20th World Lacrosse Championships [Everything Thread]

[Cosumar]

Matchday 3

Group 1
Jecatria 15–8 England-Ireland
Estenia 3–18 Cosumar
The Kytler Peninsulae 8–14 German Zerabithea

Group 1                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Jecatria                         3   3  0  0   45  26 +19    9
2 Cosumar                          3   2  0  1   40  21 +19    6
3 Estenia                          3   2  0  1   26  32  −6    6
4 German Zerabithea                3   1  0  2   30  37  −7    3
5 The Kytler Peninsulae            3   1  0  2   25  34  −9    3
6 England-Ireland                  3   0  0  3   22  38 −16    0

Group 2
Abanhfleft 17–3 The Unbroken
Chiata 6–9 The Sarian
Star United States 9–9 Semarland

Group 2                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 The Sarian                       3   2  1  0   30  16 +14    7
2 Semarland                        3   2  1  0   29  26  +3    7
3 Star United States               3   1  2  0   27  25  +2    5
4 Abanhfleft                       3   1  1  1   32  20 +12    4
5 Chiata                           3   0  1  2   23  27  −4    1
6 The Unbroken                     3   0  0  3   14  41 −27    0

Group 3
Britonisea 14–7 Kemobon
Darvale 7–13 Estope
Waldriech 11–14 Skarakia

Group 3                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Estope                           3   3  0  0   39  26 +13    9
2 Britonisea                       3   2  0  1   31  21 +10    6
3 Waldriech                        3   2  0  1   29  30  −1    6
4 Skarakia                         3   1  1  1   27  29  −2    4
5 Darvale                          3   0  1  2   26  33  −7    1
6 Kemobon                          3   0  0  3   24  37 −13    0

Group 4
Jeckland 15–6 United States of Minton
The Royal Kingdom of Quebec 5–9 New West Guiana
Serbian Orthodox Church 11–8 Ko-oren

Group 4                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Serbian Orthodox Church          3   3  0  0   38  28 +10    9
2 Jeckland                         3   2  1  0   39  29 +10    7
3 New West Guiana                  3   1  1  1   35  32  +3    4
4 The Royal Kingdom of Quebec      3   1  0  2   28  27  +1    3
5 United States of Minton          3   1  0  2   30  42 −12    3
6 Ko-oren                          3   0  0  3   23  35 −12    0

Group 5
Patistan 19–7 United States of Devonta
Electrum 6–15 Nassau-Hessen
Val Halla 11–10 Natanya

Group 5                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Nassau-Hessen                    3   3  0  0   37  24 +13    9
2 Electrum                         3   2  0  1   27  24  +3    6
3 Val Halla                        3   2  0  1   33  34  −1    6
4 Patistan                         3   1  0  2   33  24  +9    3
5 Natanya                          3   1  0  2   22  27  −5    3
6 United States of Devonta         3   0  0  3   30  49 −19    0

[Jeckland]

JECKLAND GOING WELL IN 20TH WORLD LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Jeckland have got two wins and a draw in the first threee of five World Lacrosse Championship group games, putting them in second place in the group.

The Spuds were drawn into a potentially dangerous group. Ko-oren were one of the unranked sides tipped to do well beforehand, and were one of the three drawn into Group 4 alongside Serbian Orthodox Church and United States of Minton. The ranked teams looked dangerous too, with The Royal Kingdom of Quebec, who helped knock Jeckland out of WLC 19, and New West Guiana, who beat them in the quarter-finals en route to winning WLC 18, also drawn into this group.

There was therefore a little trepidation as the tournament started about whether Jeckland would be in for a repeat of WLC 19, where they suffered a shock group stage exit. The first match looked tough, with the unranked but potentially dangerous Ko-oren the opponents. It was a nip and tuck game, and at several points it looked as if the outsiders would nick it, especially after the second quarter when they led 5-4. But a resillient Jeckland turned up the heat and saw off their opponents 11-10. Perhaps more significant for the Spuds were the results of their rivals, with #2 ranked New West Guiana going down in a surprise defeat to the United States of Minton. Quebec were also defeated by Serbian Orthodox Church.

The second matchday was a real litmus test, with Jeckland facing New West Guiana. Despite their loss on the opening day, they looked a very formidable foe. Jeckland came steaming out of the blocks, with some very attacking lacrosse taking the opposition by surprise as the Spuds stormed into the lead. However, in the last two quarters, they sat back to try and hold their lead. This proved to be a tactical error, as the opposition pushed forwards and opened up the defence. Jeckland, who had been dominating, ended up fighting to save a draw in the final seconds. United States of Minton meanwhile, could not follow up their win against today's opponents, losing to Serbian Orthodox Church, while Quebec recovered to record a strong victory over Ko-oren.

The next game saw the United States of Minton side play Jeckland, a potentially tricky unranked side. After a fairly even first quarter, Jeckland eased ahead and the victory never looked in doubt, with the final score 15-6. This not only showed Jeckland's dominance but was a real statement of intent, as Minton look a fairyl good side but were dismantled by the rampant Spuds. Serbian Orthodox Church are the only side above them, their win over Ko-oren meaning they maintain their perfect record. However, they are yet to play the Spuds and New West Guiana, meaning Group 4 is looking very tight, with the Guianans beat Quebec to move into third.

The next game for the Spuds is against Serbian Orthodox Chruch, with a win guaranteeing the Spuds passage to at least the Round of 12, and possibly the Round of 8. Whichever side wins will have an iron grip on this group, so it is a vital fixture for the Spuds which will have an effect on how far they can go in this tournament.

[Abanhfleft]

Dissociation, Part Three

Releinthi, Abanhfleft
September 17, 2008
Six years before

It had been four months since the end of the Holy Catholic Revolution. Releinthi had been one of the cities in Abanhfleft that had been heavily affected by the Revolution, the same revolution that had been the death of the Free Land of Abanhfleft and the birth of the new Democratic Republic of Abanhfleft. Ironically, despite being the site of three of the most destructive urban battles that the nation had seen, there were entire districts in the city that did not appear to have been touched by the recent civil war.

Ebelgorze District had been one of the “untouched” districts. Zach Tyler had evacuated his family to faraway Habalanbacushe Province once news of Cardinal Renald Gulloti’s declaration of a new “Almighty’s Republic of Abanhfleft” had gone out of the capital. Zach had already thought that the cardinal had never really been right in the brain, and when he the cardinal personally crucifying then-President Atarambodo Kikuludawe, his suspicions were all but confirmed. Kimber and Alice had been evacuated to Habalanbacushe while Zach had been recommissioned by the Fleftic Army, which had seen whole regiments defect en masse to Cardinal Gulloti and his “True Church of Iesus Christus.” Zach had been immediately given battlefield promotions to Captain and Major, and he led a few attacks against Gulloti’s “crusaders” when they finally broke out of Riuwiee and began attacking the rest of the Capital Islands.

Nine months later, the Catholic Revolution was finally over. Cardinal Gulloti had committed suicide by immolation before loyalist troops could capture him. 100 million people had lost their lives in the religious civil war, most of them being surviving “crusaders” who killed themselves rather than surrender to the Fleftic government. The end of the Revolution had paved the way for the end of the Free Land, and the rise of the Democratic Republic. The Fleftic Democratic Party and the Communist Party of Abanhfleft were the largest surviving parties in the country, their members having been spared execution at the hands of the Catholic crusader rebels because their political bases were in the outskirts of the nation, and the two parties agreed to establish a coalition government for the duration of the reconstruction.

One of the first edicts of the new coalition government had been a law declaring that any reprisals against members of the Catholic Church and the “so-called ‘True Church of Iesus Christus’” were punishable by laws regarding the preservation of freedom of religion. That didn’t stop many Fleftics of all religions and creeds from committing attacks against Catholics. Most of the people doing the reprisals had been Jews (Atarambodo Kikuludawe was a Jew). After the first few thousand reprisal attacks and killings, the newly-established Democratic Republic had decided to turn a blind eye to the attacks.

Ebelgorze District, which had escaped the three Battles of Releinthi almost unscathed, was now the battlefield of the inevitable post-war violence, being the home of lots of Jews and Catholics. The Tylers were themselves Catholics, albeit not of the regularly-attending-Church type, and that was one of many reasons why they hadn’t returned yet returned to their home in the months immediately following the war. Eventually though, once the interreligious tensions had mostly gone away, they finally returned.

The three of them had set about refurbishing the house almost immediately after returning. But first they tried to check if any looters had gone through their possessions during the time that they had been away. The house appeared mostly untouched by any intruders, but that didn’t necessarily mean that nothing had been stolen from them. Looters, especially of the Fleftic variety, had ways of nicking things without the owners ever being the wiser.

Alice had been sent to check her parents’ bedroom, while they were busy inspecting the kitchen. She had gone rummaging through the closets, mostly because Kimber had told her that that was where they had hidden some cash and jewelry. Alice noticed a small brown cardboard box tucked into a corner of the closet. Curious, she took the box and hauled it out of its hiding place. She didn’t really know what to expect when she opened it—maybe some kind of rare gem that even her parents had forgotten—but it certainly wasn’t stacks upon stacks of documents.

Most of the papers were just Zach’s old case files, files that he had brought home because sometimes he thought better in his own home than in the office. But there were some papers there that caught Alice’s eye. They were papers with her name on it. She had expected them to be her birth certificate, or something. And indeed, one of the papers was a certificate of live birth; specifically, the birth of Alicia Rosalyn Tyler to Zachary Taylor Tyler and Kimberley Charlene Burnett on July 22, 1992. But then there were a few more papers with her name after the birth certificate. And those were adoption papers.

Alice had immediately confronted Zach and Kimber with the adoption papers, right when the couple had been discussing about how to tell her about the fact that she was indeed adopted. Kimber had brought it up when Zach had told Alice to go into their room because she had thought—correctly—that Alice would eventually find out about it. Zach was the one who admitted to Alice that she was indeed adopted. He told her the true story of how he found her in an apartment while he was conducting an investigation for the police. The only thing that he left out was the fact that Alice was actually the daughter of the long-dead Hermenegildo Sanchez.

There had been the inevitable anger from Alice, demanding to know why the people that she had once thought of as her parents had not told her that there was actually no blood relation between them all. Kimber had tried to calm her daughter down by telling her that they would have eventually told her about the fact. But it didn’t work, mostly. Alice had run back to her room and cried herself almost dry, all while Zach and Kimber could only listen to her soul-rending sobs. She had refused to come out of her room after that, although eventually Kimber was able to get into her room and put the dinner that Alice had refused to eat on her desk. Zach had tried to talk to her one more time before they turned in for the night, but the conversation eventually and inevitably turned one-sided. Zach had assured his daughter that whatever the real blood relationship between them, he still thought of Alice as his own flesh and blood. Zach had given her a good night kiss on the forehead kiss, as used to be their custom when Alice was still young.

The next day, Kimber had gone into the room to try to convince Alice to finally come out. Instead she found just an empty bed. Apparently, Alice had decided to leave them behind. Either that, or somehow intruders had come into their house and taken her away, but that second scenario was highly unlikely, so Alice had to have decided to go away. Once Zach had managed to convince his wife that their daughter had decided to strike out on her own instead of being in the clutches of some anti-Catholic mob, he had called in a few favors within the department, asking them to put out a bulletin for his daughter.

The break had come from Alice’s best friend Milla Katz. Milla had been walking towards the high school that she and Alice had been attending before the Catholic Revolution came around, and she had seen Alice loitering around the school building, hefting a heavy backpack. Milla, thinking that her friend had been waiting for her to come, greeted Alice, but then Alice turned around and said that she wasn’t Alice Tyler, but rather some woman named Helen Ignacio. At first, Milla thought that her BFF was just trying to pull a fast prank on her, but then Alice—or Helen, or whoever she was—had pointed a gun at her and told her to back off. Milla followed her, and then once she was out of sight she called Zach and told her that she had seen Alice at their school, but that she was acting very, very weird. Zach had come to the school as soon as he could, but once he got there Alice/Helen was gone.

Then came the twist to their already convoluted story. Three days after she had vanished, Alice Tyler was the one that had called the police herself. She reported falling asleep in her room one night, and then suddenly waking up in Volga Volta Park the next day. Apparently, she was very unaware that she had been missing for three days, and she was very distressed to find a Walther P38 pistol on her person, along with an identity card that belonged to some woman named Helen Ignacio who looked exactly like her. Zach himself picked up Alice from Volta Park, and the family’s reunion had been a tearful affair for the three of them.

