World Cup 90--RP Thread

by **Drawkland** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 3:53 pm

E X P E D I T I O N . . .

It was supposed to be a small affair.

When former Kick Corps member Nicole Warren decided to take on the journey to attain immortality, she intended for nobody to know. It was her trial to face, after all. She had fallen in love with Mike Rodney, an immortal member of the Elite Eleven, and she was merely mortal like everyone else. She would rather die trying to become immortal than give up the love of her life forever. This decision she made in confidence, and she only told her closest friends so that they wouldn't be alarmed when she dropped off the face of the planet to go on the quest. Instead, Cam Cross and Sarah Arrowsword insisted that they come along with her, at least to help their friend in what would be the greatest challenge of her life.

Through unfortunate chance, and perhaps too much alcohol, the word spread around. Suddenly, Sarah's half-brother Andrew and his boyfriend Liam Penderyn learned of it. Another former Kick Corps member, Katie Madison, caught wind of the plan. Once Katie had heard of it, her looser lips spread the news like wildfire among the circles of Drawkland's top tier athletes. By some stroke of luck (or bribery), the media and general public didn't find out. The story still spread among the elite athletes, and soon some desired to join the ranks.

Andrew and Liam were beginning to age, and the idea of living with your lover forever had sort of grown on them. They decided they wanted to join the group and see if they could make it work for themselves. Katie Madison, who was previously the biggest star striker in Drawkland, had waned in skill and popularity. Her domestic team, the Drawk Corps (it's different from the Kick Corps, no I'm not going to explain it), had fallen out of their championship window. She hated the idea of fading away into obscurity and being forced to retire. If she could manage to come out of this alive, she could be a soccer star to rival Ellzidan, forever. In a similar vein, her teammate Allison Summer decided to tag along with Katie.

Cam Cross was never really close to her second cousin, Leo Cross, a monstrous defensive end who had been a crucial piece of the Grid Corps defense for many years. When Leo heard that Cam would be going on this wild escapade, he staunchly insisted that he come along, if nothing else but to keep his cousin safe. Another Grid Corps member, the cocky and seemingly tireless running back Jack Hoy decided to come along too. He had always wanted to play football until he physically couldn't anymore, and an opportunity like this comes once in a lifetime. Once he heard of Cross and Hoy going on the expedition, retired Corps tight end Riley Hoyt demanded they let him come along, saying he was "so incredibly bored" in retirement.

Eventually, the news would get back around to the Elite Eleven themselves. Pretty much all of them agreed that they'd rather actually die than have to deal with the horrors of the maze again. One of them, however, decided he would give it a go. Jaxon Madison, one of the so-called leaders of the group, would come along as support. There was absolutely no way this party of eleven would make it through the maze without getting split up, but he would lend assistance to whoever he could. It was partially his group's fault that any of them were taking this journey, so he felt personally responsible to help.

Mike Rodney was the entire reason Nicole decided to do any of this in the first place, yet he refused to go on the trip with her. In fact, once he heard the news, he was seldom seen around the Elite Eleven's Complex. Thankfully it was the offseason for the Kick Corps, so he wasn't missing any games, but it didn't sit well with anyone.

All of this weighed on Nicole as this seemingly huge group met together in Raikennax for the first leg of the journey. Plagued by the insistence of so many people to be included in the journey, the expedition had been delayed by almost a year past the date Nicole wanted to go. She never understood how the Elite Eleven had such a tight-knit group made of such a comparatively large group of people. Sure, she had been on many soccer teams in her life, but you weren't exactly friends with everybody on the 23-man roster. At least in Nicole's experience, she'd ended up getting close with a couple people and settled for being vaguely friendly with the rest. That's how she ended up being so close to Cam and Sarah during her Corps career.

Nicole had arranged for the group of eleven athletes to meet in a quiet motel on the eastern outskirts of town. Raikennax was the largest city within a day's drive of Valsum, the large volcanic mountain in the center of Drawkland. It simply made sense to meet there to begin the journey, as within the mountain laid the portal system that would lead to TiSoFaH, the realm of the undying. Within the motel was a small conference room, just barely big enough to hold the nearly dozen players. Nicole told everybody to meet there at 8 o'clock in the morning to go over the final notes for the journey. It was also the first time the entire group would be in the same room.

Most of the meeting went without a hitch, although it was apparent that the mishmash group didn't have a lot of chemistry together. When a group of people go into the maze, Nicole explained, it's very likely the entire party will be split up. You never know who you'll be left with as a companion, if you're not left alone, so it's important to be able to trust that everybody in the group would have your back. Right now, it didn't seem like everybody would unconditionally protect one another.

"Okay, so as a final reminder, electronics will not work in TiSoFaH. It was described to me like there's a constant EMP going off. Any electrical circuits will immediately be fried once we go through the portal. It's really medieval out there. You guys all have the item list I gave you, so as long as you have all the gear and supplies on that list you should be good. If you're missing anything, you have all day today to go into town and get them. That's why we're having this meeting today and leaving tomorrow. This would also be a good time to finalize any arrangements in case you ... well, y'know ... don't come back. Anything else?" The rest of the group shook their heads. Nicole nodded and clapped her hands together.

"Well then, I'll see you all tomorrow morning for the drive to the mountain." Nicole grabbed her things and walked over to Cam and Sarah as the group dispersed from the room.

"You really think this is going to work?" Cam asked quietly.

"I don't think so at all." Nicole responded coldly. "But the fact that all these people here isn't really my responsibility. This quest is mine alone, and my only goal is to come out alive and to have you two with me. Anybody else will have to fend for themselves."

"Yeah, I'm not excited for when some maze shift puts just me and Katie Madison together." Sarah sarcastically pumped her first in mock excitement.

"We'll make it work no matter what." Cam tried to lighten the mood. "We have each other's back, and I'm sure once we're in there we'll be willing to do whatever it takes to get out of there alive."

"Here's hoping..." Nicole sighed.

Nicole gave a chatty goodbye to her friends before going into her motel room. As the door closed, she breathed a sigh a relief. Finally she'd have a moment to herself ... or so she thought.

After a few minutes of checking through her pack to make sure she had everything on her list, a strange noise suddenly came from the bathroom. She bolted up, instinctively grabbing the field knife from her pack, and crept up to the bathroom door. She expected to see some weirdo that snuck into her room, but found something else entirely.

Suddenly, she heard whispering coming from inside the bathroom, like two people were arguing. Nicole felt like this was her chance to get the jump on whoever was in her room, and she leapt into the doorway.

Crammed in her bathroom were none other than two Drawkionels, Iarocav and Ellzidan.

"HEY- wait, what the hell?" Nicole yelled out.

"See, I told you it would be way less intimidating!" Iarocav hissed.

"Listen, you should be glad I can portal to anywhere in the world, so sorry I missed a mark by 5 yards," Ellzidan hissed back, then switched to a normal voice to address Nicole. "Hello Nicole, my dear friend. We've come to ask you some serious questions."

"What?" Nicole asked, lowering her knife. "Why are you here? In my motel bathroom?"

"Ellzidan has the ability to portal to anywhere in Sonnel with relative ease." Iarocav explained. "She's somehow still not very good at it, after a few thousand years-"

"Excuse you, I don't see you wielding a dragon soul!" Ellzidan interjected.

"Anyway," Iarocav continued, "We're here to discuss this expedition you've put together. When you asked us years back about this quest, you promised the information we gave would be kept confidential, on a need-to-know basis. Clearly, you did not keep this end of the deal."

"It's not my fault!" Nicole exclaimed. "I was only telling Cam and Sarah, but Sarah got drunk and accidentally blabbed. I didn't mean for it to become ... this. I didn't even mean for Cam and Sarah to come along, I was just telling them so they'd know where I'd be."

"Regardless!" Ellzidan replied. "This fellowship, as it may be, is now your responsibility. You may not like the fact that these others have hitched a ride on your quest, but your fates are now intertwined."

"But-"

"You must adopt a 'no man left behind' policy." Iarocav instructed. "Take it from us, you don't want to leave anybody behind in the maze when you have a chance to help them."

"This is serious. There will be deaths, and they will be on your head already. Don't make it worse."

"I can't possibly be in charge of all 11 people. I'm not even sure I'll make it through myself!" Nicole insisted.

"Fine." Iarocav replied coldly. "But heed these words. You'll need them in the maze."

Without waiting for Nicole to respond, the two disappeared into a shimmering disc. She was left alone in her room, alone with her thoughts.

by **Saint Eleanor** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:26 pm

OOC: After an entertaining but just-about narrow loss against the Karodin Tetrarchy, Saint Eleanor has seven points from their first seven qualifiers in World Cup 90. Priscilla Evans, despite being well-regarded in Saint Eleanor as well as her home city of Tinhampton, has been told to make the White Stars improve in their next seven and beyond - or lose her job. Can the players deliver? And will they?

List of episodes coming soon; this shit ends as soon as a massive question mark ISN'T hanging over Evans' future.

Though The Stars Fall
Episode I

11:32am - Saturday 30th August 1997

No messing about here: "This just isn't good enough, 'cilla."

"Yes, I get it - we've shat the bed more than you wanted us to."

"Would you mind maybe having a look at... this chart?" Donald Lucas, President of the Saint Eleanor Football Association - the second-biggest guy - managed to get himself out of his chair, for starters. After a bit of complaining and trawling around his cabinet, mostly at the same time, he managed to discover a flipchart that had been turned to just the right page, as though other events had willed it. "This one. I don't have a fancy pointing stick so I'm just showing you the points per game that were expected of you once you did what you did last cycle. This time, we were hoping for... 32 in 18. Which is, what, 25 in 14? I'll be kind and say you'd be okay with 23."

"At this stage." Priscilla Evans, manager of the Eleanorian national team, was cynical. She had every reason to be. By any metric, "a point a game and exactly one point from our last four games" was the worst start to qualification of any national team she had ever been involved in. World Cup 80 barely counted; half of the regular squad was on yet another boycott and none of the new squad wanted to train out of some sort of protesty thing.

"You aren't normally this quiet, ma'am. You aren't this wrong, either; I wrote this plan up many months ago. But we do not have low expectations here, unlike elsewhere. The recent defeat against the Karodin Tet... Three Rulers place, whatever, is one of the final straws. It is extremely unlikely that you will meet even our minimal aspirations; a win against those lot and we might not have even be having this conversation. All of that may be a contradiction in terms, yes, but I'm trying to be extremely clear."

"At least this isn't an office somewhere in Oberour ar Moro. Or Mertagne."

"I'd say 'or Electrum' but they beat us twice last year. And you're right - this is an office in Saint Eleanor. We fully expect to qualify for the World Cup at some point in my lifetime, I'm 57 and probably too tubby for my own good. The national team under your rule is not going to be anywhere near this objective unless we drastically improve or everybody else flops... and the mass flop isn't happening."

"This is taking you an awful lot of words to say the FA's looking for a new manager," complained Evans, right as the flipboard fell in on itself.

"That isn't even what I was trying to argue," responded Lucas, as he attempted to return it to its allegedly natural surroundings. "Only managing a point at home against a bunch of unranked RVs who want you to be a tree and know nothing about what their nation actually is - I mean it would normally be good cause for removal. But we lost at home against a bunch of unranked cats last time, which is the main reason why you still have a job."

"What are the other reasons? I'm not, I really don't want to go back home and plead for another job, honestly."

"You're a Tinhampton and Crystal Fair icon already; I still like you but if I don't, you might have a few suitors. I haven't got any inside info from other teams. But besides, most of the fans seem to think you're doing a good job. The squad has so many players from big Eleanorian clubs that all of the fans seem to be blaming 'those guys from the enemy club' or whatever for how crap we're doing. Ironically, that's a byproduct of you barely doing anything to stop club rivalries dripping into the dressing room."

"So you're saying I don't have a future here."

"Not now. Anyway, I have a couple of basic conditions I'm fully expecting you to meet over the coming years. Off the pitch, I'd say get the national team acting as a national team, not four or five neighbourhood teams. On it - well, firstly, don't absolutely screw everything up in the second half of qualifying, this year and next. Colossal failure will be rewarded with colossal punishment."

"Hmm... yes, I'd agree. And good performances in the 82nd Cup of Harmony?"

"We aren't expecting you to win it again. We'd just like you to make the knockouts. It should have happened before; it won't happen again. If the format is particularly challenging, four points in the group stage again should suffice."

"Arbitrary goal-setting. Never thought I'd see that from you."

"This isn't arbitrary; I'm not letting you off the hook come number 91. I know what I'm doing and I won't hesitate to give Stephen... extra responsibilities if you don't exercise yours. Work your magic on those useless wankers or you'll end up on the scrapheap. Nobody wants that - not you, not the players, not the fans. Not even George."

"Seriously, Donald - this meeting is taking time away from my priorities and yours. Can you please just cut this off now that you've told me everything that I need to know, other than how I'm actually supposed to keep everybody in their place?"

"Yes. Thankfully you didn't say that ten minutes ago; otherwise, you definitely wouldn't have a job at this stage. Use it or lose it."

by **Polkopia** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:37 pm

Polkopia's Road to the 90th World Cup - Celebrations Commence [Part 2]
Part 1

Vladimir Ravlić wrapped his arm around Vadim Išutin as the two of them stumbled down the street. It was clear as day that neither of them were sober, and with the festivities that had just taken place at LAMVIL, how could they be? Both of them were already some of the heaviest drinkers out of the team, and could hold their alcohol relatively well, but the sheer amount of food they gorged themselves on played a massive role as to why neither of them had gotten sick yet.

"Prooookrasniyyyy lavittttt," Ravlić hung his head back and howled a traditional Polkopian tune into the night. The streets of Peeto had a fairly decent amount of people walking through them, but most paid the two drunk athletes no mind, as most of them were probably used to drunk strangers behaving strangely. It was 20:00 on a weekend night and Peeto's best bars, restaurants, and lounges were already at max capacity and young adults were scouring the streets, looking for a good alternative. So, these two men were really no different than the rest of the people who lined these cobblestone streets in that they were all looking for a beautiful distraction, at least temporarily, from the dreary, quotidian affairs that plagued their lives. Whether it be that, or a celebratory outing, it was no surprise that drinking would became the favorite pastime of a modern Polkopian. A drink became as common and, if not more, necessary than water, food, or shelter. At least for these two men, their sights turned not on activities that would elongate their life on this Earth, but rather this temporary distraction that so many enjoyed.

At last Ravlić finished his song and Išutin broke free of his grasp, only to provide his teammate with a round of enthusiastic applause, going so far as to sit on the ground bow down to him as if he were a figure of worship. Ravlić, meanwhile, basked in this friendly, drunken admiration, blowing kisses to his "audience" and holding his arms out to either side of him in great pride.

"Ah, that was lovely, Vladimir Ivanović," Išutin said, standing up, dusting himself off, "where are we going, by the way? if we keep going down Evgenskaya Street, it's nothing but flats." Even inebriated, Išutin was quite the expert at navigating the bars of a large city. As a matter of fact, he seemed to do even better when his sobriety was not distracting him by allowing his mind to wander. On nights like tonight, he was able to focus primarily on the task at hand.

"No, no, we're almost there, I can assure you," Ravlić said, patting Išutin's back and leading his friend down the road. Fewer and fewer people populated the streets as they continued walking, and the world around them seemed to grow darker and darker as they walked away from the flashy lights and signs that enveloped the neoclassical stone structures that lined the streets.

"Aright, take a left up here," Ravlić said, leading Išutin down an alley that was much, much darker than what either of them had seen all night.

Just ahead, Išutin saw a single light outside a building. Under the light was a heavyset man smoking a cigarette, having to shove the thick whiskers of his mustache aside every time he stuck the paper in his mouth. He wore a visor which covered much of the upper-half of his face, but wore skin-tight leather trousers and a vest in a similar style, held together by ribbons which were surely stretched to their limit as they desperately clung on to the material in order to hold the piece together around the man's body.

"This is it," Ravlić whispered to Išutin as he grabbed his hand and scurried past the man and through a steel door that had to be pushed open with an unreasonable amount of force. The man outside seemed to pay the two of them no mind as they struggled opening the door, but once inside, the door slammed shit behind them with a loud bang.

Once inside, the two of them saw a seemingly endless flight of stairs which led down to a faint purple light which grew in intensity as they made their way down. As they proceeded, Išutin's ears began to ring from a pulsating beat which grew louder and louder with every step they took before the sensation caused his head to pound. He almost lost Ravlić as he yelled words unintelligible to him, but motioned him through a pink curtain and inside a room which was layered so thick with fog that Išutin could hardly see his own hand in front of his face. Ravlić led him further inside the room, where a man behind a stall motioned the two of them to take off their coats, and they did just that. Suddenly Ravlić proceeded to take off his shirt and hand it to the man, who then gave him a leather strap. Ravlić turned around and motioned for Išutin to do the same. Normally, Išutin would hesitate more to do so, but any apprehension toward doing so was immediately squashed by the liquid confidence he had ingested earlier throughout the night, and Išutin agreed, stripping off his top and receiving the same leather strap Ravlić had just gotten.

"What is this?" Išutin shouted at Ravlić, holding the strap up.

Ravlić started to motion to his ear, indicating that he couldn't hear him over the music, but instead grabbed Išutin's hands and led him toward the bathrooms, where the music was far less intense.

"You put this on like this," Ravlić said, putting his arms through some of the holes in the strap, letting the material wrap tightly around his torso, "it's called a harness, everyone here wears them."

