Joint Pact Meeting [China Attendance Required] [Open to JP]

China's excuses were weak at best, and Natalya leveled him a glare. Perhaps it was to remind him of what she'd told him earlier- she might not be dangerous as a Nation, but as a person, she was deadly. And China seemed determined to make things personal, crawling too close to her family (her family was one of the few somewhat stable things she had left). Although, it did lead her questioning. Indeed. What on earth could China's troops be occupied with? They hadn't been guarding his house, they'd been barely guarding Japan, and yet they didn't seem to actually be fighting any war, either.

It was beginning to make her head hurt, because every idea Natalya came up with was worse and more paranoid than the last. She didn't trust him. She didn't understand why anyone else would. Every time he spoke, his motivations got shiftier. She thought that he'd never attacked Japan before because they were siblings, and even if she thought it weak, she could at least respect that. But she doubted that now. She doubted everything now (she'd doubted everything before, too, but perhaps she'd simply not stopped for the entire past thirty years, simply shifting what she doubted instead).

She held her knife still, examining her nails over the hand that was visibly holding it, though she was also clearly focussed. She simply didn't care what China said to her brother's question, not unless it was a straight answer. And, somehow, Natalya rather doubted she'd be getting any kind of straight answer from anyone at all anytime soon. The only people she trusted to give her a straight answer were Lithuania and Iryna, and she could say that freely. Her brother was simply too good at these games to give her a good answer or a good reason.

She'd known that one for a long time now, really.

Natalya noticed almost a moment too late when her sister squeezed her hand. Morse code. It had been a while since Natalya had used it, and, to Iryna, the only one who knew Natalya was trying to understand it, it took a visible moment for her to decode it. When she did, she internally frowned. That reminded her. Something was still upsetting her sister, and Natalya still needed to murder, or at least maim slightly, the source of that upset. Unfortunately, Natalya was beginning to suspect that it wasn't something quite that fixable. Her sister always had been more perceptive than her brother. For once, Natalya almost wished that wasn't the case.

'He does,' she communicated back, a little slower than her sister- she was rustier on morse code, she suspected, and while she'd done her best to cram as many languages and codes into her head as possible once it finally all clicked, language hadn't always been something that came easy to Natalya. It still didn't always. 'I would care less if I trusted China more,' she added. 'There is something going on. I do not know what it is. It is making me nervous.'

Her sister was one of the few people in existence Natalya would freely admit that to.

After his earlier mistakes in this meeting, Vicente has been dead quiet. In fact, for awhile he's pretty sure that he's not going to speak up again during the entire meeting, just to be sure that he doesn't need to worry about that happening again. He's still not really sure why it was such a big deal if he simply asked if they could defeat Kiku the same way they did before - it was just a question! And even if the question was a big deal, they didn't have to react like that.

With such thoughts stewing in his head, it's not difficult for him to silently sink into the hole he dug for himself, forgotten. Especially when everyone seems to suddenly switch into... is that Russian? He's pretty sure it's Russian. And everyone else seems to know it. Well, now he's being left out on purpose, probably.

Though it's only a bit later when the fact that they're all suddenly understandable again causes him to pay better attention to what they're actually talking about. And it's Natalya, who is suddenly turning everyone's attention over to Yao. Which causes him to frown instantly - he happens to like Yao a great deal more than most of the other nations here, and that alone is enough for him to open his mouth to say something supportive of his mentor.

...But then he remembers that he's not going to say anything for the rest of the meeting and why, so his mouth goes shut again. But then he shifts uncomfortably in his seat, perhaps just as distressed now at the idea of remaining silent as he is of the idea of speaking up. Grumbling about the situation under his break a little, he finally speaks up. "I don't believe that is a reasonable question to be asking anyone at this table. We are all allies, and we all are at war. If Yao does not have the men to spare, then he does not have the men to spare - do the members of the Joint Pact not trust each other to manage their affairs properly and give each other all the support that they can afford? Or are we all going to have to have to start submitting audit reports of all our activities just to be sure that nobody is holding out on the others?" he asks.

