ineffective communication

also found on ao3

Monika sighed, scrolling through her emails. Without thinking, she grabbed her phone and started typing.

Germany: It seems next month’s meetings are going to be online, as well.
France: It appears so.

At first, it seemed like that was it. Monika found herself feeling oddly disappointed... until her phone buzzed a few minutes later.

France: But, I’m surprised. I thought, if anything, you’d prefer it this way.; No one goes over their time, no one interrupts, and everyone is united, fighting towards a common goal.; Disregarding the circumstances, this should be paradise.
Germany: I must admit it’s nice to finally have meetings stay on track for once, but I can’t help but to feel that there’s… something missing.
France: Oh??
Germany: I don’t know. Small things that I now realize I’ve taken for granted.

...No no no. She quickly shook her head to wave away such useless thoughts.

Germany: Like, seeing everyone's body language. It's an important aspect of communication.; I can't help but worry that there's going to be some horrible misunderstanding if this continues much longer.
France: ❓🤨
France: ...Oh! 😆; I can't believe forgot how young this current government of yours is!!; You've never had to send a life or death message by carrier pigeon, have you??
Germany: No, but I've read plenty about them.
France: The hot air balloons were also fun -- be sure to ask your sister about that sometime!; Ah, those were the days!!

Monika smiled, imagining the dramatic facial expressions and gestures Marianne must be making. Emojis and little boxes on the corner of her screen truly couldn't capture the atmosphere she brought to the room, even if it was a bit much sometimes.

She couldn't admit to herself that that's what she really missed: their little conversations before meetings began, their shared exasperated glances when someone (usually America) said something stupid, and, really, the older woman's presence, in general. She couldn't admit to herself how happy she got when she caught the telltale whiff of French Vanilla perfume just before the doors of the chosen meeting hall opened. Nor could she admit how Marianne's smile seemed to light up the room, or how even a casual touch on the shoulder from her could leave her flustered and unable to properly focus for a good several minutes until she could finally regain her composure.

No, she had far too much pride to admit such sentimental things, so, instead, she replied:

Germany: I suppose you've got a point. I must just be overthinking things.

and got back to work.

[additional lore]

I started writing this way back in 2020, lol. Now it's not really relevant -- everyone seems to have just forgotten the pandemic and everything has basically "gotten back to normal." Oopsies!

I do still like the idea, though, and there's not really many fics about them, so I decided to send this little guy off into the world, anyway. Enjoy!

My thought with these two is that they're both very professional with, shall we say, strong personalities. In other words, they either intimidate others or come off as insufferable to be around (which isn't necessarily a bad thing!), so they kinda gravitate to each other.... something like that. They have a lot of storytelling potential, both historically and in the modern day (being the "powerhouse, married couple of Europe," y'know?).

Oh! Also, the text formatting comes from a modified version of Azdaema Codes' workskin on ao3. A real coding wizard!

(By the way, the hot air balloon thing is a reference to the Franco-Prussian war.)

ineffective communication

France

Today, 10:32 PM