Išutin nodded, but failed miserably at putting the harness on like Ravlić had just done, who quickly assisted Išutin and patted his chest. "Okay, let's get a drink then!"

Ravlić and Išutin turned around and stepped inside wall of fog, and Išutin couldn't help but realize that he might need another drink.

by **Kandorith** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:37 pm

Shinonome Kyoai - International

Kandorith strenghtens position in Group 20.

With five goals in two matches, the Kandorese team reaches the halfway point of the qualifiers with a 5-1-1 record and sits at the top of the table with 16 points and a 6-positive goal difference.
By Natsumi Miyasaki
Sports

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 PGroup 20                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
1 Kandorith                         7    5   1   1    17   11   +6    16
2 Squornshelan Remnant States       7    5   1   1    12    8   +4    16
3 The Sarian                        7    3   3   1    17   13   +4    12
4 Chartistan                        7    3   1   3    16   14   +2    10
5 StrayaRoos                        7    3   1   3     7    8   −1    10
6 The Republic of Western Sol       7    2   0   5     9   13   −4     6
7 Sendhang                          7    1   1   5     9   12   −3     4
8 Southwest Eastnorth               7    0   4   3    13   21   −8     4

The Kandorese squad resumes their streak of success in the World Cup qualifiers after beating The Republic of Western Sol, before which the Kandorese also bested Sendhang. Western Sol was set aside with a 2 - 0 victory for the Kandorese in a game that led to them sitting on top of the table in group 20. With this result, the leadership of Kaya Michiyu has once again proven to be one of the constant results, even though the Dragons had a troubled start at the beginning of this qualification campaign. With the Kandorese bouncing back, the upcoming matches might become the story of the rest of the qualification campaign.

The match against Sendhang was chaotic for the Kandorese who managed to keep their heads up high and hold on for a 3 - 2 victory in the Empress Masumi Stadium in Tenkyo. In this match, there were large roles for the captain, Matsumoto, and Kandorith's three starting forwards: Honda, Nakajima, and Fujiwara. These four players have been in superb form throughout the entire qualification campaign so far and are looking to lead the team to victory in the upcoming matches too.

Currently, the Kandorese team is playing with a highly rotating squad, which might slow down the rotations in the upcoming matches. Kaya Michiyu has already stated that the rotations were to get all the players on the team prepared to be at their very best and that, towards the end of the qualifiers, the squad would have a definitive starting eleven. Next to rotating the squad, Michiyu has also brought in a few new faces on the training ground, with Eiji Sakurai joining the team as a goalkeeper trainer and Katsumi Tsutsui as a fitness trainer. Both are normally employed by Higashu Frontale and have joined the national team at Michiyu's request.

Michiyu has been relatively quiet when it comes to talking to the press about the national team but has been giving some comments as to how the current situation stands while looking to qualify for the 90th World Cup. "It's a joy to give everything out of hand now and then. The team is playing brilliant football and has an endless pool of motivation to keep pushing for a victory", Michiyu remarked. "I do think we need to keep our heads in the game though, as we are not there yet. I have a very good vision of where I want to go now with the team, and quite a few of the rotation players have shown what they can bring to the squad too. I do not think the team will be changed a lot after the 10th game. Next to that, we have also learned a great deal about our opponents and should be more than ready to take them on in the remaining games."

Fourteen dead following Psycho attack in Gawatto.

What appears to be an assassination attempt on Kiyomi Hiyashi ended in a bloodbath in one of the largest shopping malls in the nation. The public expresses horror and shock and asks authorities how this could have happened. Police are still gathering information on the assailant.
By Hiromi Sugihara
General

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Just after midday, shots rang out in the Gawatto Gjoyo as the building became the scene of a bloody attack with people scattering for safety. Thousands of people were present at the mall complex as Hidetoshi Nakajima entered and opened fire on the crowd just minutes later. From what we have gathered so far, the initial target was Kiyomi Hiyashi, the CEO of Hiyashi, who was present at one of the Hiyashi stores at the complex.

After the twenty-two-year-old Nakajima emptied the magazines of both their firearms into the panicked crowds, seventy people were wounded, and nine were already dead on the spot after the initial rain of bullets. Another fifteen people were critically injured after Nakajima tossed their weapons to the ground and continued their assault with two machete-like melee weapons. Security forces arrived shortly after and had to be called back in after the attacker did not stop attacking despite being shot over twenty times by police officers. Eventually, STAT (Special Tactical Assault Team) was able to stop the attack. Thirteen innocent people were killed in the attack, and after intervention from STAT, the attacker was left dead too.

According to police sources, Hidetoshi Nakajima had psychological problems, was addicted to multiple substances, and had undergone extensive body modifications, mostly made of reused or decommissioned parts. There have been rumours of multiple troubling messages to friends and family about how "flesh and blood are a weakness that should be purged". Currently, it is unknown what the exact motive of the attacker was, but it is believed it had to do with a hatred for the Hiyashi corporation, which they have posted extensively about on social media.
Nakajima had no known police record but had been a patient in multiple mental-health wards over the years and had a history of violence towards the medical staff in these institutions.

This attack is one of many in the recent wave of violence caused by so-called "Psychos" who suffer from the condition known as Cyberphage. The psychological condition is often caused by extensive body modifications, incompatible implants or faulty implants. Police do not rule out that it could be caused by corporations selling components that could not pass testing on the black market for reduced prices, making them possibly, responsible for the recent attacks.

by **Krytenia** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:54 pm

There is a saying in Ibixa which roughly translates as "the shorter the shadows, the lower the vultures circle."

Richard Valens, in this moment, understood the meaning perfectly. The press had been on his back for weeks, as Krytenia's qualifying campaign had descended into a brand new circle of hell.

Defeat against Melbergia was only the start of Valens' problems. The lack of commitment and effort had seen the usual stony mask that was his face contort in frustration at his team's inability to overcome what was a rather less than stellar opponent. Given that, the defeat to Valanora in their next game was inevitable.

A couple of wins against vastly inferior opposition had put a sticking plaster on the wound, but then the dropped points came back in force. Defeat to Huayramarca in their latest game leaves them fifth in the group, eight points adrift of any hope of emulating their achievements of four years ago.

The fact that the fall has come so quickly - even in CAFA 2 the cracks were beginning to show - and almost immediately from the point the former Stanton and Chromatika manager had taken charge had not been lost on Valens. He knew he was under the cosh, and the comments from the media weren't helping.

The Post had been its usual reserved self, content to call him a "disappointment". The Southerner had decided he was "a stain on the legacy of Paul Davis", whilst the Bromham Observer had decided that he has comparable to an old statue, doing nothing and being covered in pigeon excrement.

It was Rami Niblick, though, who'd truly turned the knife. Not content merely to confer unto him the title of "personification of the word beige", Niblick had gone off on a diatribe about how Valens was the worst thing to happen to the national team since the KFA put Valrauncion in charge, and that if the team were "going to be that pathetic going forward, they might as well embrace the dark arts of the karela and put a Ko-orenite in charge."

There was nothing else for it, then. Valens would have to lead his charges to victory in the return match against Melbergia, and look good doing it. Anything less, and he might as well head back to Stanton and take up gardening.

by **Nyowani Kitara** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:09 pm

President Nafuna Akongo, having an emergency teleconference meeting with KPWC leadership at home on a mid-day break at Day 5 of the Conference

President Akongo was updating the KPWC's Central Military Commission on progress at the talks here in Varakoula, minus one member. Ava Sanderson, the Nepharan invitee in the place of Monica Lindbeck, was absent- as she was meeting with her boss. The best part, of course, had been agreed to- Malik Akongo had accepted, essentially, both de-commissioning and essentially permanent exile from the country. He'd be living in nearby Yuezhou for the foreseeable future- which wasn't ideal, of course, but the important thing is that he would no longer have an influence in Kitaran politics. He would, in fact, remain permanently banned from Nyowani Kitara. The President had made note on her to-do list to issue a domestic-only arrest warrant for Malik Akongo, to ensure he'd never come back- one that would never be asked for internationally, but just in case he ever decided to 'change his mind' or go back on his word, and Banija and Yuezhou couldn't reign him in, she would have recourse.

What she wanted, most of all, is Malik Akongo swinging from the gallows. But despite her own youthful exuberance, this war had, over the past four years, seasoned her to expectations a little bit. She was, finally, understanding at these talks what she should have understood long ago- that the country she would rule would not be the same as her father, or her great uncle. The way intricate parts of the future of her own country were essentially being negotiated, and almost decided, seemingly, without her input, or anybody's care for her input- it was a harsh reality check for the young head of state. She was realizing that she did not want to be dragged down, not by allies, certainly not by pompous monarchs who were the descendants of such pillagers like the Kabaka, not by anyone.

That was part of the reason she was suddenly eager to offer amnesty to KFF Troops and officials- she, of course, could she the writing on the wall regarding that one. She would have to offer some sort of amnesty, especially with an elected Parliament going to come into focus in a decently soon amount of time. Nafuna Akongo had learned something very valuable at these talks, like has already been said- it is more important to move forward, rather than look backwards. It was very clear, and the message had to be communicated from her on down, to the party's power brokers, to the rest of the security and party apparatus. There was a cost to being rescued by Eura and Nephara- and that was, seemingly, a much different and open country.

KPWC Central Military Commission

Chairwoman and President of the Republic- Nafuna Akongo
Permanent Invitee- Ava Sanderson(NPH).
Naval Representative- Adm. Oscar Karlsson
Air Force Representative- General Hazael Ooko
Army Representative- General Jehoram Oyange
Legislature Representative- Susanna Opondo
Invitee- Colonel Sey
Invitee- Achille Riruimcseny(FFD)- Mercenary

But how could she demonstrate that to the rest of the KPWC? It was hard to get it through their heads.

"Elections? We won this god damn war!" Admiral Karlsson had said. "Why in the hell would we need any sort of elections? Look, yes- amnesty for lower level fighters from the KFF and DFLK, that sounds reasonable. A compromise, yes, because the revolution demands mercy. But why risk giving everything we fought so hard to preserve away at the ballot box?"

"Because." Nafuna Akongo had said. "These things are no longer within our power. We've agreed to these peace talks, and these are the terms that Nephara and Eura want."

"I see Lindbeck got her promotion in Nephara at least." General Oyange had said himself. "But the upper echelon leadership council of the KFF just gets free amnesty? They'll get to run in these elections? And what's worse- Malik Akongo just gets to fuck off to Yuezhou, with Banija and Yue cash in hand, not answering for any of his crimes?" The Central Military Commission, to put it politely, was not entirely excited about the situation that they were in. "Do you know how many men of mine that the savage straight up butchered because he claimed the KFF were 'not capable of holding prisoners of war'? The mother fucking-"

What exactly the General was going to say to finish off the insult towards the President's brother, the world may never know, because the President interrupted him. "We have to make the sacrifices necessary to get peace." Nafuna Akongo said. "Ren Qiang- his men are defeated. Look, we are a unique nation now. Pavola used to be the leading source of revolution in all of Rushmore, as we had plenty of Communist Governments. Then, one after another started falling. We survived the revolutionary waves that hit Tikariot and Græntfjall. We survived even when Ren Qiang could not."

"Further reason to hold on to our power!" General Oyange said. "The old way of doing things. We've had our modern government ever since your Great Uncle, General Zelotes, rose to protect us from capitalist usurpers, nearly 35 years ago. We have fought. We have sacrificed. We have worked with others at a level that has been unseen. And yet- Eura and Nephara want to throw it all away. Everything we had blood, sweat, and tears for. The KRF lost more men in this conflict than any other military power- more than Nephara, more than Eura, more than the DFLK, more than the KFF. All of their sacrifices will be for nothing."

"Old man." The President said. The Central Military Commission sat there, stunned. She had never spoken to anybody like that before. "The world is changing. The country will never be the same. We will enter a new era. The Eurans and Nepharans demand elections because of domestic political pressures. I know we haven't had elections here in over 35 years. Why we fight so hard for victory, just to give everything we fought for away in the peace, well, I am at a loss too. But this is the reality we face. Not all is lost. We are still in charge of the country. The international community will need to run the northern referendum. Then, national elections will run on a timeline after that."

"We must win those elections." President Nafuna Akongo said. "And, as someone who is both privy to these talks, and will be a signatory, the chances of us being able to run these elections are nearly none. The chances of Nephara and Eura running them? We'll see. They say I may get to appoint an observer nation as Nephara runs them. But how they intend to run them. I do not know. They won't fight for us like they have just to give up everything we fought for at the ballot box, right? With all of these observer nations... It doesn't even matter who I appoint. It'll be a free and fair one." She scowled as she said it. "Speaking of looking forward though- I have the KWFA Executive Chairman online."

The Kitara Workers Football Association's Executive Chairman was put through. "Madam President." He said. "Generals."

"Mr. Chairman, I have a question for you." President Akongo said. "How do we have four members of the national team defecting during these peace talks??"

"Well," The Executive Chairman stammered. "You know, your orders were to give you as much space as possible to negotiate. After von Weber's and Westermark's remarks, we didn't want to deport them back into Nyowani Kitara- that would be obvious for sure. So we just decided-"

"To bench them." The President said. "Enough of something to scare them into running, but not enough to scare them from running. An embarrassment. Shambolic! How embarrassed am I, at these talks, a sitting Head of State, a republican President, to be hearing that 7 refugees have landed on the shores of an allied nation." Once she got a full head of steam, she was obviously fuming. "The worst part- I can't say a word! What am I supposed to do- demand their return in front of 10 different nations? Even this god damned host nation, Tikariot, is taking in refugees. We have a man flying to freaking Anaia."

"Madame President-"

"SILENCE!" She was booming. Thankfully, the walls were thick at these conference halls. But every single person on the teleconference call, aka everybody attending, could hear and feel her rage. "You're incompetent. You're an idiot. Wasn't it your idea to play in Tikariot during peace talks- use the NT as an incentive to bring the opposition to heel? Instead, Malik Akongo is a rich man, the DFLK got their referendum, and the last sticking point, elections, is being negotiated by the great powers of Rushmore while I sit on the side, saying nothing about the future of my nation. And the national team is being used against me. No longer. You're fired." The KWFA Executive Chairman looked stunned- he had been in the position for 22 years. She muted his objections on the call as he continued to speak.

"This is embarrassing. We need somebody to clean up the KWFA. I'm going to appoint Liang Wei as the head of the KWFA himself." The room was stunned. Appointing the manager as his own boss? "We need somebody to run that shitshow for the rest of the time I'm here. And I know he's not only loyal, but competent. And he has one instruction- do not let anybody speak out against us. Things will have to change, yes. We're going to have to figure out how to run a g-d damned campaign, and win an election. But the national team will not be used as a weapon and cudgel against this Government."

Liang Wei, the national team manager, the morning of Nyowani Kitara's Matchday 8 World Cup Qualifier against Sargossa

"Liang Wei." President Akongo said, via teleconference.

"Madame President!" Liang Wei had responded. "It is an honor to meet you, comrade. The way you stood up to those damned capitalist usurpers- exemplary. They have taken over my country, and of course, they are on the path of selling our souls to the highest Græntfjaller bidder. Nyowani Kitara will stand as a beacon in the darkness for Pavola, but fear not- as Yuezhou's government shows its true colors, I am sure that the people and the workers will rise and reclaim power."

"Yes, I am too." President Akongo said. "I cannot be long here. But- I know our national team is missing four starters?"

"Well, yes." Liang Wei stammered, shocked that the President had kept such close tabs. Although he shouldn't have been, considering the way all four left publicly while criticizing the President's Government.

"We are going to give you the opportunity to fix that." The President said. "Your boss- has been fired. We are in a delicate time, as a country. We are trying to both negotiate peace, and set ourselves up for a long future in power in Nyowani Kitara. While things must be handled delicately, we also must be firm. The national team should not be used as a weapon against this government."

"I agree wholeheartedly, Madame President." Liang Wei said. "Maybe, if we got back to playing games in-"

"No." The President said. "It's too late to move games back home. Too many logistical issues. The KWFA is going to issue the announcement today- the remainder of their home games will be played in Tikariot. And another- you will be the head of the KWFA."

"Me??" Liang Wei was stunned. "But- I'm managing the team. How can I-"

"I have full faith in you to get both jobs done adequately, at least through the end of Qualifying." The President said. "We can talk with legislators and those on the cultural part of the Executive Committee after Qualifying ends. Will the WCC get mad about Government interference? Maybe- but if so, they can screw off. But I know you're a committed socialist, and a loyal man. You've stood by me, unwaveringly. You stood against the false team claiming to represent your country, and served your suspension dutifully. You have high amounts of respect here. But remember, the biggest goal- no more defections."