The next few months had been dedicated to piecing together the events that had led to Alice’s three-day disappearance. Zach immediately dismissed abduction, both human and alien, because both theories were outlandish, the second one very much more so. Eventually, a psychiatrist had provided them with the answer: Alice had gone through a dissociative fugue episode. Dissociative fugue was some kind of psychological event, usually brought about by some kind of mental or physical stressor, that usually led an individual to temporarily forget their original identity and sometimes craft an entirely new one from scratch. The signs of a dissociative fugue episode were obvious, in Alice’s case: her amnesia of the three days that she had disappeared, along with her friend Milla’s story that Alice had claimed that she was “Helen Ignacio” and pointed a gun at her. If those weren’t signs of a completely different personality, then the psychiatrist didn’t know what was.

Eventually, Zach and Kimber had decided to just forget about their daughter’s episode, not that Alice was really in any condition to talk about it. They did tell her about her adoption, which she had somehow forgotten along with the three days of her disappearance. This time, while she still did cry, she wasn’t as angry about it as she had first been. And so, the Tyler family was together once again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The present day

Zach took out his cellphone and called Dr. Juscelino Portucale, the psychiatrist that had come forward to him and diagnosed Alice of a dissociative fugue all those years ago. While he was doing that, he held Alice’s phone, which had now reverted to its home screen. He noted that the wallpaper was a self-photograph of Alice, or a selfie as the young people like her called it now. The woman in the picture was very different from the baby that he had found in that apartment all those years ago. The fact that she had gone through some kind of mental episode six years ago, and could be going through another one right now, wasn’t apparent in the photo, nor should it be. Things like her dissociative fugue couldn’t and shouldn’t be seen by other people.

Blood may be thicker than water, but sometimes the call of adopted blood was much, much stronger.

“Mr. Tyler!” Dr. Portucale called out happily. “How can I help you today?”

“Doctor, I have a situation,” Zach replied. “It’s about my daughter.”

He could see in his mind’s eye the smile on the doctor’s face suddenly disappear. “Oh,” Portucale said. “What is it?”

“I think my daughter’s going through another fugue state again.”

“What? Really?” Portucale’s curiosity was aroused. “That’s new. Usually people just go through a single episode.”

“So you’ve told me, Doctor,” Zach replied. “But I think this is another fugue episode. We just survived a car crash, and while we’re both okay, her mother is in a coma right now.”

“Okay,” Portucale said. “That may explain it. But this is the first time I’ve heard of someone going through a dissociative fugue through the conditions that you’ve described. I don’t mean to sound so scientific, Mr. Tyler, but my medical, psychological, and humanist curiosity have been positively aroused by this. Have you told anyone else about this?”

“Not yet, actually,” Zach replied honestly. “Yes, I actually called you first before the police. I guess it’s because I needed a second opinion before I went into this guns blazing.”

“Well, I don’t know what to say, honestly,” Portucale replied. “I guess I can say that I’m honoured that you went to me first, but I don’t think that’s appropriate for the situation.”

“Anyway, Doc, do you think Alice is in another fugue state right now?”

“I don’t know,” Portucale replied honestly. “I guess you’ll only find out when you find her. If she’s still Alice Tyler, then maybe she just went away. But if she’s in her Helen Ignacio persona again, then I guess that’s your answer.”

“Okay, Doc, thanks.” Zach ended the call. There was no way that Alice had sneaked away. He had called Milla, and she had told him that she had invited Alice to some bar near the university, but Alice hadn’t arrived there yet. Therefore, somehow, Alice was in another fugue state again. What are the odds? Zach thought to himself.

Zach called up another number. Once the person at the other end picked up, he said, “This is Inspector Zachary Tyler. I need an APB out for both Alice Tyler and Helen Ignacio. Yes, my daughter, Alicia Rosalyn Tyler. She’s disappeared once again, and I think this Ignacio woman may have something to do with it.” It was hard to lie to his fellow policemen, but it had to be done. Like he had promised himself before, no one else had to know about Alice’s mental history. Zach was sure that searching for “Helen Ignacio” along with Alice would lead him to her faster, because the Ignacio identity card was missing from where Alice had hidden it, along with the Walther P38 that she had found in the streets while still in her first fugue.

It was then that a thought entered Zach’s mind, and that thought sent a chill through his spine. What if Alice had inherited something more than genes and DNA from Hermenegildo Sanchez? But as quickly as it had come, Zach banished the thought from his mind. He had more important things to deal with than thinking about the heritage of a dead drug lord in his adopted daughter.

[Electrum]

Lacrosse News - Electrumites back for revenge

It was an unfortunate 19th World Lacrosse Championships campaign for Electrum, after being downed from the group stage after a loss to Korva, a nation which nobody ever heard of, or spoken of again. But the show must go on, and this time, the 20th WLC sees them travel to the Atlantian nation of Cosumar, and the collegial Electrumite team, still the same from last cycle (and still from the same Centralis University) will be hungry for revenge in the campaign. This time, their odds of going through to the next round seems higher, as they must finish in the top two, or be the top ranking third placer. To do that however, is a different matter entirely.

Halfway through the group stage, and Electrum is sitting second on the table, and fortunately, no upsets (which plagued the team last cycle) just yet. Electrum plays all of their matches at the VisionTech field in Cosumar, and with three matches down, two to go, things are looking bright for them. The first two matchdays saw Electrum go up against Val Halla and Natanya respectively. Like Electrum, these teams are coachless.

But in particular, there has been a renewed focus on the midfield. Dr. Farmer, White and captain Louis Stephens have clearly gone significant training through the offseason, to ensure the midfield is stronger than ever. Admittedly, not getting those turnovers and not winning those contests were what made Electrum lose last time, but this time has been different. They defeated Val Halla 12 to 5 after strong performances from the ageing Dr. Farmer and Max Paneer, who was again, a last minute goalkeeper call-up. Against Natanya, it was a closer affair with the final margin being 9 to 4. The particular highlight of the match was a particular one handed from behind the net made by Jeff Martinez.

Finally, as expected, Electrum lost to perrenial favourites Nassau-Hessen 6 to 15. The defense just simply crumbled as the Nassau-Hessen team used their quick hands to make fast work of getting the ball into the goal. The next match sees Electrum going up against second seed Patistan, who are a must-win team. Electrum needs to beat this team to secure a greater chance of qualifying to the next final, and avoiding yet another group stage disappointment. Tune in tomorrow to see what happens.

[Chiata]

OOC: Been really busy lately, but here's a roster to help my group mates.

Stadium: Point de Clu Lacrosse Field (15,000)
Coach: Wilson Pittman

Starters:
Forward: Lyle Dunn
Forward: Evan Bennett
Forward: Kyle Graham
Midfielder: Winston Ball
Midfielder: Warren Spencer
Midfielder: Tyler Call
Defender: Raymond Riley
Defender: Ramon Gill
Defender: Juan Waters
Goal Keeper: Loren Garner

Substitutes:
Forward: Armondo Robbins
Forward: Peter Peirce
Midfielder: Mitchell Mendez
Midfielder: Doyle Garett
Defender: Marty Robinson
Defender: Emanuel Hanson
Goal Keeper: Nick Webster

[Skarakia]

Official Skarakian Sporting News

The Eagles have landed!

The Skarakian Lacrosse team have won their very first international game! In a 14-11 thriller against Waldreich, Skarakia notched their first international 3 points, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Skarakia was on the outside looking in when it came to advancing out of the group stage, and they desperately needed three points against Waldreich to keep their hopes alive, and those points didn't come easy at all.

This game was destined to be action packed, and the action started even before the whistle. A scuffle broke out along the mid-line, when the two team's lacrosse balls got mixed up in a double ball bag spillage. It took the coaching staffs of both teams to break up the scuffle, but the refs didn't eject anyone. Then, when the two team's captains met, more trash talk ensued.

Finally the game got underway, and from the first faceoff it was a very chippy affair. Skarakia's long stick midfielder, Timothy Baines, under the pretense of going for the groundball, ran over Waldreich's midfielder Fred Jackson. Baines was called for a penalty on the play, and Waldreich scored on the ensuing penalty with a dazzling display of passing that left Skarakia's penalty kill awestruck, and left Waldreich's Stephen Jacks wide open on the crease where he slammed home the goal. On the following face-off, Skarakia's Jerome Wardsson scooped up the loose ball and sprinted to the top of the box. There, he let loose a cannon of a shot that just barely squeaked underneath the bar and into the net. The goals were traded back and forth, and at the end of the 1st quarter, the score was 6-5 in favor of Waldreich.

In the second quarter, the scoring slowed down immensely as each team's defense was able to compensate for the other's attack. Waldreich opened up the scoring when their midfielder, Daniel Kophboot, launched a rocket from just inside the box that found Skarakia's goalie's, John Bayern, leg and deflected in. Estimates have the shot at about 105 MPH, and John Bayern had to leave the game with an injured leg. That meant Thorben Reaves, Skarakia's backup, had to enter the field and hope seemed to be fading for Skarakia. On the ensuing faceoff, Matthew Paul cleanly won the faceoff, and then dumped the ball to Jerome Wardsson who brought it into Waldreich's box. Wardsson dumped it off to Sean O'Fenn who was able to find the top right corner from the left side. The second quarter was ended with just those two goals, and the score being 7-6.

After halftime, Skarakia went on a 7 goal run with goals from Matthew Paul, Matthew Bush, Sean O'Fenn, and Jerome Wardsson. It seemed like Waldreich was absolutely powerless to stop the Skarakian attack. Not only were the Eagles on a scoring run, the defense was locking down the Waldreich attack very tightly. Waldreich only managed one goal, towards the end of the quarter, with a beautiful snipe by attackman Cameron Pierre that Thorben Reaves was completely unable to stop. The score going into the fourth quarter was 13-8 in favor of Skarakia.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, it seemed like the game would be more of the same for Skarakia. In the beginning face-off, Matthew Paul won the face-off cleanly and ran down the field. He attempted a behind-the-back pass to Garde Savant, who was caught by surprise. The ball bounced off his face-mask and rolled into the goal. From then-on, however, Waldreich played lock-down defense. Skarakia didn't even sniff the goal for the rest of the game and the pressure was mounting on Skarakia's defense and it's back-up goalie. Waldreich kept the pressure up, but couldn't seem to unlock the Skarakian defense. That is, until the clock hit 4 minutes left. Waldreich scored a beautiful goal, in which every member of the team was able to touch the ball. Ultimately, the goal was scored by Dimitri Allesandro with a goregous shot from in front of the goal.This goal seemed to give Waldreich confidence, and they surged forward- scoring two more goals before the 1-minute mark. Going into the final minute, the score was 14-11, and the Eagles seemed to nervous again. However, the defense held firm along with some amazing saves by Thorben Reaves.

After the final whistle, the Skarakian team rushed Reaves and dog-piled him.

"Absolutely estatic" said head coach Amadeus Olafsen, when asked how he felt on his first international win, "we thoroughly deserved this with all the practice and time we've put into our game."

"We're happy with the result, you know? It feels good. Like a monkey is off our back" said Assistant Captain Jerome Wardsson. "We can't celebrate too much though, we have to keep focused and stay ready for our next game. If we can do it, we need to get into a good position to advance"

This game might have set an international record for the amount of hits each team put on each other. Waldreich put up a stunning amount of 39 hits on Skarakia, while Skarakia responded with 31.

As for the injury to John Bayern, it is currently believed that it was a muscle bruise that kept him out of the game. He is expected to start in Skarakia's next game against Kemobon.

