Here Are Some Things

This is where you can find every fic in the ongoing Russia/America collaboration between myself and wizzard890. While we hope that each chapter can be enjoyed on its own, they were written as part of a continuing story.

( View the Index behind the cut. )

Title: Kill All Sons Of Bitches
Originally posted: Here, for one of the homeless hetaliasunshine prompts (which I've only just now looked at ^_^;). Originally requested by hakuku.
Length: 3000 words.
Characters/Pairings: America/England, Prussia/Hungary.
Premise: Hetalia/Left 4 Dead crossover! (Okay, technically a Left 4 Dead 2 crossover.) For non-gamers: that means there's zombies.
Time period: THE ALL-TOO-NEAR FUTURE.
Smuttiness: 0/10
Funnyness: 4/10
Wrist slashiness: 5/10
Warm-and-fuzziness: 2/10
Lolhistoryness: 0/10
Violence: 7/10
Would I like it?: If you've played Left 4 Dead or Left 4 Dead 2, you'll pick up a lot of references, but otherwise you can just read it as a typical zombie apocalypse fic (minus the omake at the end). Bonus points to the first person who knows what campaign they're in!

Yeah, I don't know.

( Read it behind the cut. )

I've always thought the history of Kaliningrad (formerly Königsberg) was interesting anyway, but today I found out that Kaliningrad Oblast--a tiny spit of land on the Baltic Sea that's roughly the size of Connecticut, mind you--contains 90% of the world's amber reserves.

( So...let me see if I understand the history of this region properly. )

Title: Little Lights
Originally posted: Here, for youkofujima
Length: 2000 words (oh God I can't believe I wrote 2000 words about this)
Characters/Pairings: Russia/America.
Premise: The boys check into a good old-fashioned American autohotel by mistake.
Time period: 1980s
Smuttiness: 4/10
Funnyness: 8/10
Wrist slashiness: 2/10
Warm-and-fuzziness: 6/10
Lolhistoryness: 2/10
Violence: 0/10
Would I like it?: Apparently I will write about absolutely anything if you catch me at 3 AM. WARNING: THIS FIC CONTAINS MARVIN GAYE LYRICS.

I am so very sorry, about so very much.

( Read it behind the cut. )

Title: Five Six Seven Eight
Originally posted: Here, for the CMC Event at russiamerica. Day 6 prompt: gamble.
Length: 1,100 words.
Characters/Pairings: Russia/America.
Premise: America is a fail spy. Also, Russian pistols hold more bullets than you think.
Time period: Cold War sometime after 1969, I guess, since I make a so-veiled-you-might-miss-it reference to the Space Race.
Smuttiness: 0/10
Funnyness: 4/10
Wrist slashiness: 0/10
Warm-and-fuzziness: 3/10
Lolhistoryness: 0/10
Violence: 6/10
Would I like it?: It started life as a 600-word drabble-y thing, and then it exploded into a confetti shower of America's retarded inner monologue and him getting shot at a lot. That sound like fun?

( Read it behind the cut. )

Title: His Garden
Originally posted: At hetaliasunshine, for mizumimi! Thank you erueru_2d for answering random questions like the magic fact fairy you are.
Length: 1,800 words.
Characters/Pairings: Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.
Premise: The world's strangest family spends a lovely, peaceful day together.
Time period: Modern.
Smuttiness: 2/10? For Belarus's weirdness? XD
Funnyness: 2/10
Wrist slashiness: 3/10
Lolhistoryness: 2/10
Violence: 0/10
Man, I should really put a baww-meter on here.

Would I like it?: To be honest, I'm not sure this qualifies as "fluff." I'd call it "sweet, but poignant?" Look, it's Russia's family. That should tell you what you need to know.

( Read it behind the cut. )

Title: Who's Got Spirit
Originally posted: At hetaliasunshine, for anon Hazel!
Length: 3,200 words.
Characters/Pairings: Canada, Poland. A little America, France, and England thrown in at the end.
Premise: Stuck inside at a rained-out, boring conference, Poland takes Canada to task for his low spirits and teaches him how to B-E aggressive.
Time period: Modern.
Smuttiness: 0/10, minus some harmless innuendo.
Funnyness: 5/10
Wrist slashiness: 2/10
Lolhistoryness: 1/10
Violence: 1/10
Would I like it?: I nearly didn't finish this in time, because every time I started working on it, I had to take a break to watch the cheer battle scene from Bring It On to "inspire myself." Like, eleven times. I wish I were kidding.

( Read it behind the cut. )

So, I haven't been feeling especially inspired, lately...but I HAVE been feeling more-than-usually curious! Would anybody want to help me out with the first bit of that by indulging the second bit?

Tell me something about where you're from that is very common and ordinary, but that people from other places might not know about! I'm looking for the facts that make you think "Oh, I shouldn't share that, that's so obvious and normal," and then "...wait, does anybody do that but us?"

RESTRICTIONS: No holidays! Every country has its own holidays, but that's too obvious. I want to know daily life kind of things!

ALSO: No relics of past or present extra-national organizations! Citizens of the Commonwealth and the former Soviet Union, I am looking at you. Tell me something about your country specifically.

Example of something pretty surprising to foreigners that is extremely normal in America:
-- Daily, state-mandated declarations of loyalty. American students, K through 12, both in private and public schools, say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning. (It goes like this, if you're curious: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I guarantee you that any American you ever meet will be able to spit this out in under five seconds. In my headcanon, America says it to himself every morning, but only when he knows he won't get caught. >_> )

ONE LAST NOTE TO OTHER AMERICANS: If you can think of more stuff, that is awesome, please share it, but no regional things. I mean, grits are very normal in parts of America, but in other parts it's all, what's a grit. America is kind of a bad country for this, because we never shut up about our culture, so people tend to already know about America-only things like Halloween, or how we sing the national anthem at baseball games, or whatever.