Liang Wei nodded, and then logged off. The stakes of his job had been ramped up considerably. Acting Chairman of the KWFA. He was suddenly the most powerful man in the sport in Nyowani Kitara, and he wasn't even from there. But he knew what he had to do. Find four more players to fill out the 23, so he wasn't running around with a squad of 19 to try and qualify for the World Cup Finals. But he had no real answer on how to stop the defections. His hope was that the four players who had gone, were the ones who had the guts to go. A promotion that could potentially be a poisoned chalice- for at least one cycle, he would not be judged on wins and losses. Maybe that would be good! But that could easily be catastrophic...

by **Farfadillis** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:21 pm

The Kamikaze

A site dedicated to Farf football
National Team Section
On the rue Cazade-shaped hole in our midfield
submitted just now

Faragó rue Cazade is a generational talent and there’s no arguing that. You could argue he’s the third greatest Farf footballer in history, and it would be a travesty to place him anywhere below fifth. Farf football has been around at the international level for exactly sixty years, so he’s anywhere from a once-in-twenty-years talent to a once-in-twelve-years talent. I consider myself privileged for having watched him amass, to date, almost two hundred caps and over a hundred goals. I missed very few Brinemouth matches when he was at his peak. There was something particularly satisfying about watching Faragó rue Cazade in peak physical condition, leaving shattered midfield after shattered midfield in his wake and catching every defense off-guard despite their best efforts. He was a force of nature, and one of the biggest reasons la Vherderoja didn’t decline nearly as much as it should have after the retirement of Xíxì Êns and Oskar Holsteiner. I will not bore you with a longer description of just how unfair having rue Cazade on your team could get, but only because that’s a separate article I’ll write when he finally hangs up his boots.

Unfortunately, the Szoirsian takilante¹ is now thirty-seven and his legs are somewhat gone. Not fully gone, which is a testament to his consummate professionalism, but he certainly can’t play a huge role anymore. Nowadays, he’s just a good impact sub, and not much more than that. This, of course, was expected, since stopping aging, while not unheard of, is a very rare occurrence. Plus, it is unheard of for a Farf. Best they ever manage is to sign for a V-League or Euralegue team. With rue Cazade now decidedly average, there is the titular rue Cazade-shaped hole in our midfield, which Manguele has not really tried to plug or mend or fix or whatever is the appropriate word for when you want to solve having a figurative hole in something. Anyway: predictably, his not trying to solve the problem has resulted in the problem not being solved. The midfield (I’m including the wingers here, but only this once) is looking even shakier than last cycle despite being led by an uncharacteristically consistent, terrifyingly in-form Ígnîgo Çí Xôrí. I’ll make an effort here and try to do half his job for him, and consider from the comfort of my armchair the many suboptimal options he can pick from, after first analyzing what exactly is going wrong.

WE LACK PRESENCE

We do, nobody will argue that, and it’s hardly a surprise. If there’s one thing rue Cazade did, above all, it was ooze presence. I don’t think there was a single match in which he was aged between twenty-five and thirty-two and he went unnoticed by the opposing midfield. He’d bully any midfield you could put in front of him, and you knew that if the other team had a defensive midfielder it was probably gonna be a very bad day for them. He provided, unwittingly to some, so much breathing room to our midfield that it’s hard to understate. His slow decline gave us glimpses of it, and now that he’s too old to start and we’re playing without a takilante it’s become glaringly obvious.

For all his talent, Edmün Çídh is a complete deadweight in defense. He does provide our midfield with some presence, but mostly because of the inherent threat he poses on the offense. Stick him anywhere and the opposing team will have to have a player with a watchful eye on him or risk the consequences. Benching Edmün would be madness, don’t get me wrong. Whether moving him back to his natural position as a striker would be a good idea is a much more interesting debate to have: I personally believe the decision to move Edmün to attacking midfield has been one of Manguele’s broken-clock-twice-a-day moments.

WE LACK DEPTH

We have always lacked depth in all positions that are not striker, winger or attacking midfielder. It’s a very annoying fact of life, but also the logical consequence of our football culture. Still, I don’t remember a time when our midfield depth looked quite this bad. Mbogo Nørgaard is, despite being twenty-five already, still noticeably green. He’s hit a bad run of form, and it’s been particularly painful to watch the knock-on effect it has on the entire team. Çí Xôrí, for all his talent, can’t carry a midfield by himself. This mostly does not present a problem because we’re facing low-level opposition—though if we keep drawing games like the one against Sharktail things could get very ugly!—but it has the chance to make us crash and burn our way out of the World Cup, like four years ago. Here’s the kicker, though: if Mbogo is underperforming, Manguele needs only to turn towards his bench to find that he’s royally fucked. rue Cazade is, well, thirty-seven years old, and this fact is the reason I’m writing this article anyway. Ziczi is good, sure, but he’s exactly the kind of player that will not fix this problem. He can be pretty lazy at times and his playmaking skills, while very good, are not what we need at the moment. Moloses? Actually, probably a good choice, but he’s naturally a takilante and he’d have to adapt to a much less gung-ho role to succeed. But he does have the skillset! Yturri? Too young, too inexperienced and a bit too bad on the ball. Aljojí? A good shout, but he’d be a short-term solution at best since he’s already thirty-two. Xüwân? Combine Yturri’s youthful inexperience with Moloses’ lack of tactical flexibility and you get Xüwân. Besides, at the moment he’s essentially a downgrade on Moloses in pretty much every area of the game.

The problem actually extends further than our midfield—in fact, it’s worse in defense—but as much as rue Cazade’s absence is felt, it’s the lack of depth in midfield that amplifies it. If we had players like Mêndêlöíndçêl, Monrazón, t’Öéséné or even Wìjìnì still around, things would look less bleak. Alas, we do not.

STICK MOLOSES IN MIDFIELD

Ok, let’s get down to possible solutions already, as the article’s already depressive enough without me going on and on about our midfield’s problems. Whether we like it or not, rue Cazade’s talent and playstyle let us afford to have a thin, bare midfield all things considered. This is not the case anymore, and we risk going back to the days of the 60s, when we lacked the midfielders to play like we do now but nonetheless insisted on it. The reader need not be reminded that we were a much less feared team back then, for sure. In fact, I’m very sure only the Vilitans really feared us. Anyway, point is: we need more midfielders. How do we play with more midfielders, you may ask? Well, I don’t think the WCC is gonna like it if we start fielding twelve players, so the unfortunate solution is to…

… and don’t hate me for it: bench one of the forwards, including the wingers. Any will do, save for Alxíkí. Want to bench Gallegas? Bastanchury can be a very competent winger. Want to bench one of Bastanchury and Röemün Çídh? Very easy: just play with one striker like so many other teams, don’t even need to move players around like with Gallegas. Look, I’m not trying to say that Moloses is better than any of the four forwards currently in Manguele’s good graces. In fact, I think he is not. But the thing here is they are not better enough to justify the problems they cause in midfield by virtue of overcrowding the frontline. Gallegas is getting up there in years, Alxíkí’s brilliant but inconsistent, Bastanchury’s consistent but unremarkable when compared to Farf strikers of the past and Röémün Çídh, for all his proficiency as a poacher, is completely useless when he’s not adding to the scoreline. Something has to give. Bench any of these four—except Alxíkí, for the love of cagafuegos², Manguele—and things are bound to improve so long as you don’t do something silly like employ Moloses as an enganche.

Yes, Moloses will have to adapt. He’d have to play much wider than he’s used to if we do go with a three-man midfield, and will have to learn some restraint as a more defensively-oriented midfielder than his teammates. But the Indujan has talent, at least in the sense that he is talented enough to make it into this sub-par iteration of la Vherderoja. Give him a chance, Lele. Maybe we can even beat the Vdarans if you do.

I’D SETTLE FOR ALJOJÍ

A box-to-box midfielder hitting his peak at thirty-two is a rare sight, but Manguele is lucky enough that this is exactly what has happened with Eslejes. The Indujan looks hungrier than all his teammates put together whenever Manguele gives him a chance, and he’s proven himself enough to be considered a genuine option for when Mbogo needs to be subbed out or rotated, to the point he’s now regularly getting called up over Ziczi. I’d still prefer Moloses over him, even if only due to the age difference, but Eslejes is nonetheless a solid short-term solution (of sorts) to our ongoing problem. Unlike Moloses, he’d have no trouble adapting to playing in a three-man midfield. We know that not because of his domestic performances—in fact, Ausharmuj Marusi employ a two-man center midfield—but because, well, he’s had no trouble adapting to playing in a three-man midfield the two times Manguele was crazy enough to try it—at the cost of a defender, of course…

The exact same logic about replacing one of the forwards applies here, of course. Just pointing it out in case basic arithmetic is not your thing. Feel free to flame me in the comments for suggesting something as heretical as playing with a front three twice in the same article.

MOVE EDMÜN ÇÍDH UP FRONT AND BENCH A STRIKER FOR A TAKILANTE

Not my preferred course of action because I believe Edmün Çídh is flourishing as an attacking midfielder. Not entirely a surprise, since he’s always had the skillset for it, but one does have to wonder if we haven’t been playing him out of position without even knowing it. At any rate, though, Edmün is a fantastic striker, and moving him up front, replacing one of the current forwards, would free up a space in midfield in which we could stick a takilante! We’d basically be back to the good days of peak rue Cazade, only we’d instead be playing a budget budget rue Cazade (no, I didn’t write budget twice on accident) in his stead.

Candidates for this position are not plenty. The aforementioned Fujanej Moloses has to be the front runner, but Manguele might opt for the younger Xüwân just to be a contrarian and/or to favor youth development. There’s also—and I know this will sound very hipster—Tobias Engdahl, Flying Jellyfish’s takilante. He’s not half bad, he’s in peak physical condition, and could probably do a not-disastrous job if Manguele is really convinced, for whatever reason, that Moloses and Xüwân would not fit in as starting takilantes.

PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF TAKILANTES IN YOUTH ACADEMIES

A long-term solution that will not prevent any of the disasters we are likely to face over the next few years if we don’t adapt to the modern game. I still feel like I have to mention it, though: I find it a bit crazy that Ichi Tuzzio found a way to make Farf midfields more competitive despite their glaring imbalances, and we have more or less ignored his tactical innovation. Not fully: Rülândéá Kôstä and René Skaé place special focus on churning out takilantes, but the other teams, most notably Mâ Âlâmëómë, Dí Maozöxê and La Nueva Avenida seem completely unimpressed with the concept, instead turning potential takilantes into center midfielders, attacking midfielders and even strikers. I follow Farf youth football to an unhealthy degree³, and I’ve seen it happen more than a few times.

So long as Rülândéá Kôstä and René Skaé are the only teams focusing on developing takilantes through their academies, our talent pool for the position will be limited, and we’ll have to struggle with a weak midfield for as long as our managers fail to employ a third midfielder to go with the other two. Now, imagine what will happen when Çí Xôrí’s legs go, just like rue Cazade’s… he is thirty, by the way, so this isn’t exactly something that will happen in the far future!

On a more optimistic note, I’ve heard from more than one (arguably) trustworthy source that Rülândéá Kôstä have “a takilante every bit as good as rue Cazade” coming through their youth academy. The kid is fifteen and already on the cusp of making the senior team, rumor has it. Let’s hope he doesn’t tear an ACL, whoever he is, because if he is as good as it is rumored, he’ll be vital for us.

IN CONCLUSION

Sometimes your team’s generational talent is no longer as good as he used to be and you have to find a replacement. This is hard because, it turns out, generational talents are hard to come by. In this specific circumstance, this has the unfortunate consequence of us being pretty fucked in the medium-short term, as well as maybe the long-term, though I believe it’s entirely dependent on how dead-set on our ways we are… which is to say I’m not looking forward to the next decade, at least as far as the football goes.

OOC notes:
¹: a takilante is a specific midfield role popular in Farfadillis since around cycle 82. In essence, a takilante presses in midfield non-stop and looks to exploit spaces left by the defense in much the same way a second striker does. It is a very physically-demanding position.
²: cagafuegos is the god of fire in most Faroleran religions, and invariably the most important one.
³: the author of the article is nonetheless not a pedophile.

by **Osarius** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:29 pm

OOC: Heads up; once again, this factbook may come in handy for understanding some of this.

Odell stared at the door to the home dressing room. This campaign was going dreadfully, and he couldn't understand why. It was beginning to feel as though everything that could go wrong, had, and would. He pushed the door open, and was met with a near-silence. A mildly angry hum buzzed through the room. Nobody met his eyes as he walked to the middle of the room.

'How do I pick them up after this one?' He thought. The home fans had booed his team off the pitch. This was almost unthinkable. It had to have been at least a century since the last time the Osarian fans booed their own national team. Longer, probably. He inhaled deeply, placing his hands on his hips. "You know," he said. "The only way is up."

No reaction.

"I know this is not a good time. This is not who we are, and this is not where we want to be." He continued. "But we have to keep the faith. We have to believe."

"Boss, we're just not good enough." Someone said behind him. Odell didn't look to see who it was. It didn't matter. Did it?

"I disagree. But if you believe this, then okay. We must become good enough." Odell took a small wooden instrument out of his pocket and played a short melody. "You know, this reminds me of something my uncle once told me..."

* * * * *

"Ezinne..." A familiar voice spoke in her mind. A deep, comforting voice she had not heard in decades. "Ezinne... it is time."

She was an old woman, but strong. When the ancestors called, she answered, no matter what. Sleep could wait.

Ezinne opened her eyes, but did not wake. Instead, she stood before a baobab tree at night, in the middle of an open plain. Above her, the sky twinkled with green and gold. A silvery wave glowed across the blackness, undulating gently. She smiled warmly as a lion approached her. "It has been so long, papa nnukwu..." she said, softly. "But I have not forgotten."

The lion took the form of a man. Elderly, but kind. A long beard in a single thick braid reached to his waist, and his dreadlocked hair grazed his calves. The garb he wore was traditional, a single piece, all in white save for the brightly coloured pattern on the cuffs. "Ada ada," he smiled, embracing Ezinne. "I know you would not forget us here in the Djalia." Cupping her cheek, he kissed her forehead tenderly. "But you are here for a reason this night."

An eagle swooped down from behind him, transforming into a man as it landed. This man, too, had the calf-length dreadlocks, and long, braided beard. But he was not so old in his appearance. His eyes were, but the rest of his face had the look of one with half a life yet to live. "Cousin," he said, nodding toward Ezinne.

"Amari, you still favour drama in your entry, na?"

"But of course, cousin Ezinne. Drama be my trade, na?" They both chuckled. "Grandfather call me also, cousin." Amari said, pausing to fix Ezinne with a steely gaze, in case she had not yet grasped the seriousness of the summons.

"A shorter journey you go make, Amari. But what have you called me here for, nna nna?"

"Amari..." Their grandfather stepped back and gestured.

"Thank you, nna nna. I call you to beg favour na cousin."

"For family, anything, cousin."

"My nephew... I will send him to you."

"For what reason, na?"

"He must learn."

* * * * *

Masaka, Hearthlands
Around 45 years ago

Amari walked into the garden, fashionably late as always. He checked his pocket for his oja -- a small wooden flute instrument; he would be needing that one today, he felt -- and tightened the strap of his dundun over his shoulder. He barely had a chance to register who was present, before he heard the excited shout from his left.

"UNCLE AMARI!"

The source of the shout crashed into him with a force that one so small should not be able to convey. He glanced down to see his nephew -- well, great-nephew; his niece's five-year-old son -- clinging to his left leg, and laughed. A great, booming laugh from the depths of his stomach. "Odell, what are you doing down there?" He asked, as he reached down to lift the boy up.

"What do you mean?! I'm five, Uncle Amari. This is where I always am!" The boy answered with no small measure of indignance. Amari laughed again.

"One day soon, you will not be so small, na."

"Will you teach me songs then?!" Odell's eyes widened in excitement.

"I can teach you now, little panther."

"Really?!"

"No go fill my son head with ideas, na." Ah, there she was. His niece.

"But mama, I can l-"

"Odell..."

"Okay..." Odell muttered, defeated. Uncle Amari had taught him already, a wise man must know when to fight, and when to walk away so he can retain the use of his legs.

"Go fetch plate, you must eat and become strong." Odell's mother told him, gently steering him toward the barbeque by the back of his head. After he ran away happily, she turned to Amari. "You bring news?"

"Not today, Evie." He smiled. "Today I come to see my niece, and my favourite nephew."

"He is your only nephew."

"So he must be the favourite, na."

* * * * *

Odell played a short melody from the oja again. A different one this time. Faintly, the sound of the wind whispered in the dressing room. "Once, there was a young woman married to a young man. Their marriage had begun to weaken, and the wife could tell her husband was not happy. He returned home late from work, which of course, was upsetting for her." Odell began. "To remedy the situation, she sought the advice of her village elder, and after telling him the situation, he replied 'I can end your marriage, of course. But I do not think this is what you really want.'"

"Of course, he was right, the wife instead told him, 'No, I would prefer that we fix this situation. I do not want to be miserable. I do not want my husband, who is a wonderful man, to be miserable either.'."

Odell played another short melody, an inquisitive melody.

"The elder told her that he would help. There was a potion he could ask the village nguso to mix for her, which would rekindle the feelings of love between them, but he would require a whisker, plucked from a live lion, to make it work."

A dramatic melody this time. Odell paused, realising his eyes were closed. He was certain he could smell the fragrance you would smell in an elder's hut... Strange.

"The wife was unsure for a moment, but resolved herself to the task. 'I will get the whisker' she said. And so she left to plan her heist. The following morning, she took a large chunk of raw meat to the river, and left it on the bank, while she hid behind a tree."

Another short melody. This time slower, with a ponderous feeling.

"After she had been waiting for some time, a lion came to the river. He smelled the meat, walked over, and devoured it in three bites before looking directly at the tree where she was hiding. It was clear to her that the lion knew she was there."

This time the melody was sharp and tense.

"But the lion did nothing, except walk back into the forest. The wife came back the next day, and the same thing happened. So she came back again, and again. Each day, she became more daring, and slowly moved closer and closer to the lion while he ate the meat."

Long, slow notes made up the melody this time.