Skarakia goalscorers: Jerome Wardsson(5), Matthew Paul(4), Sean O'Fenn(2), Matthew Bush, Travis O'Connell, Garde Savant

Waldreich goalscorers: Stephen Jacks(4), Daniel Kophboot(2), Cameron Pierre(2), Dimitri Allesandro, Jack Bauer, Fred Jackson

Skarakia, who has moved up to 4th, play 6th-placed Kemobon next

[Cosumar]

Matchday 4

Group 1
England-Ireland 9–12 German Zerabithea
Cosumar 11–3 The Kytler Peninsulae
Jecatria 5–9 Estenia

Group 1                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Cosumar                          4   3  0  1   51  24 +27    9
2 Jecatria                         4   3  0  1   50  35 +15    9
3 Estenia                          4   3  0  1   35  37  −2    9
4 German Zerabithea                4   2  0  2   42  46  −4    6
5 The Kytler Peninsulae            4   1  0  3   28  45 −17    3 E
6 England-Ireland                  4   0  0  4   31  50 −19    0 E

Group 2
The Unbroken 13–13 Semarland
The Sarian 14–15 Star United States
Abanhfleft 12–9 Chiata

Group 2                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Semarland                        4   2  2  0   42  39  +3    8
  Star United States               4   2  2  0   42  39  +3    8
3 Abanhfleft                       4   2  1  1   44  29 +15    7
4 The Sarian                       4   2  1  1   44  31 +13    7
5 Chiata                           4   0  1  3   32  39  −7    1 E
6 The Unbroken                     4   0  1  3   27  54 −27    1 E

Group 3
Kemobon 2–9 Skarakia
Estope 13–1 Waldriech
Britonisea 20–10 Darvale

Group 3                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Estope                           4   4  0  0   52  27 +25   12 Q
2 Britonisea                       4   3  0  1   51  31 +20    9
3 Skarakia                         4   2  1  1   36  31  +5    7
4 Waldriech                        4   2  0  2   30  43 −13    6
5 Darvale                          4   0  1  3   36  53 −17    1 E
6 Kemobon                          4   0  0  4   26  46 −20    0 E

Group 4
United States of Minton 5–7 Ko-oren
New West Guiana 17–7 Serbian Orthodox Church
Jeckland 21–9 The Royal Kingdom of Quebec

Group 4                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Jeckland                         4   3  1  0   60  38 +22   10
2 Serbian Orthodox Church          4   3  0  1   45  45   0    9
3 New West Guiana                  4   2  1  1   52  39 +13    7
4 Ko-oren                          4   1  0  3   30  40 −10    3 E
5 The Royal Kingdom of Quebec      4   1  0  3   37  48 −11    3 E
6 United States of Minton          4   1  0  3   35  49 −14    3 E

Group 5
United States of Devonta 6–5 Natanya
Nassau-Hessen 14–1 Val Halla
Patistan 12–4 Electrum

Group 5                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Nassau-Hessen                    4   4  0  0   51  25 +26   12 Q
2 Patistan                         4   2  0  2   45  28 +17    6
3 Electrum                         4   2  0  2   31  36  −5    6
4 Val Halla                        4   2  0  2   34  48 −14    6
5 Natanya                          4   1  0  3   27  33  −6    3
6 United States of Devonta         4   1  0  3   36  54 −18    3

[Abanhfleft]

Dissociation, Part Four

Miroslav’s Lunchroom, Bar, and Music Hangout
Releinthi, Abanhfleft

Miroslav’s Lunchroom, Bar, and Music Hangout was, as its name implied, a lunchroom, bar, and music hangout all rolled into one establishment. Originally, it had just been the lunchroom, but because of its proximity to Releinthi State University, the owner, a half-Russian named Miroslav Senkov, had decided to add a bar and a stage in this lunchroom to attract university students. And it had worked so well that it was said that Miroslav was now worth at least twenty million new penenks.

Zach Tyler had gone to this place, mostly because his gut was telling him to go there. Through his years in the Army and the FNP, he had learned to trust his gut feeling every time he was out completing an objective or investigating a case. And while the chances were slim that Alice/Helen would come to this place, Zach was counting on a slim hope that maybe Helen would unconsciously head for Miroslav’s because it had been one of the most recent things that had entered Alice’s mind. Indeed, it was a very slim thread, but Zach was willing to grab it because his gut was telling him to. Also, he hadn’t yet eaten a proper lunch.

Zach drove to Miroslav’s, having known the way there from the house through countless times of picking up Alice there. He parked his official government Karin Intruder in a spot three blocks away from the establishment and he entered the bar part of Miroslav’s. The lights were soft yellow incandescents, but Zach knew that was only for daytime operations. Once the moon came out, the incandescent lights would be turned off and replaced with black lights and lasers. There was a band setting up on the stage, and Zach recognized two of the bandmembers as friends of Alice’s. Milla had told him that she had invited Alice to Miroslav’s to kick back and relax just minutes before Alice had “disappeared” once again.

Zach was about to head for the lunchroom part of Miroslav’s when Milla stepped into his path. “Mr. Tyler,” she said. “Have you seen Alice?”

“No, Milla, not yet,” Zach replied honestly. “Also, I’m not sure she’s gonna come. She called me and said that she was gonna come here, but she’s disappeared once again.”

“What’s going on, Mr. Tyler?” Milla asked. “Alice disappeared again? Is this like last time?” The memory of her best friend pointing a gun at her during those first few months after the Catholic Revolution was still clear in her mind’s eye.

“No, Milla, I promise you that this is very much different from the last time that Alice disappeared,” Zach tried to assure his daughter’s friend. And, in a way, that was true. As long as Alice/Helen didn’t do anything stupid, no one else would be in danger.

“All right, Milla, here’s the deal,” he told his daughter’s best friend. “I’m here because I think that Alice may come here once again. Your invitation was one of the last few things on her mind before she disappeared. If you see her come in, I want you to call me immediately. Don’t approach her or do anything to her when you see her; just call me when you see her and let me handle her. Is that all right?”

“I think so, Mr. Tyler,” Milla replied weakly.

“Look, Milla,” Zach told her, “all you need to do is call me when you see her. I’ll handle the rest myself. You won’t even have to walk up to her. It’s an easy job. A young, strong woman like you should be able to do that.”

Hearing herself being called a woman by an adult gave Milla a little more confidence. She looked Zach in the eye, nodded, and said, “I can do it, Mr. Tyler.”

“All right, good. Here’s my new number. My old phone got wrecked in the crash.” Zach rattled off his cellphone number to Milla, who immediately put it into her own phone’s contacts list. “Remember, call me when you see her come in,” Zach repeated as he turned to go into the lunchroom.

“Mr. Tyler, you seem so sure that Alice will come here,” Milla said to him just before he left.

“Just call it gut instinct,” Zach replied.

The lunchroom was separated from the bar by two doors with one-way mirrors for windows. Light from the lunchroom was able to enter the bar and give it some more light, but no one from the lunchroom would be able to see whatever was happening inside the bar. The lunchroom itself looked like one of many roadside diners dating back to the Fifties and Sixties: red checkered floor, rows of benches covered in cracking red and brown leather lining the windows, and black stools beside the counter. Zach took one of the stools on the counter and picked up the menu. Apprehension and adrenaline was knotting up his stomach, and even though he wanted to tuck into an entire steak, he ordered just a small dish of sausages, scrambled eggs, and mashed potatoes. For drinks, he settled on a glass of iced tea. He would have wanted coffee, but he had drunk like ten cups a day after the accident had left his wife in a coma.

His meal arrived ten minutes after he ordered it, according to his watch. Just as he began to tuck into the scrambled eggs, he heard the sounds of a guitar strumming from the bar beyond the wooden doors beside the lunchroom. The band was probably just a few minutes from starting up their act.

Eating had served to relax Zach somewhat, and so by the time he finished the last of his sausage, he had already ordered a sides of French fries. For some reason, his body craved fried and greasy potatoes right now. While he waited for the fries, he checked his phone. There was still no message from Milla about Alice, or Helen, or whoever she thought she was right now. But then he didn’t expect one yet. It was still just half past noon. Too early for any good leads to arrive.

Thirty minutes later, Zach pushed away the plate where the fries had been served to him. Only a few crumbs of fried potato and grains of salt were left on the plate. Zach wiped his salt-covered fingers on his pants and stood up. He decided to head back to the bar, and see if he could spot Alice coming in. If indeed she came to Miroslav’s.

The band on stage was playing some kind of heavy metal rock when Zach entered the room, and his chest felt like it was being pounded by the soundwaves coming from the bass speakers. There were lots of people about Alice’s age in the bar now, bobbing their heads to the beat. Zach recognized the music as being from some German band or something. He had a new detective in his department that listened to this German metal band, and every time he passed by his cubicle, he could hear the lead vocalist’s deep baritone singing—or ranting, or whatever rock stars did these days—positively erupting from the detective’s earphones. At the volume he was listening to his music, that new detective would soon have no more need for ear protection during firearms training. It was a miracle that he could even still hear normal people’s voices.

Zach took a seat near the very back of the bar. It gave him a good line of sight at the door to the bar. There, he was able to see anyone who came into Miroslav’s. And it was in that position that he stayed for the next two hours, watching the face of every person who went in and out of the bar. While the task seemed to be repetitive and boring, Zach managed not to get his attention wander, both because he knew how to scan faces, and because the band’s music was the sort that could wake even the dead.

By the time his watch told him that it was three, a large crowd of young adults had already formed in the bar. Most of them appeared to be university students who had just finished their lessons for the day, and had decided to come to Miroslav’s because of the gig going on in there right now. Zach could only barely understand what the band was singing, and it was mostly because he had studied German as a tertiary language during his own university days, and even now his command of the language was rusty at best.

The band had begun playing a song that, if Zach understood the lyrics correctly, was about a girl who had seen a rose on a mountain and had asked her boyfriend to pick it for her. It sounded sort of familiar to him, but only very barely. He tuned out the song from his mind and refocused his attention to the door. Right at that moment, it opened, and a woman walked in. And almost immediately, Zachary Tyler recognized his adopted daughter. Alice Tyler was wearing a green shirt, a grey miniskirt, and black leggings, the same clothes that she was wearing just before Zach had gone to work that day. And while chances were that there was another girl in Releinthi that was wearing exactly the same clothes, Zach knew that the woman who walked into Miroslav’s was Alice, because he could see a bright red lock of hair standing out amongst her long ebony hair.

It was right at that moment that the band hit their current song’s chorus. Suddenly, all Zach could hear where the words that the vocalist was singing: deeper wells must be dug/to reach clearer waters/Rose-red, oh Rose-red/deeper waters don’t run still. Zach was struck by how appropriate the song seemed to be right now. There he was, looking at Alice’s rose-red highlight, wondering just what was going through that mind of hers. Zach watched as his daughter walked up to the bar and ordered some kind of cocktail that looked like a toxic shade of green. If Zach knew that that was Alice herself drinking that stuff, then he would already be at the bar admonishing her about drinking alcoholic drinks without his permission. But right now he didn’t know if his daughter still thought she was Alice Tyler. Zach knew that he had to handle this with the delicacy of a brain surgeon. Except you’re not, he quipped to himself.

Zach stood up from his seat way back in the bar and made his way towards his daughter, squeezing through gyrating masses of teenagers and young adults. Finally, he managed to cross the room, and he reached out with his hand and lightly tapped Alice’s shoulders.

“What do you want?” she said as she turned around to face the latest in a series of men that had tried to approach her. Zach withdrew his arm a little and stepped back in shock. The face of the woman in front of him was Alice’s, but the look that she gave him was the same look that Zach had seen on Hermenegildo Sanchez’s face when he had tried to shoot him all those years ago. It was like Zach was looking at both the past and the present at the same time. Alice’s teeth were bared in much the same way that Sanchez’s teeth were when he made his final defiant gesture against the establishment, and the rage that he thought he could see in Alice’s eyes burned as bright as the one in her biological father’s just before he was killed by an FNP bullet.

Zach forced himself to take a deep breath and calm down. This is not Hermenegildo Sanchez, Zach, he told himself. This is your daughter, Alice Tyler. But right now she doesn’t even think that she’s your daughter. “I’m sorry,” he said, raising up his hand in surrender. “I thought you were someone I was looking for.”

Alice turned her body to give her a more comfortable position confronting Zach. “I think I’ve seen you before,” she replied, the anger in her eyes banked for the moment. “Have you been stalking me?”

“The truth is far more stranger,” Zach muttered. Loudly, he said, “You must be mistaken. I’ve got a very common face.”

“Yeah, right.” Alice took the green cocktail and drank a mouthful of the concoction. “That’s what you say. But I swear, I’ve seen your face before.”

“Maybe you’ve seen me on the news,” Zach said. “I’m one of those FNP investigators in the Feldmeister case.” Grzegorz “Greg” Feldmeister was a rich businessman based in Releinthi that had been suspected of being involved in some kind of smuggling ring. Feldmeister’s arrest and the subsequent investigation had made the news, and right now it was just behind Abanhfleft’s World Cup qualifying campaign and some heist in Riuwiee in media coverage. “Zachary Tyler,” Zach said, introducing himself to whatever persona his daughter had adopted in her fugue state.

