happier.

"See?" Amelia says to the other countries.

"While this answers the question of how expanding relations within our own group is beneficial, it doesn't explain how intermingling between the two groups will help us." Ludwig comments.

A/N: Earlier in the chapter I listed of some Nyo ships that are canon to my story. (Nyo!GerIta, Nyo!RusCan, Nyo!AmeriPan, and Nyo!PruHun.) I would like your guys' help in choosing non-Nyo ships. There's two conditions though.

1) They can't be the same ships as the Nyo ships. (Maybe Gerita, but I want to try another pairing.)

2) No Franada, UsUk, AmeCan, or RusBel (I will take FrUk, PruCan, AmeBel, or RusAme though.)

You can also suggest Nyo pairings as well for unpaired characters.