"After weeks of this, maybe even months, she eventually found herself sitting quietly next to the lion while he ate. And so, she reached out slowly..."

The sound from the oja trembled, much like the woman's hand; at least the one Odell could see in his mind...

"...and plucked a single whisker from the lion's chin. She dared not move again until the lion had returned to the forest, but once the coast was clear, she ran back to the elder. 'I have the whisker, baba. Can you take me to the nguso now?' She asked excitedly. 'Tell me, young lady, how did you manage this?' The elder asked her."

That inquisitive melody again.

"She told the elder the story of how she had managed to take a whisker from the lion's chin, and he smiled. 'You do not need this potion, my dear,' the elder said. 'You are clever enough to think of a plan, patient enough to wait for the right time, and brave enough to act when the moment arrived. Can you not apply these virtues to your situation with your husband?'"

Odell repeated the ponderous melody from before.

"The young woman frowned, but realised the truth. 'You are right, baba.' She said. 'I will speak with him.' And so she went. Slowly, their marriage healed, and within a year, their life together was happy again."

by **Tikariot** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 5:37 pm

Daniel Longobardo had fully expected that neither Eura nor Nephara would be very enthused with his unexpected charge and was expecting some blowback, but he had not expected their counter proposal so obviously rhetorical only. Given that both of the nations were renowned for their power-brokering across Rushmore with only secondary regards to who else was actually involved in things, it did make sense that they would try to masquerade their actual interests as being just altruistically for the good of the region, but at the same time they did absolutely nothing to even try to conceal the stick and rope that held the carrot, which looked fairly emaciated to begin with and may have only garnered some fleeting interest by only a starving target. He had spoken with Yorick Marmenlind in depth about the approach to take as well as with Prime Minister Armitage and his advisors and they were all on the same page. Ensure to make sure that they were seeing through the plan, but then softening the blow with an actual and workable counter proposal, while hoping that the trampling of some Nepharan and Euran toes wouldn't be damaging too many egos before that.

"I would like to belatedly thank you for your quite rousing speech, Mr. Rutherford, and some of the excellent points you had made. However, I would like take the opportunity to point a few conceptional flaws in your argumentation that I feel are quite substantial.

For one you cannot simply equate neutrality in a conflict with not having interests. Well, you can, as you had done so, but let's not get lost in semantics here. Yes, we have remained neutral towards any of the three warring factions that were involved in the war. Yes, we are interested in stability within the country and it is very much possible to support stability without the need or intent to gain power or take control within the country, no matter how eloquently you are trying to portray the situation in the light that Tikariot is not trustworthy enough to be viewed as a neutral entity amongst Kitarans. If applying the same stroke, I could revert the roles and begin to talk about how Kitaran citizen could trust Nephara and/or Eura to protect elections without their very own agendas after actively supporting President Akongo in the conflict and thus standing against Kitarans that did and do not support her and her perspective or regime. So you see, some arguments, while sound when looking at them from one side, suddenly stand on far less solid ground when you actually reverse the perspective.

I would also like to point out that the picture you are painting in broad strokes right now quite interestingly paints Nephara and Eura as the grand saviours and liberators of the nation, putting yourselves as the paragons of presence and democratic record for the region and also speaking for the CRC, establishing your ground as the only ones capable or trustworthy enough by sewing the seeds of doubt, which somebody more cynical could also see as an attempt to cast said doubt on other nations that are not fully in line with the roadmap you already seem to have so carefully drawn out. That being said, I would never even think of doubting the veracity of any domestic elections within Eura and Nephara, just in case you would like to recycle this point in any responses, which I know will be forthcoming, I am strictly speaking on the topic right here, right now, which is Nyowani Kitara."

He raises one finger. "So far you have Nephara taking the lead role in the running of the elections." A second finger. "Nephara taking the lead on security." A third finger. "Eura leading a reconstruction fund." A fourth finger. "While generously offering Tikariot, Græntfjall and Yuezhou observer status, so pretty much a 'look, but don't touch' role along the sidelines, but all under the umbrella of a CRC-led solution. Now if you look at the actual members of the CRC that have been anywhere near this conflict, it is Nephara and Eura, so it is easy to paint it as a CRC solution when in the end it would all come down to pretty much Nephara and Eura on their own making all the decisions and proposals so far. Or, come to think of it, have really given President Akongo an opportunity weigh in on any of the topics herself."

As expected, the room erupted in both agreement and disagreement, to varying levels of intensity, as Longobardo took a long sip of water while chief negotiator Coltrane shot him a dry look and attempted to regain order in the room. He knew that it was a very aggressive and bold move to be this direct, but as sweet as the words chosen by the Eurans were, as obviously they were only meant to appease and try to establish a pseudo-compromise. Marmenlind leaned in. "This is the reaction I have expected and actually had hoped for. We have made people think instead of just blindly following the path of least resistance. I mean, it is obvious that neither Eura nor Nephara really care about what Akongo wants or thinks, otherwise they would actually have allowed her to speak, but there's no point in trying to point that out or things will really escalate."

Longobardo nodded. "Absolutely. There is no way they will accept anything that will not have Nephara play a big role in everything and to be honest, given with how things have gone so far, most of the others will agree with that."

Marmenlind nodded his assent. "They definitely would. And so do I. It is blatantly obvious that neither of them have entered this out of the pure goodness of their heart for stability in Nyowani Kitara or Pavola, not from their geographic position, so no reason to point that out either, because if anybody here is not aware of that, well, then they definitely should not be in this room, but anyways, the best we can hope for is actually shared responsibilities in the running of the elections and security, not just on paper, but in actual reality."

"Exactly. Now looking at the actual members of the CRC, it doesn't inspire much hope, given that most of them haven't shown much interest in the conflict, even though I could be wrong."

Marmenlind thought for a moment. "Yes, we'll have to really stress that we are not intent on confrontation within the coalition, but want a truly democratic approach that doesn't just look at who is part of the CRC. So you shouldn't take that carrot they've been dangling."

Longobardo quietly laughed out. "I am going to spit out splinters from their stick for a few days instead."

Marmenlind could not help but smile while Coltrane asked Longobardo, if he had anything to add.

"Yes, Chief Negotiator. I would like to make a revised proposal. Tikariot proposes that action and responsibility for the running of both the election and security during the election process should be shared actual practical roles within the Rushmori political community. Rushmore has long list of long-established democracies with excellent records for independent and fair elections as well as considerable military resources that could be pooled into a multi-national peacekeeping and rebuilding effort, fully appreciating and acknowledging Nephara's and Eura's role played in the resolution to the conflict within Nyowani Kitara. We feel that the exact details and composition of said commission to both enact and oversee any proceedings necessary can and likely should be decided by meetings following the peace talks. But I want to make it very explicitly clear that I am speaking about Rushmore as a region, or more precisely Pavola as a sub-region, not strictly the CRC as neither Tikariot nor Græntfjall nor Yuezhou or any of the Pavolan nations are actual members, so restricting the phrasing to the CRC would practically put things right back into the hands of Nephara and Eura instead of an actual multi-national commission, where we find it imperative for at least some Pavolan nations to directly and actively being involved."

He looked over at the Nepharan and Euran delegations and could see the gears working, but it was obvious that they were not happy with the development and that for the second time Tikariot had put a spoke into their wheel. But he also was sure that beyond the two he would have far more backing with this new proposal than they had with theirs.

by **Milchama** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:15 pm

"So the draw kings won"

"Yep, but not only that, swept. 6 points"

"That's nice"

"Yeah it's great to see some good work go rewarded"

"So what's going to happen in the second half?"

"We'll probably lose a lot, tie some, and then win a few"

"Are we going to qualify?"

"Haha no"

"Are we going to qualify to the CoH?"

"Why do you think we're writing this RP?"

"Why do you care about the CoH?"

"Because we're the biggest loser. We've won it more than any other nation and so I want to defend our title"

"We're not good enough to win the CoH this time around"

"I agree but maybe we can make noise"

"Anyway, I'm more interested in the kleptochase"

"Kleptochase?!"

"Yeah it's happening tonight!"

"Finally!"

"Woo!"

"Should we pray to Margaret"

"Also probably"

"Ok here we go"

"Alright then say as I say and do as I do"

"''Ringa pakia!''
''Uma tiraha!''
''Turi whatia!''
''Hope whai ake!''
''Waewae takahia kia kino!''
''Ka mate, ka mate''
''Ka ora, ka ora''
''Ka mate, ka mate''
''Ka ora, ka ora''
''Tēnei te tangata pūhuruhuru''
''Nāna nei i tiki mai whakawhiti te rā''
''Ā upane, ka upane''
''Whiti te rā, hī!''

"Now repeat after me!"

"Forini! Forini!"
"Finidi! Finidi!"
"George! George!"
"Oh Brother! Oh brother!"

*They strip and run around for 9 minutes*

"We pray the Margaret of SnubNose 38 and Random Number God that you may deliver us victory over Natanians and Nosts and any other infidels that we face in international play"

"Sacrifice the Rubber Chicken!"

*Swoosh of an axe and the chicken is dead*

"Margaret we pray that you take this sacrifice of a rubber chicken in good faith and that by your deliverance Milchama does well in all international competitions"

"Come on You Warriors!"

"Let's Go Milchama!"

by **Sharktail** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:18 pm

WCQ 89 POST MATCHDAY 8
by Nazri

"He knows where to be, I dunno how he's gonna impress me next. He is our team heart." That’s the expression from Sharktail’s manager to Sharktail’s captain, Azaim after he became the key character driving Sharktail’s victory against Saterun and Garbelia.

The 26-year-old became a nightmare for Saterun and Garbelia when he became an important character who scored the winning goal in both matches. In the match against Saterun, Azaim took advantage of a corner kick from Amir Fazrul in the 65th minute. He once again contributed the winning goal against Garbelia this time through a free kick.

Azaim has been here since the start of the rising of Sharktalian football. Starting from MAC 4, from the bench warmer to a main star of the team. He also one of Sharktalian who has experience playing in one of the top league in multiverse. After Gaby announced his retirement, the manager has no doubt to declare Azaim as Sharktail new key player. Even as a midfielder, he has known for his ability to score, and no doubt about his assist.

"The talent doesn't always come out top. Also nothing may work without work hard. Commitment is what i see more rather than talent. I glad Sharktail has few talent who are able to bring Sharktail move up from bottom to ours now. Even among the player who recognized as free before, a lot they have improved.One of the talent that i like, Maxter.He has been trusted with no 1 gk before but he messed up.But he never afraid to go forward and he go to Eraman league. I give him second chance and he deliver me the best play i hope from him. Still, i gonna thinking more to keep the consistency of our back line, i glad with his performance to save us many time. Same as Azaim, when the time i hope something happen, he is the one Impress me. I glad i put my trust in them. "

The Sharktail fight will continue in the second round. With Vdara and Farfadillis still on top of Sharktail, the team should avoid easy mistakes and focus fully for 7 stunts in the second round. Goodluck Sharktail.

by **Vdara** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:45 pm

(There was meant to be an RP about a prediction software that would always predict a clean sheet probability of 0% due to Vdara’s seeming inability to keep a clean sheet - but alas, I chose to type it in the forums and lost the entire thing. Hence, what you’re getting for now is an abridged version. Enjoy!)

this program uses algorithms and numbers and shit to predict some probabilities innit

beep boop this is the vdar-o-matic version 4.2.0

pls enter your next opponent: takeshwar

generating probability…

hint: the best offence is a good defence… or the best defence is a good offence. i’m not actually sure, i’m a program. beep boop.

during this time, you may wish to make yourself a cup of tea. the vdar-o-matic isn’t always quic- oh, it’s finished.

clean sheet probability: 0%

your defence is shite. expect fuck all.

inspires confidence, doesn’t it.

get your own vdar-o-matic now!!!!!!!!
(this service is also available in: Cymraeg)

by **Wrecker** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:02 pm

THE END OF WRECKERIA – PART VI

The President’s House, Halsted
Sometime during the halfway break for World Cup 90 qualifying
Arnold Martin figured he had probably two hours of sleep in the last two weeks. Time was starting to draw near for Wreckeria to start paying back its debts, and regardless of any plans that he and government leaders had tried to pull off, it didn’t seem like anything was either working or making sense. Pretty soon, he figured, Wreckeria’s assets, including its land, its people and everything about it, would be absorbed into the Dominion of Hapilopper, and that wasn’t sitting well with him. It wasn’t sitting well with everyone, and at this point, he was wondering if he could find a way to buy some time, or at least, find some alternatives to a nation ceasing to exist.

Besides, Wreckeria felt like it was starting to get back up on its feet. Their national soccer team was still 2nd in their group, having probably blown a chance to take the lead, but was very much still in the hunt to qualify for its first World Cup proper – a dream hatched by a group of sportsmen around 60 years ago, when Wreckeria entered World Cup 30, unfortunately around the same time that the Wreckerian Civil War got started.

Just a day before, one of the local television stations aired a documentary on that World Cup 30 squad. Everyone in Wreckeria watched it – not because they had to, but because they wanted to. To get some kind of idea of “what if.” If the war hadn’t started. If Wreckeria wasn’t decimated by the infighting. If their leading player hadn’t gotten disappeared.

That leading player was a striker from Halsted, a man named Drake Stevenson. A dynamic goal-scorer that could create opportunities from all sides, Drake Stevenson knew how to get the job done, and he could fire up his teammates to get them past whoever they were playing – almost like his grandchildren he never knew, footballer Ernie Stevenson and NSSCRA driver Drake Stevenson II.

His two surviving teammates, goalkeeper Bob Langdon and midfielder Mike Atwood, spoke glowingly of what kind of player he was.

“He was a leader in every sense of the word,” Langdon said. “With him, we would have been capable of doing something tremendous. We would have turned out a lot better than we did.”

The results from those days tell the tale of a number of nations lost to history, some more well known than others. Indeed, of the eight nations in Group Six of the qualifying round of World Cup 30, only two still exist today – Wreckeria and Starblaydia. One was, and still is, one of the world’s football powerhouses. The other wanted to be, but was absolutely rudderless with the loss of their star.

In the first match, a nation known as AwalKB beat Wreckeria 2-1. In match two, Wreckeria lost to Spindomia, 4-3.

More losses started piling up. 1-0 to Tynelia. 4-0 to Starblaydia. 4-0 to Bettia.

But then, the Wreckerians took a 1-1 tie against Nikea and it seemed like everything was starting to turn around.

“We were hoping for something, anything,” Atwood said. “I mean, the first few matches, we felt like we could do something, but without Drake, we had no one up front that could drive goals in. But that 1-1 tie, that was a victory for us.”

The poor results continued. 1-4 to Montegrande. 0-2 to AwalKB, making them one of the first nations eliminated from contention. 1-3 to Spindomia. A 1-1 draw to Tynelia. 0-5 to Starblaydia again.

The footage of the matches was hard to look at, and not just because the barely-surviving film looked like it was going to break at any second. The play of the Wreckerians was just awful. It was something that barely resembled a coherent game of football, and it was little wonder why they were getting rolled over. But the team didn’t want to be there. Their leader had disappeared. Their nation had descended into chaos. The team had no motivation to play hard, no motivation to get the job done. They had figured that the team would go their separate ways following the qualifying campaign, and that’s exactly what happened.

But the general question raised throughout the documentary was the same question Arnold Martin raised about Wreckeria. What if the war never happened?

It’s a distinct possibility that Drake Stevenson and the Wreckerians would have become a force in international football, and in this day and age, the success seen by Wreckeria during this qualifying campaign would be expected, rather than an absolute shock.

And maybe that’s what was making Wreckerians everywhere so hopeful. The Wreckerians were doing the best they had ever done. They were second in their group, not because everyone had tripped along the way, but because Wreckeria was actually playing well. Because Wreckeria was playing for keeps. Because, so it seemed, they were playing for their very survival. They were playing as if there was no tomorrow.

But would there?

Wreckerian Association of Soccer offices, Halsted
Two days later
“Mr. Byrnes? A Dominic Probst here to see you.”

Marvin Byrnes, sitting in his cramped office in Halsted, dropped his newspaper and his eyes went wide. He wasn’t expecting Dom Probst, the head of Team Hapilopper, nor did he figure he’d come to this office. He knew what the meeting was about. He had heard news about Hapilopper ceasing to exist as its own nation, and figured that, before long, there would be questions over if Wreckerian players would be absorbed into the Hapiloppian national team.

As Dom Probst came into the office, Marvin looked a little uneasy and Probst knew it. But Marvin got up anyway to shake Probst’s hand.

“I figure you know why I’m here, right?” Probst asked. “I got something from the Hapiloppian government that they’re getting ready to move in on Wreckeria. Nothing bloody or anything but they asked me to pay you a visit.”

“Yeah,” Marvin said, shifting around in his seat. “What is that going to mean for our jobs?”

“To tell you the truth,” Probst said, “I’m not really sure. But I am going to say something you need to know, and something you need your players to know.”
Marvin took a deep breath, figuring this was going to mean the worst.

“We’re noticing you over in Hapilopper,” Probst said with a smile. “The whole multiverse is noticing you. You can’t just go under the radar like that. And, for whatever reason, I’ve got sponsors calling ME right and left asking for you. They want to support you guys. They want to see you guys succeed. And quite frankly, all of us in Hapilopper wants you all to succeed.”

Marvin took another deep breath, this one out of emotion.