Alice took Zach’s extended hand, albeit with suspicion still in her eyes. “Helen Ignacio,” she replied. So she was back to her Ignacio persona, Zach thought. At least he had an idea how “Helen” would behave. If Alice had created yet another personality during her fugue, then Zach’s job would have become harder, mostly because he had no idea how that new personality thought and reacted to the world around her.

“What do you say we take this conversation out of this bar?” Zach asked Alice/Helen. She nodded, quite a bit unsure. “Okay,” she finally said, “but what am I gonna get talking to a crocodile like you?”

Zach was quite aware of the slang term for the FNP. To be honest, he thought that such namecalling was uncalled for. Just because there were a few corrupt policemen in the force’s ranks didn’t mean that every policeman in the Democratic Republic was corrupt and bribable. “Look, I’m not on duty right now,” he replied, knowing full well that he was lying through his teeth. But sometimes, while doing your job, you had to do what you had to do. “So that means I’m talking to you not as a policeman, but as a fellow civilian.”

Alice/Helen snorted. “Figures,” she said. “You bastards know the system inside out and backwards.”

Zach winced mentally. While he knew that Alice would be inevitably exposed to strong language as she grew up, it was still jarring to look at her and hear her address him as a person born out of wedlock. “All right, what do you want with me?” Alice/Helen asked him.

“Nothing much, really,” he replied, “just that you look very much like a person that you’re looking for.”

Alice/Helen nodded. “You wanna get out of this racket?” she asked him.

“I believe I asked you that before already.”

“Whatever,” Alice/Helen shrugged. At least some of Alice’s mannerisms were still present in “Helen,” Zach thought. That was a good sign. The two of them walked out of Miroslav’s, and Alice/Helen led Zach to the alley behind the bar. “All right, it’s just the two of us now,” Alice/Helen said. “What do you want to know?”

Zach let out a heavy sigh. Now that he was there, he couldn’t even begin to think about how to begin a dialogue with the person that his daughter thought she was. Finally, he settled on what they had already established earlier, and he said, “I’m sorry for having bothered you before, but you look very much like my daughter. She’s disappeared, and I’m looking for her.”

“Sucks for you, man,” Alice/Helen replied. Jesus Christ, this is gonna be very, very hard, Zach thought to himself.

“What did you say your name was again?” Zach asked her. “Was it Helena, or something?”

“Helen,” Alice/Helen corrected him.

“Helen, right,” Zach repeated. “Look, I believe that the two of us met in that bar for a reason.”

“Oh, that’s priceless, man,” Alice/Helen interrupted. “What a fucking cliché, dude.”

“Just listen to me for a second,” Zach said, holding up his hand to signal Alice/Helen to stop talking. “Yes, it may sound like a fucking cliché, like you said, but there really must be a reason why we met. I’ve exhausted almost every lead I had while looking for my daughter, and then suddenly her doppelganger comes into the bar where she used to hang out. I’m not a believer in either destiny or coincidences, but this seems awfully a lot like a very, very big coincidence, or a meeting destined to happen.”

Alice/Helen regarded Zach with suspicion once again. “What makes you think I can help you look for your daughter?” she asked him.

“Look, I’m already grasping at straws looking for her,” Zach said. “You’re the first good possible lead that I’ve found in a long time. Shit, I don’t even know what I want you to do. All right, on the off chance that you meet my daughter, I want you to call me. You don’t even have to call my personal number. You can just dial 400, and tell them that you’ve found Inspector Tyler’s daughter. Simple as that. I’ll even pick her up myself so that no one else is involved. How’s that for a deal?”

“Look, Inspector Tyler,” Alice/Helen said, “as much as I want to help you look for this daughter of yours, I unfortunately have much more important things to do for myself. And while I will try to be on the lookout for your daughter, I will admit that she’s not gonna be high on my list of priorities. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some much more important business to attend to.” She switched the strap of her backpack from her right shoulder to her left, and then she began walking away from Zach.

“Wait!” Zach called out. “What are you supposed to do that so much more important than looking for my daughter?”

“Sorry, man,” Alice/Helen replied. “You’re a cop. I really can’t tell you what I’m planning to do without you trying to arrest me.”

“Jesus Christ,” Zach muttered. “Shit, now that you’ve told me that,” he said out loud, “it’s now my sworn duty to make sure that you’re not gonna go ahead with whatever it is you’re planning to do.”

“Shit,” Alice/Helen said. “I knew I shouldn’t have said that. All right, Mr. Inspector, if I promise not to go ahead with I thought I was gonna do, and do what it is you want me to do, will you promise to get off my case?”

“No guarantees,” Zach replied honestly.

“Of course,” Alice/Helen muttered. “So you said that your daughter looks like me?”

“Pretty much.”

“Oh, that should be easy,” Alice/Helen said, the beginnings of a smile forming on her mouth. “No one else is as pretty as I am. This should be easy.” At least her self-confidence was still intact, Zach thought to himself.

As Alice/Helen turned to walk out of the alley, Zach asked her one more question. “You’re not planning on staying on the street, are you?”

“No choice, Mr. Inspector,” Alice/Helen replied. “I don’t have any other place to call home.”

“What about your parents?”

“Dead. Catholic Revolution.”

Now that was some bad news for Zach. Alice’s mind was now creating a background history for Helen. If her fugue episode went on for much longer, it could take years before Alice finally returned and kicked out Helen from her own mind. He needed to do something to snap her out of it, and soon. Maybe a return to familiar surroundings would help. “What do you say you live in my house?” he asked. “For the time being?”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Alice/Helen replied. “I don’t want to end up your surrogate daughter, or some shit like that.” And with that statement, she turned around and walked out of the alley. Zach tried to follow her, but once he burst out of the alley himself, he could see neither hide nor hair of his daughter in the seething mass of humanity that was the streets of Releinthi on a Saturday afternoon.

Zach Tyler had never been much of an emotional person, but today, this time, he felt a lump form in his throat, and that lump tried to force tears out of his eyes. He had been so close to getting his daughter back, but her own mind was so far away that it might as well be on another planet.

Zach could only hope that Alice didn’t do anything stupid or harmful while still thinking she was Helen. He would never be able to forgive himself if something happened to her during her fugue state.

[Skarakia]

Official Skarakian Sporting News

Twice in a row! Still need a prayer

The Eagles have won again! With a convincing 9-2 win over last place Kemobon, the Skarakian National Lacrosse team holds its own destiny!

While the scoring seemed a little bit low, Skarakia came out with an intense fire in their stomachs. Jerome Wardsson led the charge with 4 goals out of Skarakia's 9, with 2 assists as well. Kemobon did really well, holding Skarakia to only two goals in the 1st quarter. One from Matthew Bush, and the other from Matthew Paul. They both came from a dazzling display of passing which left the Kemobon defenders awestruck. The score at the end of the 1st quarter was 2-0, in favor of Skarakia, and it seemed like this game could come down to the wire.

Fortunately for Skarakia, the defense shut down the Kemobon attack. Voland Yggson recored a career-high 12 take aways during this game, 5 of which came from the second quarter. It was in the second that the Skarakian goal-machine really came to life, behind 3 goals from Jerome Wardsson. His first came from the right side of the net, and what seemed like no angle. However, the ball just curved into the side netting and was a beautiful goal. His two other goals were a result of the passing by Skarakia, and he was able to dump the ball into the net from just outside the crease.

The Eagles picked up right where they left off in the second half, scoring 2 more goals during this quarter. Jerome Wardsson's final goal came in this quarter, with a nice snipe from the top of the box. The other goal came from Sean O'Fenn, who sent the ball to the low right corner. The score at the end of this quarter was 7-0, and Skarakia seemed well to hold this lead.

Finally, the fourth quarter came, and Kemobon seemed desperate to find the net. The passing became more up-tempo, and they were finally able to find the goal after 5 minutes of the quarter going by. Skarakia responded with two more goals, with Matthew Paul and Garde Savant finding the net. To top off the game, Kemobon scored a goal in the final minute. It was Skarakia that came off the field much happier.

"It was a good game all around" said Head Coach Amadeus Olafsen, "I actually think we can do better, and we'll need to for our next game."

The next match that Olafsen is referring to is the dreaded match against Estope, who are currently 7th in the world and first in the group. This match can either make, or break, Skarakia's chances of advancing in this competition.

"We're practicing hard, studying game film. We need to win this match, as far-fetched that might be." Said Captain Matthew Paul.

[Cosumar]

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The portion of the site where users submit brief blog posts related to Cosumar Lacrosse

Our Dragons played up to their true potential against Kytler Peninsulae. Good omen?
submitted by bluedude84 -- December 14, 8:34 p.m.

Team Cosumar finally looked like a squad worthy of lifting the WLC trophy. They routed The Kytler Peninsulae 11-3, who are a quality side - and former hosts themselves. It's the second time the Dragons' stingy defense has held a team to 3, after doing the same to Estenia in MD3.

It didn't start out so great, but we turned a dogfight into a drubbing in less than 90 seconds.

The Dragons scored four goals in the first 86 seconds of the fourth quarter to forge a convincing, 11-3 victory over the 1-3 Kytlerians, who were fighting to stay alive in the playoff hunt but are now eliminated.

The win was as crucial a triumph for Cosumar as it was a heartbreaking loss for Kytler Peninsulae. We improve to 3-1 overall and 1st place in Group 1. It's the first time the team has led the group. They are ahead of Jecatria and Estenia (both also 3-1) on goal differential. The crucial final group game will determine which of the teams advance to the Round of 12. A loss to Kytler would not have eliminated us, but it would have severely complicated things.

Veteran attackman Tracy Sheppard turned back the clock, pacing the team with a game-high three goals and two assists. Midfielder Ivar Kalessin chipped in two goals and one assist, continuing his remarkable form in this tournament. All in all, it was a collaborative effort, with vital contributions from the faceoff unit and offense that factored into the final score.

The hosts led just 7-3 at the end of the third quarter, but pulled away in the final period. A faceoff group headed by first-time starter Wolynov Skalton won four consecutive draws, and each was converted into a goal.

Add a goal on an extra-man opportunity and another in transition, and it was the kind of outburst that was sorely missing from the Dragons' repertoire against Jecatria.
The run began with a faceoff win by Skalton, his ninth in 12 attempts, that led to Sheppard centering a pass to long-stick midfielder Kaspar Hrubin with 14:47 left in the fourth quarter.

Fourteen seconds later, after another faceoff win, Sheppard carried the ball down the high slot and flipped the ball to fellow attackman Christopher Tennant, who buried a low-to-high shot. Skalton won an ensuing draw and one-armed the ball to Kalessin, who found Sheppard alone on the left wing for a scoring blast with 14:23 remaining. After another faceoff win, Kalessin ran down the right alley and cut back for a cheeky point-blank goal with 13:36 left. It was truly a remarkable sequence. CosumaQuest Stadium was a party in a box as the rowdy fans celebrated as their team poured it on.

The late-game defense was just as overwhelming, allowing the Kytlerians to score just one goal in eight extra-man opportunities.

Wesley Hill was spectacular in the goal as well. He made 13 saves, and good-ole one-eared Thomas Koma limited their leading scorer to zero goals on four shots, one assist and two turnovers. Our guys executed Coach McDougle's gameplan across the board tonight, with fine performances from just about everybody. When we're playing like this, Team Cosumar is a well-oiled machine that is nigh-on impossible to stop.

Here's to hoping that machine keeps churning in MD5 against German Zerabithea and (hopefully) into the knockout rounds. Let's take advantage of the homefield advantage and give our fanbase a show they'll never forget in this WLC.



The Moment of Truth: My (probably wrong) predictions for the final day of group phase
submitted by lefthand_dog -- December 14, 6:22 p.m.

Here are my rapid-fire predictions for the most important match-ups in MD5. Some teams will advance in a blaze of glory, others will be on the next flight out of Cosumar. Some heroes will step up, others will collapse under pressure. Lightning round!