But though his voice is quite calm and reasonable while he's speaking, he gives a quick glance around, as if looking for trouble. Not that he'd start something with someone for disagreeing with him - quite the opposite! If he said something wrong again and needs to hide under the table until it all blows over again, he'd like to know that sooner rather than later this time. Though he's pretty sure that he didn't say anything that wasn't kosher. In fact, he's pretty sure that he's given a good argument. Especially since he assumes that the number of nations currently sitting at the table who aren't in some way holding out on their allies is quite low - what kind of idiot is actually honest in all of their dealings with other nations, anyway? For that reason alone he has high hopes that the others will agree to the logic of his words.

Natalya nodded slightly, nearly invisibly, to her sister's words. She suspected Iryna would see it, but no one else was likely to think much of it, and even if they did, it would look more like she was nodding in acquiescence of Venezuela's point, because, as much of an idiot as he was, he was being somewhat truthful. Natalya had little to hide of how she was using her nearly-zero resources, but she suspected other people hid things for their own sake. It was less that China was holding out and more that he was doing it so completely and so suspiciously. Natalya wanted to know where that army was, for if she lost it, she suspected it would turn up again when they least wanted it to...

But it was her sister that Natalya paid more attention to at the moment. This arrangement will not last forever. Funny. Natalya almost couldn't tell what her sister meant, even as she nodded in acknowledgement. On the one hand, it mostly seemed to refer to whatever was going on between Ivan and China. Natalya knew that would not last, for as long as China continued to try to play with her brother's heart, Natalya would stand in his way, and someday, her brother would wake up again, hopefully with less heartbreak. The more China played with her brother, the more dangerous the bear would be when awoken. No, that arrangement would not last forever.

Some part of Natalya wondered, though, if Iryna was speaking of something else. What, Natalya wasn't entirely certain, but there was an air of determination in that phrase. This arrangement will not last forever. The problem was, there was only one other arrangement that it could refer to, given their previous conversation. One other arrangement... her sister needed to be okay, and they needed to talk. (She had always heard her own insurgents had fled southwards.)

At least the meeting had gotten to the point-

-or maybe not. Dear lord, this meeting felt distinctly like banging her head against a wall, hoping beyond hope that somehow things would get put together when really all she was doing was giving herself a concussion. Iran spoke up, and Natalya had the distinct feeling that the meeting might be about to just start all. over. again. She bit back a smart remark, or yelling at the woman what the point of the meeting seemed to be, that being Ivan berating China for the utter fiasco that was his attempt to deal with Japan, and how the Joint Pact might deal with it. She'd thought that was obvious.

Then again, maybe it wasn't, as she went back on what had happened so far in the meeting. Natalya had lost her temper (to be fair suggesting nuclear bombs was the height of idiocy), Russia had tried to make her speak Russian when she had decided that she didn't particularly feel like it, both for strategic reasons and her general mood, they'd sniped at each other, her sister had gotten upset, which was worse, Ivan had yelled at China some, and Natalya had offered a solution that was really a transparent attempt to get other people's attention on China's mysterious vanishing army and the clear fact that he was busy plotting what could only be nothing good.

In hindsight, they had gotten absolutely nothing done thus far. Which was about what Natalya expected, really, but to those not well-versed in following a particular type of getting absolutely nothing done, it probably looked like they had yet to get to the point. They had. They just kept on weaving around it in weird patterns. The point was: deal with Japan. The side topic, though, was what Ivan viewed as China's incompetence and Natalya viewed as mostly just suspicious.

She squeezed her sister's hand one last time, just to say that she cared, and leaving her hand where Iryna could reach it, in case she wanted to keep talking, went back to simply watching the meeting with a slightly bored but highly observant expression. Though she did stop for a moment to give Iran a look, because yes, she was not the only one here that felt this topic had almost zero relevance to them, but unless Ivan had some kind of deeply-buried and hidden motivation, they had already reached their point, if in a somewhat roundabout way. A weirdly direct roundabout way.

(She hated this meeting so much.)

Iran prefered to be listening to one of America's " I'm the hero!" rants then rather seat around and accomplish nothing , well beside argue about China's -non existent- incompetency . Iran couldn't comprehend what on earth the look she received from Belarus and Ukraine meant. Though she let it slide as one of their trademark don't mess with my brother looks. Deciding that anything would amount to be better then sitting around and waiting for the meeting to end , Iran directed her green eyes towards some of the attendees.