“You got to have bucks to get goals,” Probst said. “We saw that documentary the other night, and we don’t want you guys to end up like that old team. You’re too good for that. I just need your number to get those sponsors going.”

“But what about the next World Cup? Are we going to work for you?” Marvin asked. “That’s what I’m concerned about. You come in here and I’m figuring you’re here to take some of my players.”

“No,” Probst said. “I don’t want your players and I don’t want your staff. I don’t want anything of yours. I don’t really care how this whole deal goes with your nation, but as far as I’m concerned y’all need to be out there as your own team come World Cup 91. And I’ve got a few guys lined up to help you. But if I hear anything about you giving me anything afterwards, I’m turning it down.”

Marvin started feeling a lump in his throat.

“Wreckeria needs something,” Probst said. “And frankly, they need you guys a hell of a lot more than we do. Keep doing what you’re doing. We love what’s going on, and we’re gonna cheer for you guys when we can. Y’all keep doing this and you’re gonna get your guys fired up enough to rebuild your nation, and I hope it happens.”

by **Eraman** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:06 pm

The Melayuans
Part 1

by Prof. Dr. Mustari Bumi

What is Melayuan? Where do Melayuans come from? Is it true that Melayuans migrated from elsewhere? In this series, I will try to unravel the confusion on Melayuans, and even try to open space for a wider discussion.

On The Origin of Melayuan

Basically, local historians and anthropologists conclude that there are 3 main theories that explain the arrival of Melayuans to the Melayu Archipelago.

The first is that the Melayuans came from Rushmore, namely Yue Zhou. This theory holds that the Melayuans migrated from this area and continued to move south and occupy the Melayu Archipelago.

Then, is from Esportiva. Namely, the indigenous people of Filindostan began to migrate by sea and stopped on the eastern part of the Melayu Archipelago.

Finally is the controversial theory that the Melayuan had already settled in the archipelago before a big flood forced the Melayuans to migrate out and settle in the nearby islands.

All these theories have strong evidence, at least the Melayuans have occupied the archipelago around 8,000 years ago.

However, have the ancestors of the Melayuans already called themselves Melayuan?

On The Word Melayuan

Many thought that the Melayuan tribes have called themselves Melayuan even before Meilawati times, but the fact is that they prefer to take place names or administrative names as a form of collective identification.

For example, tribes in Mitra take the name of the island as the name of their tribe. The same goes for Soma. While the Banyuan (translated to water) tribe in Sendhang takes the name of the geographical feature of the place they reside. The same goes for Samuderan (translated to sea) tribes in Samudera Darussalam.

Although the Melayuan tribe already exists, they do not have the awareness to call themselves Melayuan. Melayuan society in the past did not have the need to differentiate between who is Melayuan and who is not because there is already a sharing of the same culture and language.

Only when the Melayuan society became more sophisticated and created civilization and a complex political system, that the Melayuan consciousness began to emerge.

The rise of the Meilawati empire centered in what is now Samudera Darussalam played an important role in sowing Melayuan consciousness. Its emergence as the first Melayuan civilization in the archipelago that unites almost all the small kingdoms in the archipelago has strengthened the cultural sharing between the Melayuan tribes. This cultural sharing is more easily known as Melayuan custom.

What is "Melayuan custom"? Is the "Melayuan custom" permanent and constant? We will find out in Part 2.

by **South Newlandia** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:08 pm

by **Squornshelan Remnant States** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:30 pm

The Kids Really Aren't All Right
Episode 3: Going Beyond and Above

Nikoro Ola, technically, was still grounded, but Arvi Lehtinen had gotten off scot-free. Fortunately for him, their parents didn't talk much. If they had, Arvi's dad might have thought to hide the keys to his old pickup. Driving the beat up old truck back and forth across the Confederacy was looking set to cost the two every bit of cash they could scrape together, but it ran well enough, and more importantly the heat worked. In Arkintoofle by the ocean, they were used to a much more moderate climate. Sure, snow fell in winter, when it was supposed to, but the sun came out and melted it all away by mid-spring, and the summers were warm and mild. Here, driving through northwestern Aboveland, there was still patchy snow on the ground, and when Nikoro had rolled down the window earlier, the chill blast that entered the cabin had them both shivering in mere minutes.

"Arvi, you sure we're gonna be ok at the match? I didn't bring a jacket."

"We'll figure something out. You're not gonna let a little bit of cold stop you from seeing the match, are you?"

"I dunno man, I think we still have a pretty long way to go, and it's already like this."

"That's just because of the wind, we'll be ok."

Things had gotten started well enough. They'd taken the ferry from Brantisvogan to Vankkavalta, just opposite. From there, the coast road took them to Ayarii and Ykserhavn before cutting inland to Kylmäjärvet. That was the point at which things had started seriously to cool off. Not that either teenager was exactly a climatologist, but they could have relayed the fact that temperatures tend to be milder near water quite capably from recent experience. They had wound their way between lakes, hills, and mountains bit by bit, town by town, gas station by gas station until they reached Iskajärvi. From there, they took the only road out of town to the northeast, bound for the border, and beyond that, the trek north to the frigid seasonal port of Zarss. Just a little while ago, they had finally passed to border crossing, a fairly quick process as for once neither had forgotten their ID.

"Anyway, it's good to be back in the Confederacy isn't it?"

"Umm, yeah I guess so." Arvi seemed distracted, but Nikoro didn't seem to notice.

"It's like that time we went down to Syneca to see that match and got banned from the entire state of Sivolvia."

"Uh, oh."

"Yeah, it was . . . . wait what do you mean uh oh?"

"I mean uh oh, we're really low on gas."

Nikoro scrambled across the seat to peer at the dashboard dials.

"How can we be low on gas, didn't we just fill up?"

"I didn't top off the tank, I figured gas would be cheaper once we were back on our side of the border."

As if in answer, the engine gave a short, hiccup before resuming it's steady chug. It couldn't be long now.

"How much did you put in?"

"About a half."

"Only half a tank?"

"About half a gallon."

"Half a fucking gallon!? Arvi you idiot! What the hell were you thinking?"

"Look I got mixed up ok? It was an honest mistake, it could happen to anyone."

"But why didn't you say anything before now?"

"I'm sorry, Nik, I was too embarrassed."

With a final sputtering cough, and a violent shudder that shook it from bumper to tailgate, the truck's engine died, and they rolled to a halt, tires crunching on snow and gravel at the edge of the road.

"What do we do now, Arvi?"

"I guess someone has to walk and get gas, Nik."

Nikoro looked out the passenger side. A filmy rime of ice clung around the edges of the water that filled the bottom of a roadside ditch. "Pretty cold out there, and it's a long way to the next town."

"Yeah. I wonder if they have any gas back at the border post?"

"I'll go," Nikoro said after the two had passed a long moment, staring out the windshield side by side, "Let's see if there's anything in the truck I can wrap up in."

"No, I'll go. It's my dad's truck, I should've known we couldn't make the next town."

The two began rummaging frantically through the interior of the cabin. It didn't take long. The end result was a frayed baseball cap, two rather crusty looking gym socks, a plastic tarp, and a single red woolen mitten. A second tarp, somewhat frayed at the corners but mostly whole could be seen in the truck bed, weighed down by a variety of gardening tools.

"Well the tarps should help block the wind at least."

"I still think I should go, Nik. It's my fault."

"Well wait, I've got an idea." Nikoro's face brightened, "What if we both go? I'll head for the next town, you head back to the border crossing. Whoever finds gas first can bring the truck and pick up the other one."

"That's actually a really good idea, Nik."

"You really think so?"

"Yeah, if we split up we can cover twice as much ground. We'll be done in half the time!"

"No one ever thinks my ideas are good ideas."

"Well this one's a great one. C'mon. You take that tarp, the socks, the hat, and the mitten. I'll make do with the socks and the tarp in the back."

"You sure you'll be ok, Arvi?"

"I'll be fine, Nik. Remember that time I locked myself out in midwinter and walked all the way to your parents' place?

"And we were out of town so you had to walk all the way back."

"Exactly, I've made tougher walks than this."

The two climbed down out of the truck, and each wrapped himself in a tarp, remarking through insincere smiles how warm they felt, how well it cut the wind, and what an excellent plan they had to get out of this predicament. Standing at the back of the truck, both looked into the bed, and Nikoro turned to Arvi.

"Arvi?"

"Yeah Nik?"

We've only got one gas can."

Matchday 6:
CHA 0–1 SRS

Scoring:
SRS: Yonte 31'

Lineup:
SRS: Drenel; Nyberg, Galdra, W. Harkhan, Achthoven; Hedberg, Zazagan (Tabur 76'); Naqvi (Feidhlim 65'), Takala, Yonte; Petrov (Marrish 88')

Matchday 7:
SRS 2–0 STR

Scoring:
SRS: Damnagoras 23', 57'

Lineups:
SRS: Kartal; Chaika, Yarlut, Ciernik, Loefgren; Tabur, Hashemi (Marrish 65'), Bondarov, Damnagoras (Arslan 78'), Starosta; Chmela (Shehu 86')

Schedule and Results

FRND: SOL 3-4 SRS @ King Anthony Stadium (cap. 77,300), Branwen, SOL

MD1:  RWS 2-3 SRS @ Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy
MD2:  KAN 2-0 SRS @ Empress Masumi Stadium (cap. 90,000), KND
MD3:  SRS 2-2 SWE @ Olympiastad (cap. 47,550), Arkintoofle, Megabrantis, SRS
MD4:  SDG 1-2 SRS @ Stadium Persekutuan (cap. 40,000), Kambang, SDG
MD5:  SRS 2-1 TSA @ Vogsphere Arena (cap. 90,000), Vogsphere, Vogsphere Urban District, SRS
MD6:  CHA 0-1 SRS @ Old Town Park (cap. 68,000), Billboard, CHA
MD7:  SRS 2-0 STR @ Estflanarena (cap. 31,200), Zarss, East Flania, SRS
MD8:  SRS  v  RWS @ Henkmar Field (cap. 29,850), Brasta, Sivolvia, SRS
MD9:  SRS  v  KAN @ Bridger Lane (cap. 72,406), Damogran, Algolia, SRS
MD10: SWE  v  SRS @ Pride of Virginia Stadium (cap. Yes, it probably has one, looks pretty big), Virginia, SWE
MD11: SRS  v  SDG @ The Lutenstaad (cap. 75,000), Lutenblag, Molvania, SRS
MD12: TSA  v  SRS @ TBA, TSA
MD13: SRS  v  CHA @ Admiral Cherenkov Stadium (cap. 71,200), Santraginus, Santraginus Urban District, SRS
MD14: STR  v  SRS @ Pale Football Stadium (cap. 60,000), STR

by **Astograth** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:41 pm

Previously

It had been a small piece hugging the hem of The Rumiatzi Sentinel’s Sports section which caught the eye of Urti Kirna, freelance journalist.

FOOTBALLER ITZIAR LÉVÊQUE: FALSE ASTOGRATHIAN
Garikoitz Yankofski

Football player Itziar Lévêque (29) was arrested yesterday at Rumiatzi International Airport after attempting to enter the country with false documents. After several hours, border control officers of the Ministry of Interior were eventually able to verify Lévêque’s identity through his agent and family; they were, however, unable to find any record of Lévêque’s Astograthian citizenship. Once it was determined that the player in fact holds Kernansquillecan nationality, he was deported to Kernansquillec City that evening. From there he is believed to be travelling back to Brenecia, where he currently plays for Premier Rozelle in the second tier. In Astograth, the player took to the pitch for Royal Association and Basabe Old Boys in the Second Division, among other teams; the consequences for his false nationality are unclear, as Rushmori nationals were not exempt from the divisional foreign player limit before 686. Lévêque and his representatives have declined to speak with THE RUMIATZI SENTINEL.

A bizarre story that tickled his curiosity. The fallout of the incident, as the second-to-last sentence suggested, could be big – or nothing at all. Something perhaps worth digging into on a slow Tuesday. He had questions and, though he didn’t know Lévêque or his people, he did know Garikoitz Yankofski: an old buddy from university. Kirna had rung him up and, past the initial pleasantries, shot him an invitation.

“You know, man, actually… there’s a pool party today, if you’re interested.”

“Oh?” rasped Yankofski over the phone. “What time?”

“I’ll stop by around 11 o’clock. At night, of course.”

“Of course. Whereabouts?”

“Kapandegi Park,” said Kirna. That was near to the Sentinel’s offices.

“OK, I’ll see you there,” croaked Yankofski.

Now Kirna lounged on a bench at the park, using the day’s newspaper to shield his eyes from the rays of light filtering through the tree cover. A gaggle of teenagers had passed by and made fun of his paper; Kirna still preferred the printed word, though he was deep in the minority in this day and age. Three minutes past 11 o’clock – in the morning, not at night – Garikoitz Yankofski appeared around the bend, making a beeline for Kirna’s bench. The invitation had been coded in the lingo Kirna and his journalist friends used for arranging confidential meetings; no communication channel in Astograth could be trusted other than face-to-face and, even then, there could be mics or spies anywhere. There were a million such codes in Astograth – Kirna himself knew a half-dozen systems for use with different groups of people – but in this one, an invitation to a party of some sort was the opener. Then the time was the opposite: night meant day, day meant night. If it was a real invitation, they’d add some ridiculous stipulation like ‘if it doesn’t snow’ in late summer. A human listener could work out something was up, but automated scanners wouldn’t pick up on it. This was a low-stakes meeting anyway, but it always paid to be careful.

“So what do you want, Urti?” asked Yankofski, holding his cup of coffee in a death grip.

“Your piece in today’s paper,” said Kirna, stabbing at the news with his finger.

Yankofski chuckled, a sound much like the scraping of stones. “Lévêque? Pretty crazy huh?”

“Yeah, I’m just curious. How’d you get the story? Lévêque’s not putting it out there – everyone else is reporting on yours. So what, you got sources in Interior?”

Yankofski’s smile faded. “Come on,” he snorted. “You can’t ask that.”

Kirna leaned in closer and lowered his voice. “You have sources in Interior?”

“No!” said Yankofski, frowning. “I have sources at the airport. What, you want something from Interior? Talk to your garden gnomes, you’ll get the same result.”

Kirna leaned back and shrugged. “Just curious. You think anything will come of it?”

“The Second Division?” Yankofski shook his head. “He wouldn’t have run afoul of any foreigner limit, the FAF will just throw out any complaint.”

“Legal challenges?”

“Nothing, as far as league rules go he’d be counted as Astograthian since he was like 17,” replied Yankofski through sips of his coffee.

“So why’d you say it’s unclear? Sounds real damn clear to me,” asked Kirna, exasperated.

Yankofski shrugged. “I don’t know all the implications. Clubs might still try something, gotta cover my ass.”

Kirna sighed. “Right. And what about him? He’s not born in Uertza then? And his parents aren’t Astograthian? Why’d he never get his papers? He’s been here way more than five years.”

Yankofski raised his shoulders higher still. “I don’t know. If you want a story, you got one there. Most likely his family are all illegals and he never got the real paperwork done to avoid those charges. See, if they had anything to stand on they’d be the ones calling us.”

“Or Interior scared them,” sentenced Kirna. The breeze dropped a pinecone next to his feet, prompting him to look into the sky.

“Or Interior scared them,” repeated Yankofski, solemn. “Why though?"

“I don’t know. Think I’ll take a train to Uertza.”

by **Legalese** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:54 pm

Halfway home, and still alive
Editor needs to work on better headlines

It’s half time on qualifying, and while the team may want to nosh on a couple of orange slices, they may want to figure out how to win a few more games in the second half.

Fortunately, the blueprint exists: disrupt the opposition before they can start their possession, throw as many shots as possible on the net, and hope for an argument or two between members of the opposing eleven.

At least, that version of the plan worked against the St Trinians eleven. Despite a traditional early strike, a cannon by Alyson Granger that Timmy Thompson stood no chance of stopping, the Mighty Wombats turned things around, executing to near-perfection from the tenth minute on. It was a complete effort, one that helped ensure Granger could put no more shots on goal, and started to wear the opposition thin as the match wore on.

The arguments started in the 56th minute. After Mindy Dobbers intercepted a Temperance Porter pass, she redirected it deep into the Trinian defense, well past the Legalese front line. However, Nonie Swindlehurst took a little too much time with the ball, giving Willie Masterson the opportunity to close down on her and force an ill-advised pass across the middle. Pedro Vasquez was able to pounce on the open ball and catch Millicent Becket out of position. As the scoreline moved both sides to level, you could see the antipathy amongst the back line. Fortunately, Becket did not have her favored hunting rifle with her on the pitch.

The game-winner came twenty minutes later thanks to a solid sequence of play on the counter. A turnover just past the defensive side of the circle was sent across the pitch by Toni Torelli, finding a streaking Mike Clayton on the run. Clayton made a move suggesting an inside run, before stepping back outside to fire a low cross to Kerry Kawaguchi, who cooly slotted it home to secure the three points.

With two wins and four draws out of seven played, the national team isn’t out of the mix yet. However, they’ll need to put together more days like today to keep their hopes alive.

“You still haven’t told me why you needed me here” Lucien said, barely hiding a scowl.

“I apologize, I did not know you had not been briefed. Our associate selected you for assistance, because of your background. First, we wanted you to gain an understanding of the issue, and to see the extent to which reality is broken.”

Lucien laughed.

“Broken?! A set of teenagers going to a World Cup is hardly broken -- they need to be ready for war, and while I don’t know if this set is up for it, they’ve fought bravely with the tools they have. You all should be proud of them, not condemning them as broken.”

