The Nations and Flappy Bird Adventures

Vietnam was sitting on a bench waiting for the bus to come. The bus was usually late for her, unfortunately, but it seemed like it was blown away by the wind or something to her. The stupid bus was 30 minutes late!  She had tried sitting and waiting, singing 100 bottles of beer on the wall(she lost track) and all sorts of crazy waiting games. She twitched and squirmed,and finally pulled her smartphone out to entertain herself. Her smartphone was a last resort for curing boredom,since she had complained and frowned about the Internet craze that was slowly taking over the world, and it would be hypocritical of her to take it out of her pocket for twiddling her fingers all the time. Vietnam pressed the button on the side, and the screen flashed to life.

Vietnam tapped on the icon with the little orange bird with the big lips and pressed the play button. She was proud of the fact that brilliant man who came up with the brilliant game was Nguyen Ha Dong,a Vietnamese man. To show that, she downloaded the game and played it once in a while. It wasn't very popular though, and Vietnam wanted to have scores to fill up the leader boards,and it seemed like hers were the only ones. The cartoon bird bobbed up and down as she tapped the screen. The poor bird ran into the first green tube and its beak/lips were staked into the green floor.

Vietnam tried again. The sky on the screen was now dark, and the bird was blue this time. The bird past the first tube. Then the second. Then the third.The fourth. The fifth.The sixth. Yes! She continued to tap the screen rhythmically and passed the seventh green pipe. The eighth. The ninth. Almost there--

"Yo! Vietnam, has the bus come yet?" America hollered. Vietnam's finger accidentally double tapped and the blue cartoon bird fell on its beak. She let out a low growl, frowning and eyebrows arched.

"If the bus came, I wouldn't be standing here," she grumbled. Then she tapped the play button again.

"Good point," America said. He sat down on the opposite side of the bench. "Watcha playing?" he asked as he tried to look over her shoulder.

"Flappy Bird," she muttered,not looking at him in the least bit.

"Looks cool, can I try it?"

"Of course," she replied after she had crashed the bird into the pipe. Vietnam passed it to him, and he accepted it.

"So how do I play?"

"You tap on the screen and try not to make the bird crash into the green pipes."

"The bird looks like a Mario fish and the pipes look like warp pipes."

"I agree." Vietnam watched as America felled the bird at the first pipe.

"Wait, I can totally do this." He tried again and the same happened. He tried again and again for some time until Vietnam slowly slid her phone out of his hands. 

"The bus is here," she said as she walked towards the steps of the bus.

"OK," he climbed onto the bus after Vietnam and sat in the seat across her.

"So, what's this game called again? Flappy Bird?" America asked her.

"Yes," she said bluntly. Vietnam didn't say a word to him after that.

"Home sweet home!" America rejoiced as he collapsed face forwards onto his bed. What a day! "Home is a place of WiFi." Automatically, he took out his iPhone, tapped on the app store, and typed "Flappy Bird" into the search bar. America downloaded the app and it took no time at all, considering it was only 900-something kilobytes, close to a megabyte, but not quite. He tapped on the shortcut, itching to play the game. America crashed the bird into the first tube. When he didn't fail at the first time, he failed at the second. But still he played on. The hero was not willing to be bested by a dumb dodo that couldn't steer itself. He replayed it again and again, trying to beat his high score.

Finally, he was able to pass the first and the second tube. America's heart began to beat to the rhythm of the bird's bounces as the little bird bobbed through 10 tubes. He scored 17. Yes,yes, YES! Then his spirits fell along with the bird that crashed into the 23rd tube. Still, it was a good score, America thought to himself. Next, he looked at the clock. 11:47?! Noticing the time, he began to feel his eyelids drooping, weighing him down and forcing him to close his eyes. America then snapped his eyes open again. He couldn't go to sleep. He had a high score to beat! America reached various scores that night, but couldn't beat his record. He gritted his teeth and snarled irritably at the pesky birdie. 

His frustration boiled up inside him and ran through him. He threw his phone hard against a curtain, and it fell to the wooden floor. America's breaths came out husky and quick. Then he softened and rushed towards his phone.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?" he said to his phone as he scrubbed his sleeve onto the screen to clean it. He spent the rest of the night, trapped in this vicious cycle.

The next day, America went to the world conference. He continued to play Flappy Bird there as well, until England shouted at him to give his speech.

"Go on chap, it's your turn now,"England said patiently at first. "America? America?! AMERICA!!?"

"Huh,what?"

"It's your turn to speak. Stand up and speak!" At England's command America stood up quickly and pushed his chair out.

"I'd like to tell you guys about this cool game called Flappy Bird. It's super fun and addictive! You control this little bird and avoid pipes to get a higher score! Go download it." America said quickly. The other nations whispered to one another,not quite convinced. Next, there was shuffling as the nations who had smart phones took them out of their pockets, purses,etc. Vietnam was there, and she had her head down on the table, not caring if she was squashing her nose. How exasperated she felt.

America regretted it the moment he said it. Not because he was embarrassed, but that he felt sorry for getting these people into the same vicious cycle he experienced! So for the next few months or so,people played Flappy Bird. They loved the weird-looking bird, but at the same time wanted to shoot it with a gun or stab it with a knife or hit it with a frying pan or play the piano angrily for it. Flappy Bird was being played across the globe, and was spreading farther than that, into a certain completely white, faceless world. Until...

"Did you know that the producer is taking Flappy Bird down?" Vietnam said to America, turning around in her seat. America choked on his water. It was the only thing he could have on the bus since there was a clear "no food" sign in the front.

"What! You got to be kidding. You have to be!" America gasped.

"I mean what I say. Look," Vietnam said. She showed him an article with a screen shot of a Tweet that said, "I am sorry Flappy Bird users,22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. I cannot take this anymore." Steam came out of America's ears. What kind of producer was this Viet guy? America just wanted to go up to Nguyen's face and tell him to suck it up. Then again America probably wouldn't.

"FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU-" then he paused."Wait, how are they gonna take it off our phones?"

"You can play if you have it downloaded," Vietnam announced, annoyed and covering her ears. "Skies and Earth!"

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