Estenia 15-6 England-Ireland
Jecatria 14-11 The Kytler Peninsulae
Cosumar 21-9 German Zerabithea
Cosumar and Jecatria advance out of Group 1

Abanhfleft 10-4 Star United States
The Sarian 6-6 Semarland
Abanhfleft and Semarland advance out of Group 2

Britonisea 7-12 Waldriech
Estope 13-14 Skarakia
Estope and Skarakia advance out of Group 3

Jeckland 17-3 Serbian Orthodox Church
New West Guiana 11-5 Ko-oren
Quebec 5-8 U.S. of Minton
Jeckland and New West Guiana advance out of Group 4

Electrum 10-8 United States of Devonta
Patistan 7-7 Val Halla
Nassau-Hessen and Electrum advance out of Group 5

Earlier Posts - Random Post - Return Home

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[Cosumar]

Matchday 5

Group 1
Estenia 11–9 England-Ireland
The Kytler Peninsulae 12–5 Jecatria
German Zerabithea 5–17 Cosumar

Group 1                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Cosumar                          5   4  0  1   68  29 +39   12 Q*
2 Estenia                          5   4  0  1   46  46   0   12 Q
3 Jecatria                         5   3  0  2   55  47  +8    9 Q**
4 The Kytler Peninsulae            5   2  0  3   40  50 −10    6 E
5 German Zerabithea                5   2  0  3   47  63 −16    6 E
6 England-Ireland                  5   0  0  5   40  61 −21    0 E

*Cosumar ahead of Estenia on H2H result
**Jecatria advances as the second-best of 3rd place teams, ahead of Serbian Orthodox Church on GD

Group 2
Chiata 11–5 The Unbroken
Star United States 14–18 Abanhfleft
Semarland 8–14 The Sarian

Group 2                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Abanhfleft                       5   3  1  1   62  43 +19   10 Q*
2 The Sarian                       5   3  1  1   58  39 +19   10 Q
3 Star United States               5   2  2  1   56  57  −1    8 E
4 Semarland                        5   2  2  1   50  53  −3    8 E
5 Chiata                           5   1  1  3   43  44  −1    4 E
6 The Unbroken                     5   0  1  4   32  65 −33    1 E

*Abanhfleft ahead of The Sarian on GF

Group 3
Darvale 10–7 Kemobon
Waldriech 1–14 Britonisea
Skarakia 9–5 Estope

Group 3                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Estope                           5   4  0  1   57  36 +21   12 Q*
2 Britonisea                       5   4  0  1   65  32 +33   12 Q
3 Skarakia                         5   3  1  1   45  36  +9   10 Q**
4 Waldriech                        5   2  0  3   31  57 −26    6 E
5 Darvale                          5   1  1  3   46  60 −14    4 E
6 Kemobon                          5   0  0  5   33  56 −23    0 E

*Estope ahead of Britonisea on H2H result
**Skarakia advances as the best of the 3rd place teams

Group 4
The Royal Kingdom of Quebec 16–12 United States of Minton
Serbian Orthodox Church 9–11 Jeckland
Ko-oren 9–16 New West Guiana

Group 4                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Jeckland                         5   4  1  0   71  47 +24   13 Q
2 New West Guiana                  5   3  1  1   68  48 +20   10 Q
3 Serbian Orthodox Church          5   3  0  2   54  56  −2    9 E*
4 The Royal Kingdom of Quebec      5   2  0  3   53  60  −7    6 E
5 Ko-oren                          5   1  0  4   39  56 −17    3 E
6 United States of Minton          5   1  0  4   47  65 −18    3 E

*Serbian Orthodox Church does not advance. Tiebreaker for second-best 3rd place team won by Jecatria on GD.

Group 5
Electrum 10–8 United States of Devonta
Val Halla 13–13 Patistan
Natanya 9–13 Nassau-Hessen

Group 5                        Pld   W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Nassau-Hessen                    5   5  0  0   64  34 +30   15 Q
2 Electrum                         5   3  0  2   41  44  −3    9 Q
3 Patistan                         5   2  1  2   58  41 +17    7 E
4 Val Halla                        5   2  1  2   47  61 −14    7 E
5 Natanya                          5   1  0  4   36  46 −10    3 E
6 United States of Devonta         5   1  0  4   44  64 −20    3 E

Round of 12 seedings and fixtures will be listed in the ensuing post

[Cosumar]

Knockout Round Seedings

1. Nassau-Hessen (5-0-0)
2. Jeckland (4-1-0)
3. Cosumar (4-0-1)
4. Estope (4-0-1)
5. Britonisea (4-0-1)
6. Estenia (4-0-1)
7. New West Guinea (3-1-1)
8. Abanhfleft (3-1-1)
9. The Sarian (3-1-1)
10. Skarakia (3-1-1)
11. Jecatria (3-0-2)
12. Electrum (3-0-2)

Seedings compiled by point totals. Tiebreakers were head to head result, goal differential, and goals for.


Round of 12 Fixtures

Top four teams receive byes to the quarterfinal. Helpful Graphic.

1. ₉The Sarian vs. ₈Abanhfleft
2. ₁₂Electrum vs. ₅Britonisea
3. ₁₀Skarakia vs. ₇New West Guiana
4. ₁₁Jecatria vs. ₆Estenia

Quarterfinals Fixtures

Ro12 Game 1 Winner vs. ₁Nassau-Hessen
Ro12 Game 2 Winner vs. ₄Estope
Ro12 Game 3 Winner vs. ₂Jeckland
Ro12 Game 4 Winner vs. ₃Cosumar

[Abanhfleft]

Dissociation, Part Five

Releinthi Police Department headquarters
Releinthi, Abanhfleft

Zach Tyler couldn’t concentrate on his work.

It was the day after he had met up with Alice immediately after she went into another fugue episode. It had been a very distressing meeting, from Zach’s perspective. There he was, looking his daughter in the eye, and yet it was as if an entirely different person had been standing in front of him. And, in a way, that was the truth. Something had happened to Alice’s mind that had caused her to forget everything she ever knew as Alice Tyler, and it had been replaced by the backstory of some person named Helen Ignacio. And Zach was powerless to even help her remember herself.

Zach had called Dr. Portucale a few hours after he had made contact with Helen, Alice’s new identity. The psychiatrist’s “prognosis,” for lack of a better term, had not been very encouraging for Zach. Because this was the first time that Portucale had encountered someone who had gone through two dissociative fugue episodes, he didn’t have any other precedents for this particular case, and so he was just going through what people in his profession already knew about fugues. From what the doctor had told him before, Zach knew that fugues lasted from as short as just a few hours to as long as months and probably years. Knowing that Alice’s mental condition could possibly create gaps of entire years in her memory had nearly taken the fight out of Zach so much that he had to sit down on the ground just to digest that fact.

Once again, the fact that he couldn’t do anything to help his daughter snap out of her fugue weighed down on Zach’s mind, and it was because of that fact that he found himself not wanting to go to work today.

But it had been necessary for him to come to work. As the head of the 95th District’s Investigative Section, not only did he have to set a good example to his underlings, he also had to deal with a small backlog of cases that had piled up on his desk during the week that he had been absent because of the accident. The Feldmeister case was just one of dozens of other cases waiting for his attention when he came back.

Zach tried to put his daughter and her current situation at the back of his mind as he read up on yet another corruption case filed by some city official on another city official. Sometimes the scale of corruption in his own country astounded even him, but then again the country’s long-awaited general elections were finally around the corner. Perhaps this was just mudslinging by political opponents. But then again, no one in Fleftic politics was totally clean of the stain of corruption. It was like that one spot on your car’s paint job that just wouldn’t go away despite repeated attempts at removal with industrial-strength solvents.

Zach heard a knock on his office door. It was Cournoyer, the newly promoted detective who liked to listen to those German metal bands. His earphones were hanging on his neck, and while the door was quite a ways from his desk, Zach could still hear guitar riffs and guttural voices coming out of the buds. “What is it now, Cournoyer?” he asked.

“Inspector Diekstra’s on your personal line,” Cournoyer replied. “She’s wondering why you’re not picking up.”

“Oh, what fresh hell is this?” Zach moaned theatrically before nodding his thanks to Cournoyer, who simply backed out of the office without a return nod. Zach put down his feet from his desk and reached for one of two black telephones on his desk, the one that had a flashing yellow light. He picked it up and said, without preamble, “Sorry for making you wait, Danni, but I’ve been busy lately. So what did you want to talk about with me now?” Danniella “Danni” Diekstra had been part of the same class that Zach had attended while he was training for the FNP, and while their classmates had thought of them as a “perfect pair,” both of them were already married by the time they went through the Fleftic National Police Academy. But that didn’t mean that they didn’t become friends.

“Look, Zach, I’m sorry for interrupting whatever it is you’re doing right now,” Danni replied, “but I think you should come down here.”

“Where exactly is here?” Zach asked. Danni was an inspector in the 266th District, and therefore Zach had no idea where she was right now, only that it had to be somewhere within the 266th’s area of jurisdiction.

“Some shit-ass alley between Cabron Admiral and 42nd,” Danni said. “It’s about your daughter.”

“What?” Zach sat up in his seat. The worst case scenario came immediately to the top of his mind.

“No, Zach, she’s not dead,” Danni tried to assure him. “It’s not exactly about Alice herself, but you really should come down here now. We have to talk about this in person.”

“All right,” Zach nodded, picking up his car keys. “You sure that Alice is not dead?”

“No, at least not yet. All right, that’s all I can say. Please, Zach, you have to come here ASAP.”

“All right, all right, I’m coming,” Zach replied before he put down the phone. He stood up, not even bothering to wear his jacket, and he went out of his office and walked to the department’s carpark.

Cabron Admiral Avenue, named after Abanhfleft’s first vice president, was an eight-lane avenue, with four lanes going in each direction. It was one of the busiest thoroughfares both in Releinthi and in the whole of Abanhfleft itself. Zach’s government-issued Intruder was just one of thousands of vehicles traversing the city through the avenue, and yet that was just the traffic volume during high noon. God knows how many cars, trucks, bikes, and buses turned Cabron Admiral into a virtual car park from four in the afternoon to nine in the evening. Zach turned the Intruder into 42nd Street, which was incidentally just a short two hours’ walk away from Miroslav’s Bar, and parked into a spot that had just been very recently vacated by a big SUV. Zach got out of the car and walked towards a pair of policemen blocking off access to an alley. Zach flashed them his badge, and one of the policemen nodded and let him duck through the yellow police tape and into the alley.

Danni Diekstra was standing over the body of a man. There was a big hole on his chest, but it was hard to see immediately because of his black shirt, and his blood pooled out from under his chest. Contrary to popular belief, there was no chalk outline around his body, but there was a chalk circle and a piece of numbered yellow plastic near a bullet casing which was itself near the body. Zach walked up to Danni and asked her, “So this is what you wanted me to see?”

Danni nodded in reply. “What has Alice got to do with this guy?” Zach asked her again. Danni just returned his gaze. “You don’t think Alice killed this guy, do you?” Zach finally managed to say.

“Look, before you come to that conclusion, you have to look at the evidence first,” Danni told him, repeating the mantra of all criminal investigators worldwide. “Admittedly, the evidence isn’t much right now. All we have is a casing, a shoeprint, and him.” She pointed at the body, in an attempt to put some comic relief in the situation.

Zach had to laugh at her joke, even if it was a bit off-color in the circumstances. “All right, Danni, walk me through it,” he said as he settled into his so-called “investigation mode.”

Danni nodded. “The guy’s name is Otto Givanildo Morales. He’s some low-level thug for the Yasenev-Kellerman-Ignacio crime triumvirate. He’s already been in jail for some minor drug possession and aggravated assault, and he had just recently been freed after being swept up in one of those weekly ‘street cleanups’ thought up by the Commissioner last year.”

“Okay,” Zach said, nodding his head. “What happened between his getting his freedom back and today that ended up with him lying in a lake of his own blood?”

“Single GSW to the chest,” Danni replied. “The bullet went through the junction between all four of the heart’s chambers. Death for him was quick, but painful.”

“Is that it?” Zach pointed at a hole in the brick wall making up one side of the alley. Danni nodded. “One of my guys already pulled out the bullet for ballistics,” she said, “and I was just about to pick up that casing for you.” She took out a pair of tweezers and plucked the casing up from the ground and handed the tweezers over to Zach.

“Nine millimetre,” he said. That in itself wasn’t really a big tell. Lots of guns today fired nine-mil rounds. “How in the world could you think that Alice did this?” he asked Danni in a low voice.

“Look at the base of the casing,” Danni told him. “I noticed it during my second walkaround.”