The front table frowned. “With respect, corporal, you are missing one point. This is the team who thinks they are qualifying for World Cup 23. That is not possible, for Legalese did not enter World Cup 23. Furthermore, this is World Cup 90.”

Lucien blinked.

“Okay, let’s say for the sake of discussion that everything is broken. How can I help?”

“Simple. We need to hear your story.”

by **Turori** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:58 pm

Eels Thumped by Drawkland in Top-of-The-Table teardown

Kionao Minor Field, Kionao, Turori :: Turori National Team head coach stuck with Derizi Amatopa for the fourth straight match in goal despite the Revolutionaries goalkeeper having given up two goals each to sub-250 ranked sides The Karodin Territories and Winnebogan in the teams previous two home matches. On the road, however, it had been a different story. Shutout victories on the road to Geektopia and Saint Eleanor had proven the Eels to be a stalwart outside of Turori and that streak would continue on Matchday 6 against Britonisea. Edeli's Eels employed System Turori to its purest perfection, taking the lead less than five minutes into the game then shutting the sytem down and defending in full force for 85 minutes never letting the Britons get more than the lone quality scoring opportunity in that time.

The Turori National Coaching Staff would slow things down further in the second half through a number of substitutions. These including Daliora Toru'u being introduced in place of Kiidallen Aeroluzzi, Amakli Inuro'o coming in in place of Karek Edgeli and Cuoabaza Orani'aoa entering in place of Biliki Rona'atu'i. The fresh legs countered anything that 162nd ranked Britonisea could throw at the Eels leaving the home fans disappointed yet still proud at the performance from their relatively unknown side multiverse wide having held so close to the World Cup 88 Champions. Of course, Edgeli in the Eels were thrilled to chalk off 3 points for the 8th straight game - their focus was wholly focused on something else entirely: Matchday 7.

Though it may not have been the nicest stadium in all of Turori, the Kionao Minor Field boasted the largest individual capacity of any of the stadiums the Turori National Team would visit with large standing room only and general admission sections that allowed scores of fans to fill into the stadium and linger throughout the park. It made for a raucous atmosphere as the Turori National Team hosted a top-of-the-table clash with Drawkland. Having entered the game three points ahead in the standings the Eels were looking to increase the gap at the Top of Group 3 to 6 points - a scenario that could see them start focusing on the big picture of securing their place in the World Cup 90 finals. However, for the first time all campaign, Tarek Edgeli's Eels did not look ready to play on this day.

It was perhaps a bad sign from the start when Turori came out of the tunnel without starting goalkeeper Derizi Amatopa. Though the Eura based netminder was absent, however, head coach Edgeli indicated full faith in Timaala Hualtia - the Inland Peaks FC Goalkeeper who started every knockout round match in the Cup of Champions, helping leading Turori to the title over Tumbra before Amatopa returned for the Eagle's Cup Final. Timaala Hualtia had also posted a shutout on the road against Geektopia earlier in the campaign providing added confidence in their ability to lead the team to a critical top-of-the-table victory over Drawkland.

The Kick Corps and their Elite Eleven came out firing with their attacking style in stark contrast to the System Turori being employed by Edgeli. Team Captain Roger Apollo put drawkland on the board just 17 minutes into the game forcing Turori to fight from behind for just the second time all campaign. For the first time in World Cup 90 Qualifiers, however, Turori would be unable to fight back. The Eels would be shut out for the first time since facing Ko-oren twice in the Cup of Champions and would suffer their worst defeat since the opening game of the World Cup 89 Group Stage against Pemecutan. Drawkland would add second half goals from Apollo and Trevor Garnet to expand their lead to three goals before Edgeli made the surprise decision to yank Hualtia from the game in favor of Cocoabo #86 from Turori's National Cocoabo Squad who was making a rare bench appearance for Turori. While most now associate Cocoabo Park and the Cocoabo Forest with the Cocoabo Preservation Society and the Cocoabo itself, it was in Kionao where the movement really got started behind Noa-isinao Wioauoi and the society support of the Kionao Locals team that called Kionao Minor Field home. While Turori's hopes of a perfect 14-0-0 cycle ended when the final whistle blew in Kionao there was still a minor ovation for the performance of the Cocoabo over the final thirty minutes, reminding many of the locals who sacraficed to bring the Cocoabo back to the forefront of the minds of Turorians and foreigners alike just what kind of impact they had, that a Cocoabo could just come in and pull on the uniform for a World Cup Champion nation - not as a spectacle, but as a competitive equal. The Eels would get an extended break back in the Sportropolis of Eelandii before hosting Atlantian Oceania Rivals Qasden in a critical match that Edgeli and the Turori National coaching staff will deem as vital to getting the Eels back on track in their quest to qualify for World Cup 90.

 Turori [1] - [0] Britonisea
				
	GOALS:	Turori 	:: 4' Naraiza Ruaplal              		
	STATS:	Turori 	:: Possession: 56%:: Shots: 4:: Corners: 7	Britonisea 	:: Possession: 44%:: Shots: 1:: Corners: 2
	Lineup:	[GK] Derizi Amatopa, [D.] Biliki Rona'atu'i, [D.] Karek Edgeli, [D.] Moumouni Verre'elali, [D.]  Cusaram Sakeri, [ML]  Kiidallen Aeroluzzi, [MC] Kentu Umaka'a, [MC]  Naraiza Ruaplal, [MR]  Kinabo Telioa, [FC] Loala Inkabu, [FC] Turakia Diijelhma			
	Bench:	[FC] Nua'oma Aikiki, [FC] Lutara Makakio, [M] Daliora Toru'u, [M] Cuoabaza Orani’aoa, [U ] Amakli Inuro'o, [D] Planio’o Nrujsa, [GK] Cocoabo #86

 Turori [0] - [3] Drawkland
				
	GOALS:	Turori 	:: None              		
	STATS:	Turori 	:: Possession: 47%:: Shots: 4:: Corners: 6	Drawkland 	:: Possession: 53%:: Shots: 5:: Corners: 11
	Lineup:	[GK] Timaala Hualtia, [D.] Amakli Inuro'o, [D.] Biliki Rona'atu'i, [D.] Cusaram Sakeri, [D.]  H’munao Cagomia, [ML]  Kiidallen Aeroluzzi, [MC] Daliora Toru'u, [MC]  Cuoabaza Orani’aoa, [MR]  Naraiza Ruaplal, [FC] Loala Inkabu, [FC] Nua'oma Aikiki			
	Bench:	[FC] Turakia Diijelhma, [FC] Lutara Makakio, [M] Tulaki Rauogba, [M] Kentu Umaka'a, [U ] Planio’o Nrujsa, [D] Moumouni Verre'elali, [GK] Cocoabo #86

TURORI NATIONAL ✓

@TuroriNat
Shock as #Eels lose Group 3 lead after Drawkland Drubbing in Kionao Follow the Story Here...

#WC90Q - #TURvDRK - #KionaoMF

by **Huayramarca** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 8:00 pm

OOC: All concepts and thoughts expressed here does not represent my actual political views nor are intended to target any kind of social collective expressions.

1985 Elections: How candidates are standing?

Written by: Gabriel Barnechea
23/02/1985 – Last Update 9:00 P.M.

One week and a half after the first presidential debate, and perhaps the last one as there’s no initiatives from any social organisations or the parties itself, although it may be a bit early to anticipate that, there’s some interesting movements across the parties in contention for the vacant at Palacio del Altiplano. As we are getting closer and closer into halfway of the campaign, thus meaning that the climax is closer, we have seen from apologies to attempts from certain candidates to capitalise the strength they’ve gained after the 9th of February’s debate.

For this article we will analyse candidate by candidate in order to know better what are they doing or planning for the end of the campaign. Aside, we will also mention the series of opinion polls conducted by several polling firms across Huayramarca since the campaign began, but not only focusing in the presidential campaign, we will also analyse the National Assembly latest projections and scenarios that could configure after the election.

Martha Mamani: The candidate of Ñucanchi Ñan, who according to many political and debating analysts had an unnoticed role in the debate, is trying to struggle against the “excessively quiet and mild attitude” that some of those analysts mentioned. After the debate, she started a one-month tour across different cities and departments of Huayramarca in order to have meetings with the people or, in some cases, provide company to fellow majors or members of the parliament (MPs) as they are inaugurating some projects for the people.

This tour has featured some visits in Sechura, specifically Sullana, as the major and MPs of the constituency inaugurated a paved road that will help to connect the town with Nauta with a four-lane road that, according to estimates from the Minister of Infrastructure and Social Works, will reduce travel time from three hours to two, as they have traversed a 2,200 meters mountain with an underground tunnel. This investment has costed around $150 million NSD ($450 million Intis) and will make the trip to Nauta a safer one for tourists and the oil industry, which is the cornerstone of the economy of Sullana.

Mamani mentioned “The government resources are being used properly and you can see it, there’s no waste of money nor a mediocre construction of the tunnel. We have assured, with the best road’s engineers of Anaia, that this tunnel can withstand a magnitude 8 earthquake, this is important as we are near a seismic fault. The oil industry can continue despite any climate circumstance that only a year ago caused a halt of operations, also it will help tourists to have better reachability of this zone via car usage.

Francisco Guevara, the MP for the Sullana constituency, took advantage of the circumstance and gave a support speech for Mamani: “We, people of Sullana, have the opportunity to provide support for Martha and Augusto. They have done a great job during the last four years, they led a revolution and guaranteed a path for development to our communities, Sullana has noticed it now and will enjoy the benefits of this project. We can make sure that this kind of projects won’t stop, instead, will be multiplied here and in other communities of Huayramarca, as we move step-by-step towards development.”

This project is expected to benefit, at least, 26,000 drivers per day as they choose to use this new and modern route in order to avoid the Sechura-Nauta motorway, which can be dangerous to drive in winters due to huaycos (landslides).

Mamani’s tour didn’t stopped there as she visited Puerto San Carlos and Guayaquil in order to recover lost ground in Communist and Christian Values’ strongholds. In Puerto San Carlos, she took some time to feature the benefits of AORTA (travel requirements flexibilization) and OAGHHE (proposed Anaian Standard for Hospitality Services) as opportunities to “organise in a more appropriated way the tourism structure of the Archipelago) in order to boost the local economy.

Meanwhile, in Guayaquil, a new proposal of “Costa Azul”, a project that aims to boost blue economics (sea as the heart of the local economy) was launched, this project will have some basic axis such as “fisheries”, “tourism in the sea” and “clean energy generation” by installing wind farms in certain sectors away from the coast of the Guayas Department can be done. Despite the proposals, it doesn’t seem to be too much concurrence in Guayaquil, as her event clashed with some sudden events from MPs of the Christian Values Alliance.

Cristina Perlaza: The candidate of the Communist Party of Huayramarca had a tight schedule since the last debate. One of the candidates who achieved a better result during the debate had to capitalise her advantage during the days after, she decided to take a tour across the Sierra region (highlands) in order to gain some support from a region where she performed solidly despite winning only one department and preventing a regional sweep from Ñucanchi Ñan. Taking Parcoy as her Sierra headquarters, she moved to neighbouring Catamarca and Cajamarca in a four days tour, where she gave some speeches and also sent a “grassroots team” in order to make alliances with local communities, especially indigenous Quechua and Aymara ones.

Her first two days were spent in the high steppes of Catamarca as she announced some important proposals for the day she takes possession of presidency, if elected. “Catamarca is a province that has a significant potential for agriculture but has been long forgotten by the current government. Such a vast territory where potatoes, apples and carrots can be harvested aren’t being considered. As a future president, I tell you all my compromise to assure that those who want can be trained in order to have efficient harvesting techniques, aside from support of Chemists and Agricultural Engineers in order to avoid pests that may harm your local production.

Having local cooperatives as a method to gather resources will be important, we will support those local cooperatives in order to distribute the help in an even way for everybody, also creating laws to promote the distribution of your goods to supermarkets here and across Anaia in order to provide development and prosperity to Cajamarca. It won’t be an easy task, but I know that we will know how to deliver this and more to you, the people of Huayramarca.”

Her journey ended in San Ignacio de la Frontera, an outpost of Huayramarca in the border with Mertagne, Perlaza gathered a solid crowd of 25,000 people at the local stadium in order to provide a speech where she featured words such as “collectivism”, “optimism” and “solidarity”. “Communism is based on solidarity with the people from the nation and outside the nation. Mertagne is a huge market for Huayramarcan products and you have a significant location in a potential trade route with said nation, that’s why we are proposing you the “New Horizons Plan”, which pretends to create a Free Trade Agreement with Mertagne, assessing farmers and cooperatives with standards that may make the products competitive in the neighbouring market.”

Huayramarca, as of now, lacks FTAs with nations, creating opportunities for new ones with neighbouring nations, according to Mirna Robledo (Economist), the combination of standardisation and trade agreements could work if done properly, as she says: “First and foremost you need to create a framework in order to have a standardisation process, this should be progressive and supported by the government in order to provide the local farmers an opportunity to stand against rivals”. Perlaza didn’t entered in full depth in regards of the proposal, as she said it’s something they will present later on the campaign.

Salma Machado: Pundits gave crystal clear opinions after the end of the debate, Machado was, without question, the biggest winner of the event in virtue of: clarity to provide answers to sensible topics that affect to the Huayramarcan populace, capacity to respond direct questioning from the opponents with sheer self-confidence and a well-thought plan in terms of economy and Anaian Integration. Machado took a couple of days after the debate to re-think her strategy for the upcoming weeks, as his position is now completely different to the one she had prior the debate. Capability to influence, both positively and negatively in the campaign and, probably, in the elections needs tome thought in order to avoid a miscalculation and a capital error.

After thinking about her strategy, Machado decided to do a tour across the Yungas and Jungle in order to catch some undecided votes or make reconsider those votes for other rivals. Her first appearance was at Cocoamarca, she gathered a group of cocoa cooperatives from the region in order to present her plans for the agricultural industry of the region: “Cocoa is important for this region, we need to bolster your capacity and standards in order to make you compete against the elite of this business shoulder to shoulder. The government will make alliances with other nations as in FTAs in order to place your products properly across the region and meet any criteria needed to do so.”

Also mentioned a point that could be, according to the agrarians, a “game changer for the industry.” “We need technology and we will provide you those much-needed resources in order to boost productivity across the Cocoa-Axis (a series of villages and towns known for their production of cocoa.), there’s a lot of machinery that will help to do these processes with high quality standards and in higher volumes compared to what you have now.”

The Christian candidate then went to Madre de Dios in order to grab some dubitative Conservative votes, as she did a pretty religious-content-charged speech at the main plaza of Salvación, the department capital. “We are liaisons that will help to achieve the will of God in Huayramarca. We will protect the land from aggressive mining operations or dirty progressive agenda that might harm the traditions of Huayramarca. LGBTQ agenda won’t pass in this land nor the abortion campaign, we will keep things as they are right now.” The people of Salvación integrates what’s known as the Huayramarcan Bible Belt, a region known for their religious conservativeness and features Cocoamarca, Madre de Dios, Sechura, Huaraz and Guayaquil.

Machado’s agenda is also considering to expand towards the Sierra in order to also grab some undecided vote. Her internal circle is making her to leave Guayaquil and the rest of the Coast as the last places to visit since both are bastions of her, also avoiding the San Carlos Archipelago as they considered as a “lost fight” against the Communist Party.

Ricardo Flores: The Conservative Party candidate is paying a high price for having a disastrous debate where he insulted his opponents, wasn’t able to show well structured proposals nor able to have capacity of, at least, a basic dialogue. As Machado, Flores had to take some time in order to switch strategy due to the failure he suffered in the debate, which has costed some terrain and reputation to the Conservative Party. There are evens come voices that are considering to apply a last resort to put William Mamani-Hastings as a presidential candidate, since he’s more “well-educated and able to withstand a fight against the rest of political forces”. This move can be done but there’s a high possibility that the Supreme Electoral Committee can refuse the request.

In regards to the lack of leadership showed in the debate, also questioned by a broad internal coalition in the Conservative Party, Flores gave some declarations about it in a meeting in Sechura. “After the debate, thinking cold-blooded, I’m aware that I didn’t performed as expected and may, perhaps, caused harm to the Conservative Party and the trust of the people who voted me in the Primary Elections of the party. For them and the Huayramarcan society, I owe an apology, also for the fellow candidates, especially Cristina Perlaza and Antonio Jamarara, owe more apologies.” After asked by Jamarara’s insult in the debate, Flores said “I’m aware that I fueled that response, if I had controlled myself more, that insult wouldn’t have happened.”

After a week of thought, Flores appeared in Sechura in order to provide support for local MPs in their campaign period, Flores was received with appraisal and a strong support in this region; banners saying “We are Conservatives, no matter what” and “Conservative Pride, Huayramarca Wide” Flores pronounced a speech “We have opponents that are against development, we need to face them properly and defeat them at the polls. Our platform is still under construction, and that’s why we are getting closer to you, the common citizen, in order to feed this nation plan and Make Huayramarca Great Again.”

Flores was also supported in his words by Christian Schneider, a local oil tycoon and candidate for MP for the Metro Sechura-Northeast constituency. “Huayramarca will have, in Ricardo Flores, a stronghold for development. I know him since a child, he’s well organised and has the mindset of a shark for business and management of a country. For sure he will deliver us development and jobs, those we need a lot specially here for our oil industry. We are next to a new oil boom and Huayramarca can have a lead on it, if we manage this properly, we will have a power in Anaia and without their help, we are self-sufficient.”

