Noticing the Invisible [Canada]

Normally, Matthew was one of the few people who paid attention to meetings like this, you know. He was reasonable and level-headed, was friends with Ivan (well, besides the current war bit), and was forgettable enough he didn't constantly make people angry at him. On the other hand, he knew his limits, and even if he occasionally seemed like a doormat to people who didn't know him, he was anything but one. He was just polite about it. It made sense to have him at the occasional attempted peace talks- he would be reasonable, unlike some people.

Normally, that is. Today, at a supposed 'peace talk' that contained only members of the United Allegiance and neutral nations, Matthew was finding his mind drifting. This was, as expected, turning utterly pointless. There were people present busy trying to convince the neutral nations to join the United Allegiance, and all talks of peace were halfhearted at best. There weren't even any members of the opposing side present. Nothing was going to get done. Once or twice, Matthew tried to interject, maybe suggest that they actually invite at least one member of the Joint Pact if they actually wanted to talk peace, since you know, the Joint Pact would also need to agree to whatever the plan was, but he was talked over and didn't feel like shouting and/or making Kumajiro roar at the crowd.

Instead, Matthew had spent much of the meeting sneaking glances at the Canadiens game. It was the Canadiens-Bruins game, one he always tried to be present at because it was, in his opinion, the greatest rivalry in sports, and also because he needed to be there to scream at the refs- if he didn't, who else would? The two teams were very close in skill this year, which made the rivalry even better. He had to actively keep himself from shouting several times during the meeting (not that they would have noticed), and he totally swore in Quebec French a little louder than he should have a few times at some of the closer shots (no one noticed this, so he figured he was safe). 

He should be there. He really wanted to be there as opposed to this stupid meeting, but for some reason it had been deemed important, and here Matthew was, trying not to make too much noise as the Canadiens won 4-2 in Boston. Oh, Alfred was going to be so pissed, this was great! The meeting ended a few minutes, and Matthew mourned the stupid length of the meeting- if only it had been just an hour shorter, he would have been able to catch the second half in his hotel room, at least...

After sending several gloating text messages to his brother, with the information that this meeting had been completely useless somewhere buried within, Matthew decided to see if he could find somewhere to get a drink, partially in celebration of the game, partially to drown out some of the more stupid attempts to entice the neutral nations to the Allegiance he'd still managed to hear despite himself. Seriously, if they wanted a swift end to the war, pretending these were actually peace talks to get people to show up was not the correct tactic.

As a result, in an ironic twist of fate, Matthew almost did not notice Elizaveta approach him. However, he looked up in time to see her coming over, a large smile on her face. This was unusual- Elizaveta wasn't normally one of the people who could recognize his presence on an average day. Then again, he had been watching hockey, albeit quietly... People normally noticed him more in a sports context, if only because he cursed very loudly a lot and, if playing, was the single most likely person to get red carded or otherwise kicked out for egregious illegal contact. 

He smiled back at Elizaveta. "I'm Canada," he said, "Matthew Williams." He paused. "I've been at nearly all of these, eh..."

Matthew was nearly one hundred percent certain that he'd met Hungary before at some point, not that he begrudged her this fact as he listened to her speak. Who knows- perhaps she'd remember him longer this time! Besides, it wasn't as Elizaveta was someone he talked to all that regularly, so he'd give her a pass. He mostly only got irritated when Arthur or Francis was in a "let's forget Matthew" mood- they were practically his parents, they should probably have this figured out.

That didn't mean Matthew wouldn't respond with a slightly passive-aggressive "It's nice to meet you again, Elizaveta." His expression and voice was nearly completely polite, and he didn't actually mean for his words to be in any way biting this time, he just wasn't going to let this completely slide without a word. It wasn't like she'd care in a few days, anyway, and he was still in a slightly more aggressive mood after watching the Canadiens game during the meeting. He hadn't gotten to properly tell the ref to shove it after that yellow card, too. That would have been nice.

"Well, the war effort takes a lot of time from all of us," he said, "I just tend to schedule showing up at meetings like this when I can. There's more than one way to end a war." That, and he had a niece who would probably jump right out of space again if no one attended meetings like this, an overworked sibling who could really use the break a successful meeting would bring about, and a nation of people who didn't want to be at war much longer. Really, it made sense to attend meetings like this, even if it was disheartening every time absolutely nothing happened.

Still, did it have to be during such a big hockey game?

Elizabeta, at least, also seemed upset that the meeting hadn't gotten much of anywhere. Matthew just shrugged. "Most of them at least represent some kind of step forward- but yes, they do have a tendency to go nowhere." He could have really spent his time better than he'd spent it at this meeting- but then again, he was a bit more jaded when it came to these at this point than some of the people here. While in his mind, it was a ruse to get neutral countries into the war effort, he supposed for some Nations here, it probably came across as more of an honest conversation, didn't it? He didn't normally like reading ulterior motives into things, but at this point he guessed it was inevitable.

He smiled ruefully. "This one wasn't much of a peace meeting at all, to be honest. At least during some, I get the chance to talk to people that I'm normally barred from talking to anymore, and get a better idea of their point of view." These people tended to mostly be Ivan, somewhat Toris (who noticed him surprisingly well compared to a lot of people), and occasionally Iryna. He did talk to other people on the other side as well, but, well...