Zach turned the tweezers so that he had a good view of the casing’s base. He could make out some faint impressions on the brass. It read Neuschwabenen Waffen und Munitionsfabrik. Zach remembered vaguely that the New Swabia Weapons and Munitions Factory had been bought up by some bigger weapons company twenty or so years ago, so this bullet had to be at least that old. “Okay, so the person who did this was armed with either a German or a New Swabian weapon,” he said. “Nothing pointing directly at Alice. Shit, anyone could buy a Luger or a Walther on the Internet today.”

“Come with me, big guy,” Danni said. While Zach wasn’t really the tallest person around, he did have an inch or two over Danni. The two of them walked over to the blood pool. There was a slightly indistinct shoeprint in the red viscous liquid, and a trail of bloody right shoeprints began from the pool before heading out of the alley. “I know it looks like every other both of us have seen during our investigations,” Danni said, “but I can safely tell you that it looks like a female size 9 Converse shoe.”

“So what?” Zach asked. “There’s probably a lot of women out there with a German pistol and size 9 Converses.” But right while he was saying it, he knew that the chances of that being true were slim to say the least. “I’m still not convinced, Danni,” he said, even as he felt his own confidence ebbing just that little bit away.

“Somehow I knew you wouldn’t be,” Danni said, almost to herself. “That’s why I had everyone’s eyewitness testimonies sent to me as soon as they got them. And while of course there are discrepancies—when had there been no discrepancy in our business?—a lot more other facts match up more or less to sound believable. From what people thought they saw and heard, Otto here was talking to some girl about why she’s been going around pretending to be Big Kate’s sister.”

“I’m sorry, Danni, but who’s Big Kate again?” Zach asked. With the number of cases and suspects they went through on a daily business, it was hard to keep track of who was exactly who.

“Oh, right,” Danni said. “I keep forgetting that we’re from different districts. Big Kate is Katrina Ignacio, niece of Roberto Ignacio, one of the Yasenev-Kellerman-Ignacio’s Big Three. Apparently, word on the street is that she’s a bit ticked off that someone is going around Releinthi pretending to be her long-dead sister, who happens to share the name of your daughter’s second persona. The theory I’ve got right now is that Big Kate sent out our pal Otto to try to grab or kill your daughter, who’s thinking that she’s a girl who shares the name of Big Kate’s dead sister, but unfortunately for poor Otto, she got the better of him and nailed him with her Walther. You did say Alice took the Walther that she found six years ago, right?”

“Oh, God, Danni, you’re right,” Zach said, finally getting an idea of what Alice had just done. “Jesus Christ! No parent should have to go through this twice. Shit, no parent has to go through what I’m going through at all.”

Danni laid a hand on Zach’s shoulder. “Look, Zach, I’m not gonna say I know how you feel, because I really honestly don’t,” she told him. “And frankly, I don’t think I envy you, what with Kimber in the hospital and Alice out in the street not even knowing what the hell she’s doing.”

“Thanks, Danni,” Zach said, with a touch of sarcasm. “You never fail to lift up my spirits.”

“Well, that is my job when it comes to you.”

“Tell me about it,” Zach said, with a hint of a grin on his face. “All right, Danni, we’ve established that Alice, as Helen, is the prime suspect for the killing of some low-level thug of YKI.”

“Not really,” Danni replied, with a knowing wink. “All we have right now is that a girl with a nine-mil weapon and wearing size 9 Converse shoes killed this poor asshole.”

This time it was Zach who put his hand on Danni’s arm. “Thank you, Danni,” he told her.

“Oh, come on, Zach,” Danni said, “if I had a kid and he or she was also going through what Alice is going through now, you’d do the same for me.”

“Goddamn this shit anyway!” Zach said. Danni looked at him with her brows furrowed. “Why did Alice’s fugue persona have to be someone who shares the name of the relative of a high-level criminal?”

“Shit happens?” Danni shrugged. She had nothing else that was even remotely satisfactory.

“Yeah, Danni, you’re damn right shit happens,” Zach said. “All right, I gotta go. If Alice is running around YKI’s turf, then I want some backup.”

“You don’t have to ask me, Zach.”

“I know that, Danni. That’s why I didn’t.” As Zach walked away from the crime scene, he didn’t even have to look back to see the look on Danni’s face. He knew the subtle mix of rightful indignation and friendly resignation that she always made whenever he said goodbye to her with one of their in-jokes. But that was already in the back of Zach’s mind. He was already thinking ahead to his next move.

[Cosumar]

OOC: I saw Skarakia's post below before scores were generated, therefore his bonus was included for tonight's results


Round of 12

9The Sarian 13–14 8Abanhfleft

12Electrum 18–15 5Britonisea

10Skarakia 12–10 7New West Guiana

11Jecatria 16–6 6Estenia

Quarterfinals Fixtures

1. ₈Abanhfleft vs. ₁Nassau-Hessen
2. ₁₂Electrum vs. ₄Estope

3. ₁₀Skarakia vs. ₂Jeckland
4. ₁₁Jecatria vs. ₃Cosumar

[Skarakia]

Official Skarakian Sporting News

Skarakia advances! Cinderella run continues!

They've done it! Skarakia has gotten out of the group stages at the World Lacrosse Championships! With a 9-5 win against Estope, the group leaders, Skarakia was able to squeak into the knockout stages by being one of the best 3rd place teams in all the groups.

While the campaign started as a disaster, with an opening loss and a draw, it ended with three consecutive wins that drove Skarakia into the knockout rounds, albeit barely.

With a 9-4 game against Estope, Skarakia became 3rd in the group with 10 points and a +9 Goal differential.

The game itself was an exciting one, full of hard defenses and fast paced offenses, and while the offenses for both sides didn't "click," Estope's offense "clicked" less than Skarakias.

The first quarter ended with a score of 1-1, with Skarakia's lone goal coming from a snipe from Matthew Paul from the top of the box after 7 minutes of play. Estope's response came 30 seconds later, off the ensuing faceoff.

The second quarter was much like the first, because it ended with a score of 2-2. This goal came from Sean O'Fenn, who was able to deke out his defender and do a diving shot that went right through the goalie's 5-hole. Again, Skarakia was unable to hold this lead, as Estope's goal came 1 minute later. However, Skarakia had a lot to be proud of in this tournament, as they had held the group leaders to only two goals in the game.

That all changed when Estope came out and completely shut down the attack, while improving the offense. Skarakia's attack could not seem to get anything going, and Estope's attack made the most of the limited opportunities that was given to it. The third quarter ended with Skarakia losing 5-2, and hope seemed to be fading fast.

However, after a rousing rallying speech by captain Matthew Paul, Skarakia seemed to be fired up. On the ensuing faceoff, Matthew Paul passed the ball off to Garde Savant who dumped the ball in for the score. From then on, the Eagles never seemed to look back. They went on a 7-goal streak, with major contributions coming from Matthew Paul, Jerome Wardsson, Sean O'Fenn, and Garde Savant, and the defense absolutely shut down Estope's attack.

The final score of this game was 9-5, in favor of Skarakia and this game earned them a spot in the knockout rounds.

"Amazing. I can't say enough about what this team did after the beginning of this campaign" said head coach Amadeus Olafsen. "People seemed to have us written off after our first two results. I think people can see we can play in the big leagues now."

"This is by no means the end. I think we can bring a lot more to this competition if we keep working hard. I think we can get the results we need to go far here." said Captain Matthew Paul

"I agree with Matty (Paul), I think if we keep our heads up we can do amazing things here. People seem to have us written off as underdogs, but I believe that narrative could, and will, change." stated Assistant Captain Jerome Wardsson

The Eagles have now gone unbeaten in three games, after going 0-1-1 to start out the competition and will look to keep their winstreak alive against New West Guiana in the next match.

OOC EDIT: Whoops. I guess I'm a little late here. My bad. I was typing this out when you posted that. With your permission, I'll keep it up, unless you don't want me to.

[Electrum]

Centralis Herald - Sports Section - Kate McNamara

Electrum through to quarterfinals of World Lacrosse Championships

There has been a slowdown recently in competitive competition as of late, with the World Cup Finals about to start in a few weeks time, this awkward middle period has few sports available. Sporting fans have an option of selecting from the most exotic of sports during this time period to watch - cricket, lacrosse and tennis. And despite the fact that the tennis is being held right now in our very own nation, in the city of Hamilton, a small contingent of fans have weathered the journey to the Atlantian nation of Cosumar for lacrosse.

And it's been a massive improvement from last cycle. Last cycle was a major disappointment after Electrum just missed out by one place in qualifying for the finals. They defeated Korva but then had a shock loss to North Britonisea in a poor performance. They then rebounded to defeat hosts Vintomter before another loss to The Serbian Empire. With that, they were in second place with a day left, and they had a bye. All The Serbian Empire had to do was win. That's all they had to do, but yet they lost to Korva. A minnow which nobody has ever heard of again. With that, Korva advanced and Electrum was left behind, despite Electrum having a much greater goal difference overall.

"Quite frankly, it was quite bullshit," said captain Louis Stephens after that loss in an interview with UNITV, the broadcaster of the lacrosse championships. Being locked out of the competition, and squandering the grant from the Department of Sports, they have decided to reject the funding form the department as punishment for this cycle. But once again, they have exceeded expectations by making their way to the quarterfinals, and going up against fourth seed Estope. This young team, which debuted just three cycles ago, are in a good position, and can advance to the semifinals.

Estope is just seventh in the world, and therefore, Electrum has a good chance in advancing. The team are continuing to work hard and learning from their mistakes. Max Paneer, the goalkeeper is more sharper than ever, Professor Parks has been seen exercising around the university every day in preparation for this competition. We're hopeful they'll advance, and make record breaking history by - being in a national team other than basketball - getting into the semifinals. So, switch off your tennis and cricket, and have a watch of lacrosse. You'll be presently surprised how far the team has gone, and how vigorous this sport is. A fluid midfield securing turnovers has been the strength of the Electrumite team, and might just be the X-Factor Electrum needs to advance.

[Abanhfleft]

Dissociation, Part Six

World Famous Great Success Pawnshop
Releinthi, Abanhfleft

According to Zach Tyler’s contact within the Releinthi Land Records Office, the World Famous Great Success Pawnshop was the address of the man that he was looking for right now. And while to him, the idea of living in or above a pawnshop was maybe a little bit too farfetched; his contact within Land Records had never failed him before.

Zach drove past the place in his government Intruder before parking two blocks away and walking back to the pawnshop. It was located in a two-story brick-and-cinder-block establishment, just one of hundreds of others like it within this part of Releinthi. The front of the building was two floor-to-ceiling glass panels protected by metal bars in front. The door was another glass-and-steel affair, and Zach went through it without even knocking.

The interior of the pawnshop was dominated by glass cabinets all around. Items of all kinds were on display, from gold and silver coins to antique weapons and firearms and everything else in between. A big flag of Kazakhstan hung prominently on one wall, and beside it was a picture of the Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. There was a lone man watching the counter, and it looked like he was balancing his books, if the accounting ledgers around him were proof enough. He had noticed Zach when the latter had entered the shop, but he did not look up from his books until he was sure that the man was headed his way.

“How can I help you, sir?” the guy asked as he closed the ledgers in preparation for what he thought was going to be another deal. He looked about Alice’s age, Zach thought, give or take a year.

“I’m looking for Raum Negotov,” Zach said. “I’ve been told that he lives here.”

The guy manning the counter regarded him with a little more scrutiny. “Who did you say you were again?” he asked.

“I’m Zachary Tyler,” Zach said, brushing aside his jacket so that his badge and gun were clearly visible. “I’m an old friend of Mr. Negotov.”

The guy nodded his head, uncertain of what to do next. “Hang on just a minute,” he said to Zach. Then he walked over to a set of wooden stairs located beside Nazarbayev’s portrait, and he called out, “Hey, papa! Some guy named Zachary Tyler wants to see you!”

“Wait a minute,” Zach said. “You’re Raum’s son?”

“Sadly, I am,” the guy replied. He held out his hand. “Azamat Raumovich Negotov.”

“So you are,” Zach said. “I’m honestly surprised. I didn’t know Raum had a wife, let alone a son.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes my father says the same thing about me to my face. Sometimes, though, that’s how he describes one of his old squadmates during his second Verbergerkinnh tour.”

“That’s probably me he’s talking about. So, is your father upstairs?”