A sharp pain emerged from her head upon moving her neck, with Iran just grimacing the sharp impact sound her neck made. Excusing herself to the restroom, Iran made her way to one of the large mirrors stationed around the lilac walls, with sunflowers patterns imprinted on them ( probably by Russia's request, since he had an abnormal love for sunflowers ) Taking out the pins that held her head scarf in place , Iran examined her head. There was a large amount blood pooling around like a halo around her skull.

Iran gave a pat around her hair, cleansing the blood of from her ringlets. Making a mental note to contact her adviser and interrogate him about the reason her skull was bleeding . Arranging her head scarf back to it's original pristine condition. Taking a deep breath, Iran approached her seat. There was a envelope placed towards in her partion of the conference table She glanced toward China, who supported a sour look and scooted her chair towards his .

Iran swallowed, her bracelets moving with her hand as she bobbed up and down in her chair. " China, can I talk to you for a second?"

China offered Russia a lazy glare with his question. Did it really matter what they were occupied with in this meeting? He said that they were occupied, that should have been enough. Russia didn’t share all of his movement with the pact. Maybe he shared a majority with it but he knew Russia too well to say he had been open and transparent with everything he had been doing. China was simply doing the same, he just intended to win the war for himself and for everyone. To do this he needed everyone out of his way and Russia and his family were beginning to make that a tiresome chore that should have been easy.

His unsettling smile made him raise a brow and shrug his shoulder as if to roll off the tension. “They are occupied with fighting the war Ivan…The same that yours are occupied with.” He deflected to a vague answer and then tried to move on from it quickly but he didn’t have to…..The young Vicente had finally spoken up on the matter and deflected it even further away from him. He smiled approvingly at the boy and nodded. He was so young and naïve and stupid…and exactly what he needed right now. Yao had been enjoying being a mentor to him. He had always been kind to the boy and in return Vicente had been kind as well. Now it seemed to be paying off more than ever.

His situation was made even better when Iran finally spoke up. It was if she had silently snuck in when no one was looking. He didn’t make eye contact with her when she spoke and instead went back to focusing on the nail that was bothering him before. Iran brought up a good question. Why exactly were they here if they were just going to talk about where is army was? Didn’t they come here for a different reason? He thought the pact would be more appreciative of what he’d done to weaken Kiku already. He knew how to handle his brother, but the children always thought they knew what was best for them.

Movement caught his eye to the side of him. He saw Iran’s discomfort and leaned closer to her when she wanted to say something. He nodded and opened his mouth to say something only to hear Russia open his mouth first. He has cycled back into the same story again. It was time to answer it so he could satisfy them for the moment and excuse himself to speak with Iran privately. “I agree with you Ivan, I will spare what little I have to help in whatever way I can as I have always….” He pushed himself out of his chair and bowed a quarter. “I must ask for a short break.” He asked…But didn’t want anyone to answer. He simply headed toward the door so he could meet with Iran in the hallway. They could go into one of the other rooms or the bathroom if they needed.

China was pretending to be occupied with his nails , a gesture that meant it wasn't safe enough in the conference room. Iran nodded, and turned to the leader of the pact . At least who she considered the "leader" Ivan made it quite clear that they were not to question his position and Iran and every other individual in the pact complied; they didn't want to anger him too much. Iran understood that even though Russia maintained a friendly face and attitude , he was much more dangerous then he pretended to be . There was a reason his national symbol was a bear, Iran laughed at the similarity between them. Russia was protective like a mother bear, always tense incase of various adversities he had, watching out towards his interests and guarding his allies .

Ivan spoke up, a threat lacing around his too sweetish tone, a purple aurora was surrounding him and some of the countries scooted away, wary of the next words that were to come from his lips. When it turned out to be nothing more then a mere question, some of the participants sighed , their shoulders relaxing from the rigid previous position . China seemed to be pondering , probably about his next choice of words , giving the wrong response would detonate a ticking bomb , a tense silence occupied the room. Yao spoke, all the while glaring at his ally. Iran didn't really care about Yao's soldiers, they were fighting the same war as all the other soldiers in each participant country.