Flores will try to revert his situation by visiting the Yungas and Junín in order to catch some undecided votes in those regions. It might be favourable for him as he finished second, not so far away from the winners, in those departments; so, the situation can change drastically if he decides to change his attitude and manages well the propaganda machinery of the Conservative Party across the swing departments.

Armando Jamarara The always controversial figure, as this campaign has proved, Jamarara is a person that had to take advantage of the debate in order to save his possibilities for the General Election. He was heavily affected after throwing an apple against a journalist during the Primaries, which caused social annoyance towards him, especially from feminist organisations such as Dignidad and Feministas al Frente. Jamarara went to the debate and performed rather acceptably as he took advantage of the lackluster presentation from Ricardo Flores in that day, to the point of having frequent heated word exchanges between them, even leaving an insult that will forever live in the minds of Huayramarcans.

Jamarara was able to visit different communities in the Coast, where he had a rather pleasant couple of victories that were largely unexpected by pundits and people involved in elections, in need to consolidate those results and make sure he has enough ground to stand for the harshest moments of the battle that are coming. Visiting Arequipa and the Metropolitan District are words that he wants to challenge the top candidates and make himself a candidate with enough capability to leverage in the elections, even with the the MPs he’s projected to win in the Legislative Election.

Across the departments, the feelings toward Jamarara are surprisingly good, as he “is the hope of the Huayramarcan populace” or even expressions of “He’s one of us, he will take care of us since day one.” Taking advantage of that wave, Jamarara had an open planning session with people in severe villages of the zone in order to gather ideas and feedback that might help him to “improve” his campaign and “align” himself to the true will of the people. In a speech, he mentioned that he plans “to build roads and provide water and electricity to those villages who are lacking that basic infrastructure.” He also added “We can’t provide development if we don’t tackle the most important issues first before promising “things that the wind can make fly anywhere.”

The objectives for Jamarara are tackling the opposition in the Northern Sierra region in order to prepare his “master plan” to be executed. According to some close people and advisers, the “plan” is to engulf the Metropolitan District” and prepare an “ideological offensive” in order to defeat Ñucanchi Ñan “in its very own turf”. Something that’s difficult but not impossible to achieve as Jamarara didn’t finished too far away from the first place in the Northern Sierra departments. He will have to apply lots of effort and time in order to place himself in a position capable to do so.

As we finish the first part, the longest one of this bulletin, we move forward to do an analysis of the data gathered by different polling firms during the last five weeks, the time elapsed since the SEC started the campaign for President and MPs.

Twelve opinion polls have been done during this period of campaign, made by five different polling firms of Huayramarca, being those: DatAnalisis, Cognoscience, Analiti-k, HuayraBarómetro, Opinión360. These firms are known for being the traditional source of information about the state of politics and the evolution of public opinion during electoral processes. The five housing polls use basically identical parameters for polling, such as: samples of 15,000 people, simulation of vote casting and an error margin (threshold) of 3.5% as an average (max of 4.5% and lowest of 2.75%), so the technical works of the polls are almost identical on the way those have been done. In terms of population, people from 18 to 65 years old were randomly selected for this process, also dividing between population with higher studies, middle and low or no studies at all in order to have a representative sample.

First, we go with the presidential elections trend of the last weeks:

At first glance, the most notorious thing in the plot is the sharp decline of the Conservative party. It’s important to notice that they were leading the preferences from the society on January 27th with a sound 30%, basically four points above Ñucanchi Ñan, but the decline began even prior to the debate with some lack of satisfaction from the people about the proposals made of developing the country which lacked of evidence or support. His unfortunate participation in the debate was some sort of nail in his coffin, as he reached a low 14% of support, something unexpected for a party such as the Conservative and, since then, hasn’t been able to reach the 20% mark.

In contrast, the Christian Values Alliance has done important gains through the time despite starting with a quite regular range of 18% to 21%, now the party has peaked to historical figures for them thanks to Salma’s Machado impressive debate performance. The party is now reaching 23% figures, something that are placing them in a head-to-head battle against Ñucanchi Ñan in the struggle of being the winning horse of the elections.

Being “mild” during the debate has caused a setback for Ñucanchi Ñan, but not a heavy toll, instead a four-points decline from their top at 28% to 24% where they sit today, only a bit above the Christian Values Alliance. Martha Mamani’s ideals should be more resolute towards the population in order to achieve a better performance, as she has to understand that people usually tend to prefer strong personalities under the premise of “strong leadership” and “trustfulness”.

In regards of the Communist Party and the Popular Party, both parties are experimenting some interesting wins after the debate, as they are closer and closer to the 20% than ever before, especially for a popular party that has been hovering the 8% during their all time low. The gains made are impressive and are turning this election into a real puzzle and demonstration of power and strategy at the highest level. To conclude, things continue to be extremely tight, to the point of being in the range of uncertainty and error that the Polling Firms have established for their samples.

In regards of the legislative elections, the Polling Firms have also made a simulation of voting to the people considered as a sample in this process. The same amount of people, polls and technical details as the presidential polls, but this time considering that there are 200 seats to be gained for the National Assembly, 133 seats are needed for a supermajority and 101 for a single majority. Results through the polling have been resumed in the following chart, the party with most seats is highlighted in green and white-bold characters.

As seen, Ñucanchi Ñan has managed to be the party with most seats in nine out of twelve polls, this trend confirms as of now their influence in the people of Huayramarca, although the number of seats they have had as projected had varied and now they are at a low point of only 44 projected seats, sharing the same amount with the Christian Values Alliance. The Alliance has gotten the lead four times with a max of 48 seats and now in 44, it’s noteworthy that the Alliance has tied with Ñucanchi Ñan three out of four times in number of seats, which could complicate things a bit while forming a coalition for government.

The Conservative Party has had a sharp decline from their top of 60, now they are hovering around 36 seats (a decrease of 24 in a matter of three weeks) and they don’t show any sign of recovery, this might require Ricardo Flores to perform a comeback with a solid display of leadership, confidence and moderation in order to appeal voters. The Popular Party and Communist Party have left the role of boogies and now they are forces that can manage to leverage a coalition by either siding to Ñucanchi Ñan or to another party such as the Christian Values Alliance.

Following up, there are two scenarios that might be worthy to consider in order to have a better panorama at the building-up of the legislative governmental structure, being those the following ones:

This scenario requires an alliance between Ñucanchi Ñan, the Communist Party of Huayramarca and the Christian Values Alliance that would rely on negotiating key issues such as Anaian Integration, progressivism in the agenda (LGBTQ and abortion issues) and economy, as both differ in mining.

The coalition is bound to happen if we ponder out that Ñucanchi Ñan and the Communist Party have more strict approaches in mining, compared to the Conservative Party and the Popular Party, as both are in favour of full extractive operations without considering religious and indigenous issues. As projections stand, there’s a low probability that the coalition would achieve supermajority, which is almost unneeded unless the coalition aspires to change the constitution, something that nobody has considered to do as a campaign promise, still enough to leverage by themselves key issues from the public agenda to solve them without lockdowns due to opposition.

The Conservative Party and Popular Party will have little to no influence to leverage in the formation of laws unless it requires a supermajority, still, they have a last ace under the sleeves as the capability to debate laws and going to the Supreme Court in order to render unconstitutional any act or bill promoted by the government.

The second scenario is the following one:

This scenario involves Ñucanchi Ñan and the Communist Party of Huayramarca as a two-party bloc and the Christian Values Party bidding by themselves to form a government with the help of the Conservative and Popular parties. As the chart explains, the numbers will not adjust to form a supermajority under this scenario, as the coalition is nowhere close to have 133 MPs backing it, although they have enough to build a single majority.

This coalition might be difficult to be built due to the contrasts of a delicate topic such as mining, since Conservatives and Populars favour mining while Christian Values is completely against this position by considering it goes “against the will of God.” Also, the contrast with Anaian Integration as the Conservatives are against while Populars and Christian Values favour this topic, so this could be a potential crack on the coalition, and a deadly one that could potentially isolate the Conservatives in this one only.

There’s a lot of ideological positions and currents that might shape the Assembly, but one thing should be taken for granted, there’s going to be some long talks between the halls of the National Assembly. This could cover all topics or might feature some occasional changes according to the needs of the government or ideological thoughts from the parties in order to keep their supporters satisfied with the decisions they are taking for the future of Huayramarca.

by **Eshialand** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 8:12 pm

Halfway to the Cup of Harmony
Eshialand 3-3 Brookstation
Texkentuck 0-3 Eshialand

"Hello and welcome back to ENN Newshour, this is Josh Seametzle, here to bring you the latest news on the Aleiravan--"
"Sike!" Karsten Rhodes yells, popping out from under the desk.
"Karsten, we're live, and where did you even come--"
"Listen, we the viewers are sick and tired of Aleirave this, Anaia that."
"Ugh... I know, I've gotten the same angry emails from Sarah Silver... so what do you propose?"
"An impromptu Tournament Report, of course!"
"In the middle of Newshour?"
"Yes"
"O... kay then!

"So you, Karsten, are the one who proposed this. What do you suppose we talk about?"
"Look at this group table Josh. Look at it! I SAID LOOK AT IT!!"

Group 11                        Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
1 South Newlandia                   7    5   2   0    19    7  +12    17
2 Zwangzug                          7    5   2   0    10    3   +7    17
3 Yuezhou                           7    3   2   2    18   15   +3    11
4 Eshialand                         7    3   1   3    15   12   +3    10
5 Gatchingerrak Union               7    2   1   4    11   16   −5     7
6 Lisander                          7    2   1   4     5   10   −5     7
7 Brookstation                      7    1   3   3    10   11   −1     6
8 Texkentuck                        7    1   0   6     5   19  −14     3

"And what am I looking at? This looks pretty normal..."
"The Owls are on 4 matches undefeated Josh! Look at it! After the start they had, they're clawing their way back up!!"
"Wait, you aren't being pessimistic about it?"
"No?"
"Snarky?"
"Why?"
"Sarcastic?"
"Yes Josh, I'm being sarcastic..." he said sarcastically.
"So you're actually happy even though the Owls are 7 points out of a playoff spot?"
"I guess the more important question would be... and you aren't??"
"I'm just... confused, that's all."
"Would you rather not be confused? I can be pessimistic if you want!"
"NO NO PLEASE NO!!"
"Ugghh, the Owls' next three matches are against the top three seeds again..."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! CHARLIE!!! ROLL AN AD!! PLEEEAAAAAAAAAASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

Eshialand - 3 (Harran 33', 60'; MacDougall 44')
Brookstation - 3 (Onfroy 25', 69'; Polnareff 90+2')

Texkentuck - 0
Eshialand - 3 (Carroll 41'; Habisbrauer 71'; Meilling 76')

by **Valentine Z** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 8:29 pm

Part 6 – Conflicto de intereses.

Chief Aviator Gwen Tracer Hepburn “Fate of Existence and the Omniverse” Ellen Trixie Caitlin Foxworthy Avril Verlene Eveline Celinda Sammy Doris T-Rev Oxton Arielle Lindall Leslie Vitesse Allison stood at the middle of a grass field overlooking Aoutpine's Yangon, a bead of sweat on her and yet, with a smile perhaps bigger than even that of Clarissa's. "I told you guys, it will be done right before them!" she proudly announced. The Valentians have been lamenting their losses from the war, losing entire cities and even nearly both of the planets. Most of the losses are still human losses, though all of them being soldiers as the civilians live rent-free in Adriana's data banks. Still, with the war over, it was time to move on and to pick up the tab - to respectfully mourn the losses and to move on into the decades and centuries that would be ahead for the Valentians. One of the things that Gwen promised Valentijn was reassurance. She reassured that based on her projections, the Valentians would be able to finish rebuilding the planet in 4 years such that by the time they were done with the reconstructions, they would be right on schedule for the 12th season of NSSCRA, as well as for the 90th season of World Cup. "4 years would be the time we would need in order to build a skyscraper," Gwen added on, Valentijn beside her as they stood tall and proud, "However, times and technology have changed, alongside the extra help, of course!" Gwen paused for a while as she slowly pointed at her chest - a harness with the device that glows brightly and hums harmoniously, "Time is no longer an issue with the Fate around. You have all know this by now, though of course, I will still have to say it for the future generations, and perhaps for those who are not familiar with us. And last but not least, let us not forget those who have sacrificed in the name of Valentine Z, and never came back. Now then, a moment of silence." The minute of silence filled the air, not having the tension, but a simple and respectful movement to mourn those who have moved on. Even with cloned synthetic bodies and other amenities and technologies available to the Valentians, a handful of them have made a personal decision to let natural death take its course, the decision that does not have an adverse impact on the standing of a citizen, and is one that is held with utmost respect. On the outside, Gwen was more than happy to see that the world that she decided to live in has been rebuilt in the matter of 4 years, a feat that would have taken perhaps 20-50 years to start from the beginning for one planet, let alone for two. Local re-terraformings were done, as well as recycling materials and reconstructing the buildings that were once lost.

With the speech and the moment of silence done, the Valentians unveiled a small but meaningful memorial right in front of the residency of Valentijn - a stone wall containing the names of those who have been lost, overlooking the garden that has planted one seed for every fallen Valentian Defense Forces soldier. The memorial is simply one out of many, with many others being spread around across both of the planets and on the ex-battlefields alike. A large part of Gwen felt that she could have done something regarding the Valentians and possibly the fates of many, what with her being able to control timelines and the like. However, a small part of her knew that at times, things happen for a reason. If she wanted, she could have made it so that Gwen's Angels won all of the IBC matches. She could have make it so that she won all of the NSSCRA races. "That timeline is a rather.. undesirable one. Even with my immense powers, you typically don't want to screw around with time. Trust me, I did it once - and it was a very insignificant mistake - and that resulted in me spending 1372 years of my life trying to un-screw that world. Butterfly Effect still reigns over the Fate!" And so with that, a few days later it was time for the Valentians to celebrate the new year. "Happy 2092!", the Valentians all over the world yelled, one timezone at a time. There were holidays galore with friends and families coming to terms with their losses and in Gwen's word, "Making a sum out of the parts." The war may be horrible, but it was certainly not going to stop the Valentians from celebrating and enjoying life. The deceased Valentians would have always wanted that, after all. Long story short, it was finally time for the Valentians to move on and to go back into their daily lives. The nightmare was effectively over and done.

It is time for the Valentians to get started in international sports yet again, and they sure did. The first event of the year was World Cup 90, this time with a surprise group of civilian players lead by Exuberant Superintendent T-2000/2904-3 Surveillant Clarissa Alanis Star Breya « La Amoureux Chéri » Millie Taissa Butterfly Mélody Coraline Jolijn Trini Clementine Hollie Samantha Zeta Harumi. That much has been already told, and it's no longer a surprise for many of the Valentians. They did pretty great for the first-timers, after all! However, after the 7th Match Day, Clarissa would get a surprise that even she might be a little taken aback by. That day, word got around faster than light shining into the room, as the Valentians received rumors about NSSCRA 12 starting sometime. That was no surprise, as the Valentians know that it will happen anytime soon. What they were not prepared for, however, was the fact that NSSCRA 12 signups were happening right there, right now. "Wait, now?!" Anastasia “De Sierlijke en Vrij High Valkyrie ov Valentine Z” Freya Valentina Ada. Jolin Annelijn Caitlin Trijntje Crystal Clarice Constance Judy Voi. D. Nexitros Annile Teresa Thida Myat Yadana Aye exclaimed excitedly and anxiously, eager to go back into the action. "Oh shoot, we will have to tell Clarissa-" as she was going on excitedly, she suddenly realised as to the complications and the dilemma that might be surrounding Valentine Z's favorite blue android. "I will give her a call now, don't worry about it, haha!" Gwen replied back reassuringly to Anastasia as she patted her on her back.

Clarissa and her team has just finished the 7th match of the season as they took that victory against Savojarna, elated and exuberant true to her name. As she was debriefing and nodding happily and gently at her team, she received a call on herself; someone was pinging and paging for her through the interdimensional communications, she thought to herself. "Ahh, excuse me for a moment," she said happily, as she then answered the phone call. "Hello there! Clarissa here! ♥"

"Hey, Clarrie, Gwen here! So, I heard quite a lot of great news about your team and everything! You must have been very proud!"

"Oooh, I sure am! Thanks for the call and for reaching out, Gwen! I hope you have been well! How's everything going?"

"Pretty amazing! So ahh, we kinda just got word about NSSCRA 12. You know about that one, right?"

"Yeap, I sure do! Hmm, what about it?"

"They announced early, Clarrie! The sign-ups are already open! Me, Anastasia, Marcus, and Valentijn here have already signed up for the race! Holly and Jolyn too, of course. You know, the usuals! So anyway, Anastasia and Valentijn were telling me to call you, so you know.. with the World Cup in tow, do you think you could make it in?"

Clarissa processed for 371 microseconds. It might not be as much for humans, but for robots like her, that seemed like an eternity to process a question as simple as this. Her mind was racing around, artificial neurons firing and the codes processing heavily on what she should do.