“Da, but he’s not exactly accepting any visitors right now,” Azamat said. “Also, he did something to himself that might surprise you, to say the least.”

Suddenly, a shrill voice called out from upstairs, saying, “What are you still fucking doing down there, Azamat? Bring the bastard up here!”

“Was that--?” Zach asked. Azamat nodded, and he raised a wooden countertop that served as a door from the counter to the shop displays, and he led Zach towards the staircase.

“You better get up there without me, Mr. Tyler,” Azamat said. “I can’t exactly leave the pawnshop unattended.” As Azamat walked back to the counter and his ledgers, Zach looked up at the stairwell and cautiously laid a foot on the first step. The wood creaked under his weight. Zach remembered the many times that he had gone up and down similar stairwells while chasing suspects. But this was a different situation altogether. He wasn’t chasing any suspects; just his daughter, whose second persona was the suspect to the killing of a low-level member of a large criminal empire. He was taking slow, deliberate steps, as if he was trying to delay the inevitable as long as possible.

Finally, Zach arrived at the top of the stairwell, and the inevitable couldn’t be delayed any longer. There were three doors before him, and the one to his right was wide open. He walked beyond the door just a little bit, and he was about to knock when what he saw before him made him stop in his tracks.

Raum Negotov had certainly changed in the twenty-two years since he and Zach had last seen each other, which was incidentally during Alice’s baptism. The Raum standing before him now looked like a woman, complete with long hair, breasts, and quite possibly a vagina. If Zach hadn’t known better, then he would have thought that it was Raum’s twin sister standing before him. But there was enough of Raum himself still remaining for Zach to recognize him. No estrogen on earth could even hope to dull the hard lines of Raum’s face, and he still had a cane with him, souvenir from a rocket-propelled grenade during the Verbergerkinnh Rebellion.

There was no denying it. Raum Negotov was now a transsexual.

“What the fuck happened to you, Raum?” Zach blurted out. “But then again, I really shouldn’t be surprised. I always pegged you for a faggot even before Verbergerkinnh.”

“What the fuck happened to me?” Raum repeated hotly. “What the fuck happened to me!? I turned myself into a woman, that’s what’s fucking happened to me! And it’s Raisa Negotova now, you ignorant chauvinist bastard! Raum was someone else a long, long time ago.”

At least he still had his dirty mouth, Zach thought. No soap on earth could ever have a hope of cleaning Raum’s dirty tongue.

“Jesus Christ,” Zach muttered, running a hand over his face. “And here I was, hoping to call in a favour.”

“Oh, so the entire purpose of your visit to my house was all just so you could call in a fucking favour?” Raum slammed the foot of his cane hard on the wooden floor. “Goddamn you to hell, Zachary Tyler! If it weren’t for me fucking saving you from that fucking RPG, then maybe I fucking wouldn’t have to use a fucking cane just to walk around my fucking house!”

“And if it weren’t for me, Raum,” Zach shot back a little angrily too, “then you wouldn’t need just a cane. You’d need a new leg! I fucking helped stabilize your fucking leg before you fucking bled out!” The words had just come tumbling out of his mouth, now that his emotions have been riled up too.

Raum considered Zach’s statement, and then he nodded his head. “I guess you’re fucking right, you fucking bastard,” he said. “Would you like to sit down, Zach?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Zach said as he sat down on a large, comfortable leather chair.

“Jesus Christ, Zach, I’m sorry about my earlier outburst,” Raum apologized as he took a seat on a larger couch that appeared to be from the same company that made the chair where Zach currently sat. “This estrogen’s wreaking havoc with my body. I’m going through mood swings by the minute; I’ve been getting hot flashes; and I think I’m going blind. I think my mark ones are allergic to the estrogen my doctor gave me.” Mark ones were military slang for the eyes.

“That’s what you get for buying cheap, questionable meds.” Zach had known Raum to be a penny-pincher, and apparently even the transition to womanhood hadn’t removed that. “Who is your doctor, anyway? Just so I know.”

“Some doctor named Rosenblum or something. It’s something Jewish, I’m sure.”

“Ah, that explains it. Yehoshua Rosenblum’s currently under investigation for selling counterfeit and non-approved meds to his patients. You should get yourself to a real hospital, Raum. Get yourself looked at!”

“I told you before, Zach, it’s Raisa now,” Raum said, but less forcefully than the first time. “And I guess I do need to go to the hospital soon. All right, man, so what was this favour that you wanted to call in?”

“Do you remember Alice?” Zach asked.

“Ah, yes, I remember now,” Raum replied after a few moments of thought. “Alice is your daughter, right? She was adopted, if I remember correctly. I was there during her baptism. Man, I remember the looks on your faces when you held her. You and Kimberley had finally gotten yourselves a child, and you were both very happy about it. Meanwhile, I was soon about to have some woman confront me right after the baptism and tell me that I’m the father of her son, who’s currently down there in the pawnshop watching things.”

“Wait, so Azamat isn’t legitimate?”

“Why do you think I treat him like shit? But he’s still my flesh and blood, even if I didn’t want him to be. I can see myself in him, and that’s how I know that he’s mine. How about you, though? Do you look at Alice, knowing that you have no blood relationship with her, and still see your daughter?”

Zach laughed and shook his head. “Why the fuck are you laughing now?” Raum asked him.

“And you wondered why we thought you were a faggot back in Verbergerkinnh,” Zach told him. “You were always the very emotional guy. Or gay, or whatever you think you are.”

“Ah, yes. Azamat was born the same year Alice was, so she’s what, like, twenty-two now?”

“Thereabouts. Anyway, we got a little off-topic back there. Alice has disappeared.”

“What?” Raum said, sitting up. “Why the hell would she do such an ungrateful thing?”

“I don’t know,” Zach said, lying through his teeth. “One minute, she was at my house, and the next she was gone. Like that.” Zach snapped his fingers for effect.

Raum sat up even straighter on his seat. “What do you want me to do?”

Zach took out a picture of Alice from his wallet and handed it over to Raum, who took it a little bit cautiously. “That’s her,” Zach said.

“She’s grown into such a beautiful woman,” Raum said. “You’re very lucky to call her your daughter, and she is very lucky to have you as her father.”

“I know,” Zach said, swallowing the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. “Will you help me look for her?”

“I can’t do much, Zach,” Raum said, patting his bum knee. “Obviously I can’t go around the city looking for her. So you must know something about where she is.”

“Only that someone saw her somewhere in this district,” Zach replied. “Please, Raum, if you see her, call me. And not just my office number, I’m giving you my personal number. I need her found as soon as possible. I think her life might be in danger.”

“Does this have anything to do with your being a detective?”

“No, it’s not about that,” Zach replied. “It may be, but I don’t think so. But I need her found ASAP. I just don’t like the thought of her out there in the cold.”

Raum looked at Alice’s picture, in his hand. “I can’t promise you much, Zach,” he finally said. “But I’ll do what I can, in my honestly limited capacity.”

Zach took Raum’s other hand. “Thank you,” he said. “You have no idea how much I appreciate your help.”

“It’s nothing, Zach, honest,” Raum said. Zach gave him his personal number to call, and once again he said his thanks. Zach finally left the pawnshop a few minutes later. As he got back into his Intruder, he felt his cellphone vibrating. He answered it and said, “What is it, Cournoyer?”

“I just got away from investigating some scuffle down in the cells,” Cournoyer, the young detective with the affinity for German metal, said. “Nothing much to it, sir; except that one guy got killed down there.”

Zach sighed and rubbed his face with his hand once again. While the system tried its best to keep inmates from possessing any kinds of weapons or contraband while they were being held in their cells, sometimes a few people still managed to get away with homemade knives and such. “All right, who’s the DB?”

“I don’t know if it’s got anything to do with your daughter’s disappearance, sir,” Cournoyer said, “but the dead guy is Rudolf Thurston.”

“What?” Rudolf Thurston had been the driver of the truck that had crashed into Zach’s minivan two weeks before and sent his wife into a coma. “What the fuck happened to him?”

“Details are sketchy as they are, but the investigators say that it was a straight and simple slash across the throat. He bled out and drowned in his own blood at the same time. Not the way I want to go, if you ask me, sir.”

“Shit,” Zach muttered. That someone would go all the way to kill the guy who crashed into his minivan set off all sorts of warning bells in his head. He had to know more.

“Have the investigators found anything in his cell?” Zach asked.

“Nothing except the usual stuff,” Cournoyer replied. “Some dirty magazines, a shank, and a piece of paper that’s apparently a confession of some sort.”

“A confession?” Zach sat up straighter in the car seat. “Can you get it and read it to me?”

“Hang on a moment, sir.” In the background, Zach could hear the steady hum of activity that he was sure was going on in the inspectors’ division right now. Finally, two minutes later according to his watch, Cournoyer got back on the phone, and Zach could hear the slight rustling of a plastic evidence bag. “It’s not much, sir,” the young detective said. “But it says, ‘I am Rudolf Thurston, and I intentionally crashed my vehicle into the minivan of Inspector Zachary Tyler on orders from the Yasenev-Kellerman-Ignacio Group.’ Shit, sir, what did you do to YKI to piss them off enough that they would send a truck to kill you?”

“Oh, shit,” Zach muttered. “It’s not me; it’s Alice they’re after.”

“What was that again, sir?” Cournoyer asked.

“Nothing,” Zach retorted almost immediately. “Just keep me posted with the investigation. I want to know who killed Thurston, and why.”

“Will do, sir. Cournoyer out.”

Zach put down his phone. Another lump formed in his throat, and this time he didn’t fight it. A single tear made its way down his cheek. “Jesus Christ, Alice, what have you gotten yourself into?” he asked the air in front of him. When this all started, Alice had just been walking around with a fake name, fake memories, and a real gun. Now one of the biggest criminal empires in Abanhfleft had been dragged into his daughter’s madness, thanks to her second personality sharing the same name with the long-dead sister of one of the most wanted women in Abanhfleft. Once again, Zach wondered if Hermenegildo Sanchez had left more than just his genes in Alice. The possibilities shook Zach to his very core, and he shuddered even as his car’s heater was turned up to its maximum.

[Cosumar]

World Lacrosse Championships Quarterfinals Preview!

Andrew Kerrigan, Staff Writer

WLC XX, which is being played in five cities right here in Cosumar, has been a smashing success, but has already reached its final stages. Only eight teams remain, all with their eyes on that Championship Game at CosumaQuest Stadium. Win two more games, and you book your trip to Centus. Let's take a look at each of the quarterfinals matches being played later tonight.

Abanhfleft [8] vs. Nassau-Hessen [1] @ Edward J. Bonner Field, Holmenkollen)

This might just be the best lacrosse game we'll see in the entire tournament. Nassau-Hessen have cemented themselves as one of the true powerhouses of our sport, going virtually unchallenged in a 5-0-0 group phase. They are a well-rounded team with few flaws to speak of, and are tactically brilliant. Experts have them up there with Cosumar as the favorites to go all the way. However, the women of Abanhfleft have emerged as a dangerous dark horse in this competition. They exploded onto the scene by taking 3rd place as an unranked side in The Sarian & Vintomter, and have made it clear this year that that was no fluke. They had a bumpy start to group phase, but are flaming hot at the moment. Their tide of momentum is surging exponentially after their dramatic 14-13 disposal of two-time hosts The Sarian in the Round of 12. Will it be enough to carry Menan Alrisheb and the Fleftics past the only perfect team of the tournament? It's a classic case of "an unstoppable force meets and immovable object, and it should be fun to watch. Prediction: 12-11 Abanhfleft.