" Ivan, China has been open with us, he very well knows that it's not time to keep secrets from each other . After all he's been your ally for a long time , he knows the consequences for lying." Iran opened her mouth to share something with Yao, when he abruptly excused himself . Iran glanced toward him " Excuse me , I have to take care of some matters" She got out of her chair , and followed him to the hallway . All the while, keeping her head down and not gaining attention . " You wanted to talk to me ?" She prompted when she finally reached the corner Yao was situated in. Adjusting her papers to her binder , she glanced at her longtime friend. " Well?

Natalya briefly wondered if China had started to get old enough to really look down on every one of them because could he be acting more blatantly suspicious. Iran was not helping. Asking for a private conversation in the middle of the meeting was not about to go over well, and actually holding it- well, that was probably stupid, to be honest. If her brother didn't have the entire building extremely well bugged then Natalya was not irritably swinging a knife around at the moment. In other words, as Natalya was, in fact, irritably turning a knife around in her fingers, it was objective fact that Ivan had the entire building bugged.

The only reason Natalya knew her brother didn't have proper eyes into her room at home was that Natalya had her own ways of blocking these things, ways that she'd gotten very good at over time, and because everyone in that house had a sort of silent truce to share those methods and conveniently forget them if Ivan ever asked. Here, in Ivan's own conference room? Ivan had the home court advantage, so to speak, and there wasn't anyone who had bothered to catalogue and work against the spying equipment. She might be figuring out what was going on with China sooner than she thought. If she threatened Estonia enough, he could probably get her the recordings...

(Here is something Natalya wanted to tell Iran, but did not: EVERYONE is lying, at least a little bit, so do not pretend anyone here is being completely open. It makes the lie more obvious.)

Her brother, though, he said it out loud: just because they had a common enemy didn't mean they trusted each other. The barb about friends leaving, though- even if it was aimed at Toris, that had actually hurt slightly, even if Natalya kept her head high and didn't even remotely flinch at the statement. True. People left. You had to learn to work on your own. Ivan, though- it's funny that someone so cold could have such a soft heart... Then again, she'd always known him to be soft. She might not have left him, either, there was part of her, even now- but sometimes you had to take care of yourself first (he wasn't safe).

And then Toris spoke.

You're even softer than he is. (The thought is fond, and the thought is more about herself than Toris.)

The funny thing was, Natalya could understand everything that Toris said. She almost wanted to say something similar. I'm not leaving now, she thought, not yet. When you're as sick as I am, you want your family around you. She'd almost forgotten that bit for a moment, the reason she was just as fiercely fighting for her brother's protection as she had fought to keep away from him. Because he needed her now, but more importantly, she needed him. 

She snaps before she intends to. "Don't apologize," she snapped, curt but somewhat approving. It takes her about thirty seconds to realize that she spoke in Lithuanian. She hadn't actually intended to, but she hadn't really thought before speaking, either. She had simply seen her old commander for a few seconds and responded accordingly. She did not want to bring up her brother's argument again, but what was said was said, and she wouldn't take it back, and she certainly wouldn't apologize for breaking a rule she found rather distasteful to begin with.

She wanted to say more now, too. Don't shake. Hold yourself up proud. The look's more becoming on you. I know you can. It frustrated her. Toris should not be acting like this, never mind that it was about par for the course, it didn't fit him right. Natalya knew perfectly well that he could stand up for himself without stuttering, and it almost hurt her to see him stuttering now in front of everyone. Instead, though, her knife had drifted back to a holster, and her other hand had slid beneath the table.

She was seated between Iryna and Toris. One of her hands was next to where it had been holding Iryna's a moment before. The other grabbed Toris's hand for a second. She approved. As frustrating as it was, there was a part of Natalya who understood being unable to speak properly, and at least he was trying. At least, as screwed up as they were, they were their own sort of family. Her other hand found itself holding her sister's again. Yes. Family. Family was everything, wasn't it?

She took a quiet breath, switching her mind back to English from whenever it had decided to flip to Lithuanian. "I agree," she said, not bothering to differentiate which parts she agreed with. The people who mattered would be able to tell that she agreed with all of it, after all. "It appears that we are almost all in agreement, then." She gave China a challenging look, her hands in Toris and Iryna's (all the strength in the world). "Now, then, don't go running off. Don't you have anything you wish to share with the class? I assure you, anything you say in 'private' can be said here."