"We got a new driver signing up with the Gardeners too! Anna “De Eeuwige Vreugde” Caitlin Madeline Brigitte Priscilla Teresa Mavis Thanda Pwint Thinzar Nwe, Tweede Verpersoonlijking van De Sierlijke und Verwonderlijk Feline Utopia ov Valentine Z! She wanted to drive a NSSCRA as well! The Happiness of Valentine Z, now right alongside us! You and Anna will make an excellent presence even if in the different sub-teams! So ahh.. what do you say, Clarrie?"

"Hmm.. to be quite honest, I will have to think about this one for now, yeah?"

"Sure! Keep us updated! Bye, Clarrie!"

"Bye, Gwen!" Clarissa let out a small little squeal from excitement. At the same time, she looked at her team as they overheard the conversation. The Kittens definitely knew a lot about Clarissa's involvement since NSSCRA 8, and it would certainly be a shame for her to miss it out. On the other hand, these are the Kittens' first time on the field, and they would lose out on the advantages they have. Unfortunately for Clarissa, she also cannot clone herself, lest it causes conflicts and backlogs that, in Jenny's words, "Would require a booting up that is so hard, like "We will need to delete 36 hours of her memory" boot up." In other words, something definitely not worth trying...

"Hmm, ohh I got an idea!" Clarissa said, the neurons inside her lighting up, "I was wondering if you guys would be okay with a smaller version of me. Like, just a shell of me that only runs soccer / football coroutines. She won't be as expressive as I am, and to be honest, won't be as smart." The Valentian Kittens thought a little hard on that idea, unsure and were scratching their heads. "I know guys, I'm so sorry! I really want to lead and manage you guys for this match but at the same time, you know I really want to go for this race. Thanks for understanding but I still feel bad about it."

"Ahh, don't worry. We will be fine!" Sammie said, his leg more or less healed and are ready to go, though would not be playing against the rough all-girl team.

"Actually, I was thinking.." Clemente replied back, "Instead of a shell with coroutines, why not just connect yourself to it remotely and do the RC thing?"

"That's actually not a bad idea as well. A simple solution that might just work! Only issue for me is the latency, even our internet speeds are not too good when it's Interdimensional. Still, still.. I'll see what I can do, all right?"

Come the next match, Clarissa would bid her team a semi farewell, giving each of them a hug and telling them about how proud she is and how amazing they are doing. She went back to Valentine Z to finalize the dealings and to sign up for NSSCRA 12, whilst also leaving the Valentian Kittens behind with a life-like version of her, just minus the codes and cores and everything else that makes Clarissa on who she is. In other words, a simple robot with motors solely to be controlled remotely by Clarissa back in Valentine Z. "If the 8th Match Day goes well with this copy of mine, then we will stick to this one! Good luck, you guys!"

by **Guanacasteca** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 8:34 pm

Servicio Guanacasteco de Noticias

Not Bad, Not Good - Lessons Learned

Camilo Gutiérrez, on coverage of the 90^th World Cup.

The Guanacastecan National Team is in halfway into their first foray at World Cup Qualifiers, this means that they are in that learning curve or period where they pay the rights to belong to that place. Teams from across the Multiverse face the Pigs, including nations such as Electrum and heavyweights such as Cassadaigua, that’s why there’s no surprise when you see the table and spot this team in the penultimate position of the leaderboard with three points.

I might sound conform but you know what? Be glad that the team hasn’t zero points as of now, as many teams usually start in that situation and then either vanish or improve dramatically. Look for the clearest example possible, Banija, the Atlantian Oceanian nation was known for having the worst record during World Cup 74, they lost every game during the 12 matches qualifier, then they rebuilt the structure in order to come back stronger to the World Cup, what they managed after that? Hosted a World Cup and then won it, they also have the strongest league in the Multiverse with Farfadillis.

What we can learn? This is a long process, we have to learn the difference from the failures of today and the lessons obtained and applied successfully during the World Cup Qualifiers, our time to qualify will someday come to fruition and we will celebrate it as the culmination of the main goals proposed while assembling this team from the Liga Guanacasteca de Fútbol (Primera División).

Han Ruoyang has done it, that’s for sure in a so disciplined mind as he has, he has already noted that the team is lacking solidarity while trying up front, they are dedicating themselves to defending and not trying to attack as they did on the Baptism of Fire. The Pigs are known for being a resilient team and they have showed it during this World Cup, tying Electrum and keeping Cassadaigua and Polkopia into troubles for a significant part of the match was a sign of that, they are able to read the game but not capable to take advantage of the few chances they have in order to attack and score a goal past the rivals.

That’s why the team has been focusing a lot on trying to move as a block up forward in order to score a goal past rivals, this is using their capabilities as a team in order to have more opportunities up front, as they will have more options to pass the ball or even for support while trying to finish the play. This same ideal will also be useful in order to move back and defend the goal, in order to support the efforts made by Orellana and Monterroza, who are like the glue that keeps the team’s defense united and strong in order to avoid further vulnerating through the games that the team has had.

The second half is the opportunity for Guanacasteca in order to recover terrain, just don’t expect this team move into top-3 or something like that, finishing above 6th place will be an important earning for this team in order to build a solid reputation. Remember, this isn’t a race of a couple of matches, this is an endurance marathon were teams struggle to build solid-enough projects in order to make the World Cup Finals someday and then keep the same game idea in order to progress and achieve to win the big thing, the blinky trophy everybody desires to win, the World Cup of the Multiverse.

by **Savigliane** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 8:49 pm

FIND YOURSELF

5. Dibattito

"You're on in ten, Miss Fiore," came a polite voice from outside the dressing room.

"Understood, thank you," Bianca replied, and sighed. She raised a hand, noting that it was visibly shaking.

"What's wrong?" asked Evangelista Rizzuto, raising his head from what she assumed was twii.tur.

"It's just - you know, I don't know what I'm doing. Even with all the coaching, the flashcards, the mock debate - I feel like I'm going to freeze."

"Hey, it's okay. Once you get up there, it's all instinct. I thought I would fuck up my first debate too. Basically knocked Bartois out of contention."

"I don't have the instinct, Evangelista. I'm a footballer, for God's sake. I don't tear people down like this. It's not me - I keep shrinking, like that mock which was just five guys shouting me down whenever I tried to say anything. I can't, like, tell everyone about the impending apocalypse or whatever my talking points are."

"Remember your first rally?" Evangelista said with a laugh. "You were just like this. 'Oh, Evangelista, I'm going to freeze, oh, Evangelista, I'm not big enough for this.' You remember what you did? Absolutely smashed it. Remember how they were chanting your name? Remember how we shot up in the polls? We're at fifteen now. We're at a tipping point. Everything we've worked for is coming to fruition."

Bianca shook her head meekly. "This is different. That crowd idolized me. This is like...five sharks circling me, waiting for me to slip up so they can score some points."

"They're just people, you know. Just like you or me. They'll pull their punches, especially when they process your opening statement...here, recite it for me again."

"Seriously?"

Evangelista smiled sharply. "It'll only take a minute. It's good practice, isn't it?"

"Good evening, Henri and Fiona, and thank you to everyone for coming out to watch the debate tonight." As she began with a sigh, she noticed Evangelista closing his eyes and mouthing the words. He'd basically written the statement, after all. "In the past few weeks, many of my friends and fans have asked me why I've chosen to represent Piano di Dios. The answer is simple - I didn't enter politics because I liked it. I entered politics because Savigliane is facing apocalypse if we do not change the path we're on. I'm not talking about religion - I'm talking about Prime Minister Caccini's and President Bernard-Ricci's schemes to build inter-dimensional teleportation and force us back into our original reality. The elites and the experts that they've assembled in the ITTF have almost succeeded, as you can see on pianodidios.sv - but what will happen when they turn their great machine on? They don't know - so why should we trust that it won't kill us all, or scramble our nation beyond recognition?"

She paused, stopped the shaking of her hand, and looked at Evangelista Rizzuto, who nodded to continue.

"When I was stranded in Occitania for two years after the original Portal Event, I felt tremendous mourning as I realized my motherland, my people, were all gone - and because of that, I totally empathize with those of you who feel the same way now. But more than that, I felt betrayed. The Occitan government - and the rest of the world - kicked Savigliano refugees aside, like dogs. We were left to die, mistreated beyond belief. And now we have found ourselves in the paradise that is Anaia, and we want to go back? Even if Caccini's moonshot doesn't destroy our nation, we will be leaving a place we are treated well, where we have a future, for one where we are disrespected and abused, invaded and occupied for a hundred years. This is the kind of choice that defines a people. We must act with courage, not run away. That is why I am in politics."

"Brava," Rizzuto said, with a mock bow and flourish. "I knew you could do it."

"But it's different," she insisted. "And the statement...I know what you said. But it's not me. I don't know if I can sell it."

"You have to. This is how we win. Alberto Caccini, Alphonse Duhamel, Violette Bartois, Emmanuel Saint Laurent...they're just people. They subconsciously adore La Capitana. And they'll be reeling from this bombshell, enough not to pressure you much more than what you've practiced for. You just have to know how to turn on the charm." Seeing her still unsure, he unclasped the cross necklace around his neck and reached over to hers. "Here. I got this before my first national debate. Didn't do half bad."

"Oh, you really don't have to-"

"I insist," he said, forcibly connecting it back together and tucking the cross in, "on giving you some of that Rizzuto je ne sais quoi."

"...thanks."

"I wouldn't have chosen you for this if I didn't think you were special, Bianca." Evangelista smiled warmly as he stood to leave the room. "Knock 'em dead. You're on in two."

works? · by **Abanhfleft** » Mon Jan 24, 2022 8:50 pm

"He loved you?" Elene Liner said in complete disbelief. "Gareth Williamson told you that he loved you?"

"I know, right?" Kelly McGinnis exclaimed. "You know, I was just so shocked when I heard him say that that I just couldn't speak for a whole minute! I was just sitting there with my mouth hanging open waiting for a goddamn fly to fly right in! And the bastard didn't even realize what he'd done to me! He just kept talking on and on about how our paths didn't look like they were ever going to cross once again once he was cut from Sporting Ceneisis. I mean, I just can't believe it! Can you believe it?"

"Actually, I think I can believe it," Elene said. "The part about Gareth falling in love with you, I mean. I never said anything to you or to him before because I didn't want to ruin it by rushing it, but I can just tell from the way he looks at you that the guy's been bitten by the love bug. Now I don't know why he never said anything to you before now, or maybe I do. You two were friends, right? Like, even before the football days?"

"Yeah, that's true," Kelly nodded. "Oh, I wish I could have seen it too back then! I could have done something to help him along, maybe make the first move, even."

"Oh, you probably don't want to be doing that!" Elene said. "For all of his attraction to you, Gareth also gave me this conservative vibe. What I mean is, if you had gone ahead and made the first move on him back in the day, it might actually make him back off. You get what I'm saying?"

"Maybe," Kelly shrugged. "Or maybe not." She then went silent and stared wistfully into the distance.

"Come on now, Kel," Elene said as she moved closer to Kelly's locker. "I know you too well to know that there's something about Gareth that's bothering you. You can tell me. I'm your friend, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Kelly replied. She then took a long breath before answering Elene's question. "I don't think he planned on telling me anything about the hows and whys of him falling in love with me," she said. "But while we were talking, I noticed that he had a ring on his finger and I pointed it out."

"Oh," Elene muttered. "Oh, Kelly. I don't know what to say."

"Frankly, neither did he, I think, funnily enough," Kelly said softly. "He said it was an engagement ring. He's due to get married sometime in late October."

"Really now? Did he invite you?" Elene asked.

"What do you think? Of course not!" Kelly snorted. "And somehow, things led from the engagement ring to him admitting that he loved me. Like, for him it just slipped out."

"And you have a problem with that?"

"What!? No! Of course not!" Kelly said indignantly. "Why would I have a problem with it?"

"Have you even met his fiancee?" Elene asked.

Kelly shook her head. "I don't even think he showed me a picture of her," she said. "She could look just like anyone else. She could look like me, she could look like him. Heck, she could even look like you with the protruding eyes!"

"Hey, that's not a very nice thing to say!" Elen exclaimed. "I mean, I'm used to hearing you call me 'bug eyes,' but when you're talking about another person, it just seems wrong."

"I know," Kelly sighed. "But it's just like what I said. I don't know who she is or what she looks like. Of course Gareth has every right not to say anything about her to me, but when you combine that with that bombshell he just dropped… I mean, I just can't help it! I don't know what the fuck to feel about him after he just told me that he loved me." She sighed again, and then she stood up, opened her locker, and began to undress.

"You know, Kel, there's something I've noticed about your choice of words," Elene said. "That's the third time you've said 'loved.' As in, it's in the past tense. You said that Gareth told you that he loved you. Not he loves you, he loved you. Is there something going on here you're not telling me about?"

"Of course not," Kelly shook her head while she slipped into her training top. "As for what Gareth said, I'm just telling you what he told me. Many years ago, he fell in love with me. But as time went on and the distance between us grew, not just physically but also in emotional terms and whatever else he used to describe it, he just lost the spark. But he didn't go out there and look for it again. It just found him, and now here we all are."

"I don't know," Elene shrugged. "I might be speaking out loud here, but you sound… I don't know. Disappointed?"

"I'm not disappointed," Kelly insisted. "In fact, I'm happy for him! I'm happy that he found someone else. But at the same time…" Kelly trailed off. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but there's this part of me that wishes that it could have been me. It's just a small part, don't get me wrong, but it's still there."

"Ooh, now we're getting somewhere," Elene said. "Do you really think that, given the chance, things could have worked out between the two of you?"

"I don't know. Probably? Maybe? There's just no way of telling," Kelly said, shaking her head yet again. She then slammed the door of her locker shut and said, "I can't take this anymore. I need to tell this to somebody."

"What? What is it?" Elene asked.

"You know I just celebrated my birthday recently, right?" Kelly asked back.

"Of course I do," Elene nodded. "I know for a fact that your birthday is just a few weeks after mine. What's that got to do with Gareth, though?"

Kelly looked around the locker room, as if making sure that no one was eavesdropping on them, and then she leaned closer to Elene and whispered, "You know I just turned thirty, right? Just like you."

"No need to remind me," Elene muttered back. "My body does that to me all the time now."

"Anyway, I've been thinking about my life up to this point, everything I've done and every decision I've ever made," Kelly continued. "At first, I went to Haranguer just to see an old friend, but after everything I learned from Gareth there, my line of thought has just gone in a completely different direction. What if I hadn't made that move to Mercedini? What if I had stayed here in Abanhfleft? What if I had been there to help Gareth when he got cut from the team for being injured too much? What if Gareth had told me that he loved me much earlier? Where would the two of us be now? Would we be together? Would we have drifted apart like what really happened? What could have happened between the two of us? Would we have gotten married and had kids? It doesn't help that there's suddenly a bunch of older women in my life who love nothing more than to bombard me with one single question: 'when are you getting married?' Then they keep adding things like 'You're not getting any younger, you know' and 'The longer you wait, the less chances you have.' Like, I know, grandma! What do you think I'm trying to do here? You get what I'm trying to say, don't you, Elene?"

"Oh, Kelly," Elene muttered. "Of course I do. In fact, I might even go so far as to say that I'm going through a similar thing right now. And you're right. Time really does have a way of putting our minds in a funk. Just a few minutes before you walked in, I was also thinking about the decisions I've made. And there's one that stands out to me right now."

"What's that?" Kelly asked.

"Remember that time when that dude from another team—I think it might have been Trolleborg—asked me out on a date?" Elene said. "And I accepted, but when he asked me if I wanted to take it one step further, I said no thanks? Well, I can't stop thinking about that moment. I can't stop thinking about what if I had said yes instead. Would we still be together? Probably not. Long distance relationships don't last that long anyway. But if I had been in a relationship before, would it make it easier for me to pursue a new one? And would I have a boyfriend, a husband, kids by now if I'd only said yes to that one guy? And also, there's this whole making a family thing. Some people say it's just natural, a biological instinct. Others say it's the patriarchy's way of keeping all women from becoming too successful. I don't know if any of that is true, or if it's all lies. All I know is that I decided to say no to that guy, and you decided to move to Mercedini. Is it the right decision for us? Maybe, or maybe not. But at least we made those decisions for ourselves. Nobody forced us into those decisions. I said no because I wanted to say no, and you went to Mercedini because you want to go there. And nobody can take that away from us."

"Is that speech supposed to make me feel better?" Kelly asked after a few moments.

"I don't know. Do you feel better?" Elene asked back.

"I think I'll just continue getting changed, and then I'll follow you out."

         ABANHFLEFT 4 - 4 ZETA REKA AND HUGELTALDOM  
        LINER (21')       SCWARTZHAMMER (33')
McGINNIS (37', 57')       RAWIC (52', 68')
 FLEET-STREET (78')       ZUP (71')

       KIMI-SUOMI 4 - 4 ABANHFLEFT     
       HINTZ (5')       McGINNIS (55')
BOTTAS (75', 82')       WOODWARD (60')
 TUOMINEN (90+2')       LINER (63')
                        RUSEV (69')

STARTING ELEVEN VS. TIKARIOT & AUDIOSLAVIA
GK: Bronwyn Churchill
DF: Queen Yarnall, Christy Shepley, Tiera Walrath, Georgine Baum
MF: Trinidad Kleist, Cecily Segovia
Sohaila Magomedova, Prudence Woodward, Claudia Roos
FW: Kelly McGinnis

World Cup 90--RP Thread

Expedition, Episode 1

Though The Stars Fall - Episode I (plus episode index, soon)

WC90 MD6-7

WC90Q MD6/7 Britonisea / Drawkland

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