Electrum [12] vs. Estope [5] (@ Apes Stadium, Altamirano)

Unfortunately, this game might be a case of "unstoppable force meets a movable object". Electrum did well to finish 3-2 and sneak into the knockout rounds, and had a favorable match-up against Britonisea, but their run likely ends here. Max Paneer and Professor Parks are sure to put up a fight, but they won't be able to withstand the immense quality of world #7 Estope for long. The Electrumites will be tired after their fast-paced Ro12 game, and Estope are well-rested and ready to pounce. It will start off close, but will get ugly in the second half. Prediction: 15-6 Estope

Skarakia [10] vs. Jeckland [2] (@ CosumaQuest Stadium, Centus)

I doubt even the most seasoned of lacrosse connoisseurs on DragonLacrosse.net had heard of Skarakia until this year. This unranked nation does, however, have a long-standing tradition of lacrosse excellence. The Skarakians came in 3rd at WLC XIV in Mytannion, bypassing even established powers such as Sarzonia and Cosumar. They suddenly disappeared from the international lacrosse scene shortly thereafter...until now. Skarakia's comeback has been a success thus far, rebounding from a 0-1-1 start with three straight wins to squeak into the Round of 12. Most saw them as easy fodder for world #2 New West Guiana, but Amadeus Olafsen's squad shocked the sporting world by trumping the former champions 12-10. Skarakia's last two matches have resulted in wins over Estope and New West Guiana. Those are some big names they've humbled. Will Jeckland be the next victim of a Skarakian upset, or are they just too big of a hurdle for Skarakia to clear? I'm not sure, myself. The Spuds have been impressive, earning the #2 seed with an undefeated (4-1-0) group phase. They have plenty of motivation after their disappointing finish in WLC 19. Definitely tune into this one folks, it will be a chippy and intense affair. Plus, we get to watch two of the best goalkeepers in the business square off in John Bayern and Aaron Parkes. Prediction: 13-9 Jeckland

Jecatria [11] vs. Cosumar [3] (@ VisionTech Field, Crawford)

At first glance, you're probably thinking that the Dragons lucked out by getting Jecatria. They're much less intimidating than Abanhfleft or Skarakia. However, this perpetually overachieving side is #17 in the world for a reason and they've displayed a keen ability to punch above their weight. Cosumar learned this the hard way in Group 1 play, when Jecatria handed them their only loss of the WLC with a furious late rally to make it 10-9. However, I don't think Jecatria will get another miracle. Lightning never strikes the same place twice, after all. From top to bottom, the hosts are one of the world's elite teams. Tracy Sheppard is still a tremendous crunch-time leader, Ivar Kalessin might be the best midfielder in the world, and the defensive trio of Landis-Koma-Warrick is airtight. Add in 20,000 screaming Cosumarites in the stands in Crawford, and you're looking at Cosumar's third straight trip to the semifinals. Prediction: Cosumar 18-8

[Cosumar]

Quarterfinals

Nassau-Hessen 13–6 Abanhfleft

Estope 5–7 Electrum

Jeckland 9–9 Skarakia (11–10 OT)

Cosumar 20–10 Jecatria

Semifinals Fixtures

1. ₁Nassau-Hessen vs. ₁₂Electrum
@ TLAC Arena, Kaldukosic

2. ₂Jeckland vs. ₃Cosumar
@ Edward J. Bonner Field, Holmenkollen


(OOC note: I stated in my bid that all Cosumar knockout-round games would be 3rd party scorinated. However, I was unable to find anyone, and received permission from my opponent to score the match myself. I will still attempt to find a 3rd party scorinator for future games with the Cosumarite team. Please TG me if you could assist with this.)

[Electrum]

UNITV Interview - World Lacrosse Championships Coverage

Tim Granada: Heyoo! We're here, live at Cosumar for the World Lacrosse Championships where in a stunning turn of events, Electrum has made their way into the semifinals. Joining me now, as always, is captain Louis Stephens.

Louis Stephens: Wassup man, long time no see. Rarely see you around campus anymore.

Tim Granada: Well... I don't gym as often as you do now.... anyways. This is Centralis University TV, and the awesome lacrosse team are now facing Nassau Hessen. Tell me your thoughts about them?

Louis Stephens: Alright, so we went up against them in the group stage actually, and were the team above us in the rankings, so they got an automatic bye into the quarterfinals. We lost to them 6-15, and for a while, they looked invincible.

Tim Granada: Explain.

Louis Stephens: They were 4-0 up in the group stage, and being the number one seed in the competition - they had everything to lose against Natanya. And yet they somehow did manage to lose to Natanya. I don't know how, but we're going to review that footage right now to see where they went wrong, and ruthlessly exploit that.... tomorrow.

Tim Granada: You don't have a lot of time don't you? Doesn't the game start in 16 hours?

Louis Stephens: While that might be true, we can take a quick squiz as a team in the hotel, rewatching that match. Then we'll have a quick briefing with Coach Galloway and then a sleep before the big day tomorrow. We'll be playing in TLAC, which I believe is our first artificial turf. So that'll be exciting. Look, I think it's going to be a close one, even by our standards. We've grazed past the group stage, and we've sneaked past Britonisea. I reckon we can do anything right now. We've played them before, so it's obviously both teams are going to play differently.

Tim Granada: Speaking of, just how did you manage to get out of the group stage?

Louis Stephens: It was luck. Luckily, Margie was on our side, not like last time where an upset caused us to be eliminated. Val Halla's draw with Patistan on that final day, meant that we were able to get through the next round. Which is a shame since those Patistani are really good lacrosse players. But they just couldn't get that extra point to get over the line like we did. So, yeah. Look, we're getting better, and we hope to be a common fixture in the finals from now on.

Tim Granada: Now, could you just walk us through your finals, and tell us how you got from the Round of 12 into being one of the last four teams remaining?

Louis Stephens: It's really been surreal. Um, we came into this as the twelth seed, so we have it pretty tough, including a potential matchup with the first seed... Nassau-Hessen which is exactly what happened. First, Britonisea that was a close one. Eighteen-fifteen I think it was? Look, I think we won more on our merits for that one instead of the Britonish losing on their mistakes. The lead changed a couple of times during that last quarter but that last faceoff I think was crucial. I don't know how, but I managed to nick the ball and tossed it over to Zhong and he got it through like magic. Really quick action, lots of goals scored. Can't say more than that. Then, we got the honours of facing Estope. I'm gonna be frank here - I did not expect to win. And neither did my team.

Tim Granada: How so?

Louis Stephens: Estope is the seventh team in the world, which is even better than Patistan, which we lost to. And of course worse than Nassau-Hessen, which we also loss to. Now, normal logic dictates that we should have lost. But I think we got the momentum rolling in the first half especially, because it was a pretty grindy match. Plus, they had the advantage of an extra rest day, whereas we got through a tough one with Britonisea.

Tim Granada: Grindy?

Louis Stephens: I don't know. I think that's the word. We just had to keep at it, grinding away at the other team. First half went our way, but it was close, but we were in the lead 6-2. But then Estope came back in the second half, and we only managed to score one more, whereas they managed to score 3 more. I reckon, if there was more than an hour given to these matches, they definitely would have won it. But to be honest, we had a brilliant defense, I never seen Max Paneer defend so many shots like that, it was unbelievable to watch him do that. Reminds me of high school soccer, or even high school lacrosse - no one ever wants to be goalie. It's treacherous, and you have so much of the teams expectations on you. So we're proud of him, and we're going to buy some alcohol for him when we're done with the tournament. Also, we read the paper here, the Cosumarite Courier, they did predict that we would lose, but they were certainly right about Paneer and Professor Parks doing the job. Really low scoring match.

Tim Granada: Alright, and that's all the time we have for today. Tune in tomorrow in UNITV for live coverage of the World Lacrosse Championships in Cosumar, where Electrum will be once again facing Nassau-Hessen to book a spot in the final. It's going to be awesome, so see ya there! I myself will be commentating, as usual.

[Cosumar]

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The Blog Board
The portion of the site where users submit brief blog posts related to Cosumar Lacrosse

Rainstorm expected for Cosumar vs. Jeckland semifinal match-up
submitted by Dynomatic! -- December 12, 9:27 p.m.

The #2 and #3 seeds in the WLC 20 knockout rounds, with a combined record of 10-1-1, will butt heads tonight in Holmenkollen with a chance to play in the Final hanging in the balance. Those teams? The Jeckland Spuds and Cosumar Dragons. The hosts are considered the best lacrosse team in the world, but Jeckland too has a tradition of excellence in the sport - and they've yet to lose a game.

In the group phase, Cosumar featured the best defense in the entire field with only 29 goals allowed. On the other end of the spectrum, the Spuds had the most prolific attack with 71 GF. The Jecklander attack vs. Cosumarite defense will be a true test of wills. The challenge for both sides will be even harder with the latest weather reports coming out of Holmenkollen. A light drizzle commenced in the Ramusok suburb earlier today, but meteorologists have projected that the rainstorm will intensify around halftime. Bonner Field is a completely outdoor venue played on 100% natural grass, so things could get rather muddy for the two teams. Cosumarite officials have maintained that the game will be played regardless of the weather unless the safety of the players becomes seriously endangered.

These are two of the best lacrosse squads in the multiverse. I am convinced that both Cosumar AND Jeckland are better than Nassau-Hessen and Electrum. There is a very good chance that the winner of this match-up will win the trophy in the end. It is sure to be a game of utmost pace, precision...and precipitation. All there is left to do now is wait for the game to start and watch the from the warmth of our homes.


Tonight my dreams come true
submitted by HolmenkollenGirl -- December 12, 7:15 p.m.

Hi DragonLacrosse! I'm not sure if you remember me, but I'm a 13-year-old girl from Holmenkollen. My post about seeing my first WLC game (Skarakia vs. Darvale) a few weeks ago got over a hundred likes on Instagram (thank you xD). Somehow, Tracy Sheppard saw the post and last night...my Winter Solstice wish came true. Tracy, my lacrosse idol, told me he was moved by my love for the game and wanted to make sure I got a chance to see Team Cosumar in action. The Dragons are playing here in Holmenkollen tonight and he sent me front row tickets to the game! My daddy doesn't have a whole lot of money, so we would never have been able to go otherwise! And that's not even the best part! Tracy said I can come on the field and meet the rest of the team after the game. I can't believe this is happening, I feel like the luckiest girl in the world

Thank you Mr. Sheppard for giving me this wonderful experience. Thank you Team Cosumar for inspiring me to one day be the best lacrosse player in the world. I am so excited for the game. Go Dragons, beat Jeckland! I'll be watching (and cheering) for you as loud as I can

Macy Wilson, #1 fan

P.S. Tell Kaspar I think he is really really cute


WLC 20 All-Star Team - My unofficial selections
submitted by fatalbert7 -- December 18, 2:12 p.m.

Even the most disappointing of teams at the 20th World Lacrosse Championships have had a special player or two that really stood out. It has been a pleasure to watch, and as a true lacrosse fanatic, I've watched every single game. Here are my picks for the hypothetical 20-man WLC XX All-Star Team. There is admittedly a slight Cosumar bias, but hey we're in the semifinals - who can argue?

Goalkeepers: Wesley Hill (Cosumar), John Bayern (Skarakia)

Defenders: Ryan Jennings (Jeckland), Tyler Landis (Cosumar), Thomas Koma (Cosumar), John Goss (Jecatria), Professor Samantha Parks (Electrum), Stephen Jadikoski (Waldriech)

Midfielders: Matthew Paul (Skarakia), Louis Stephens (Electrum), Ivar Kalessin (Cosumar), Mubashira de Alto Aragon (Abanhfleft), Fabianus Fiscella (The Sarian), Filipp Soosaar (Estenia)

Attackers: Menan Alrisheb (Abanhfleft), Tracy Sheppard (Cosumar), Osher Nifterick (The Sarian), Matthew Bush (Skarakia), Isaac Hall (Star United States), Christian Molting (Semarland)

Earlier Posts - Random Post - Return Home

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[Cosumar]

Semifinals

Nassau-Hessen 10–9 Electrum

Jeckland vs. Cosumar scorinated by 3rd party, below

World Lacrosse Championships FINAL

Nassau-Hessen vs. Cosumar
@ CosumaQuest Stadium, Centus

3rd Place Game

Electrum vs. Jeckland
@ Apes Stadium, Altamirano

[Star United States]

A Semi-Final Result

Jeckland 10–18 Cosumar

[Star United States]

World Lacrosse Championships 20
Final

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Final Match
Friday, December 19, 2014
Nassau Hessen 3 : 17 Cosumar
CosumaQuest Stadium, Centus, Cosumar

[Cosumar]

3rd Place Game

Electrum 11-6 Jeckland
@ Apes Stadium, Altamirano

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Cosumar are the newest World Lacrosse Champions, the second hosts to lift the trophy at home.

2nd Place: Nassau-Hessen

3rd Place: Electrum

4th Place: Jeckland


Congratulations to, well, myself, but an even larger congratulations to Abanhfleft, Skarakia, Electrum and everyone else who RPed and made this tournament a success. It was a pleasure to host, and I hope all of your teams enjoyed their stay in Cosumar. Until WLC XXI, farewell!