Handball World Cup 23 - Everything Thread

[Equestrian States]

23rd Handball World Cup Final

Sarzonia 26–26 Kotzellach (32–30 AET)

[Bollonich]

23rd Handball World Cup Third Place Match

Græntfjall 32–24 HUElavia

[Sarzonia]

The tension on the Sarzonian national handball team's bench was palpable.

Sarzonia blew a 10-goal halftime lead as goalkeeper Pat Agnew gave up the equalising goal with 50 seconds remaining in regulation. Right back Vivianne Taylor glared at her goalkeeper. They glared back. Sarzonia manager Joyce Rodham glared at both and chewed both out directly at the bench without waiting to take both by the ear to the team's dressing room.

"You both need to play for each other. I don't give a FUCK if you two hate each other. You're teammates. Adjust and cope! Both of you!" Rodham yelled.

Finally, the overtime period started. Kotzellach jumped out to an early three-goal lead in the extra session, forcing Rodham to burn the team's 60-second timeout. She realised that it wasn't tactical deficiency that was giving the unranked Kotzellach the advantage. It was her own team's nerves.

She said, "look, we fought hard, sometimes literally, to get here. We've all got one more fight in us."

Or two more, she thought as she shot both Agnew and Taylor glares as they ran back to their positions. Right after the restart, however, Sarzonia found the form it had in the first half and rallied for six unanswered goals. With the team nursing a one-goal lead with 29 seconds left, left wing Nestor Catalina picked a great time to score a rare goal that gave the Stars just a little bit more breathing room. It still led to one desperate flurry from Kotzellach, whose top goal scorer fired a desperate shot after getting around Taylor. This time, Agnew was up to the task and made the save, firing the ball to Taylor as the clock reached zeros.

Sarzonia escaped with a 32-30 victory over Kotzellach that saw the entire team pile onto each other in jubilation. Even Agnew and Taylor put their longstanding feud aside and embraced.

It wasn't going to end the feud by any stretch, but it was a moment of catharsis.

For Rodham, the handshake with her Kotzellachian counterpart was quick and curt. She was in no mood to be friendly with a nation that was seemingly about to align itself with an undemocratic Starblaydia or treasonous Krytenia and other countries. She quickly broke the handshake and ran off to join her assistant managers and players in their celebration.

Aboard the ISS Adamant, the loud sound of sailors and officers cheering was only eclipsed by the sound of gunfire from the ship, which the ship's tactical officer on duty, Ensign Hayley Brougham took care to aim away from Kotzellachian territory or potential enemies. The gunfire was intended to serve as a form of fireworks in celebration of a victory no one would have expected at first blush. Not for a team ranked 23rd in the multiverse in the sport, one that was only just played in Sarzonia. And definitely not from a team that was as defined by discord in the ranks as it was for anything it accomplished on the pitch.

But yet, here it was. Here was Sarzonia finishing an unblemished 11-0-0. Here were the Stars, one World Cup after barely missing the knockout rounds, and the Incorporated Team Handball Council deciding before the team's 40-24 shellacking of HUElavia that it was going to fire Rodham for insubordination unless they won a championship actually pulling off the improbable. It was going to be hard to justify dismissing Rodham now. Not after she'd earned a 14-1-4 overall record in two Handball World Cups with teams that didn't have the kind of pedigree belonging to other countries in the sport. The Council knew they wouldn't be able to justify it without some outrage, so they decided to settle for a simple reprimand for Rodham's personnel file.

But that reprimand could be written another day. As, too, could whatever condemnations from Woodstock about Kotzellach City potentially formalising its ties with the traitorous Anaian subregion of Atlantian Oceania. For now, the Stars and the sailors aboard the Adamant, along with other Sarzonians who were interested, could celebrate a world championship.

If there was anything that could unite divided Sarzonian factions, it was that.

[Kotzellach]

"The Ayes to the right, one hundred and twenty two."

"The Noes to the left, fifty-eight. The Ayes have it, the Ayes have it."

The numbers flashed up on screen; 122 MPs had voted for, 58 against. There was no doubt about it; Seidl had somehow secured the seventeenth vote — and more — to get the Declaration to pass. For a brief moment, Baumann let go of his arm-rests; his knuckles had turned near white from the strength of which he had gripped them. A small, cautious smile broke out as the chamber — well, those who had voted for it — broke out into applause.

It was done. Kotzellach had ratified the Foxchester Declaration, and would now sever all ties from Atlantian Oceania. By two votes, the country had chosen to embark on a whole new path; one that would presumably earn it ire from those in the south west and elsewhere in the region; but now they were amongst friends. The news had broken out; now the real legwork began. A new frontier awaited them; one where they would look to break out of their shells, as they had been in for so long, and hopefully now they would be able to stand on the same two legs as the other nations in this new Union. The future awaited them, and they'd just taken their first steps into it. No longer would they be bogged down by tradition; it was time to forge their own path.

As the Speaker adjourned Parliament, and Baumann carefully made his way out of the Chamber, the usual throng of media surrounded him. Most questions were banal, basic; he easily fobbed them off. But there was, as there were in almost all impromptu press conferences, always one question. This time it was a blonde-haired woman in her thirties, ostensibly one working for those newfangled "alternative media" sites which traded on being "hip" and "new"; but the question still caught him off-guard.

"Chancellor Baumann, what do you have to say about the fact that members from every Opposition party voted to ratify the Declaration?"

He did a double take. Every opposition party? They'd spent the better part of the day railing against it, how could it be that members from every Opposition party had —

"How certain are you that someone from every Opposition party voted to ratify?" The words tumbled out of his mouth. Smiling, as though she'd caught her target hook, line and sinker, she passed a scrap of paper over.

AYES - 122
KDA - 103, WP - 12, SPK - 4, GL - 2, ND - 1

NAYS - 58
WP - 20, SPK - 16, ND - 13, GL - 9

"Ah." The calming tone of voice could barely mask the white-hot fury that Baumann felt the moment he examined the paper. Andreas Seidl's face appeared to him in the fog of his mind; evidently the bastard had cooked up something involving the other three opposition parties to get this passed. Now he owed favours to every other party in the legislature; favours that would presumably be called in sooner rather than later.

"I think it's great that members of the various parties have come together and put aside their differences to get this passed; it shows that we do have rational members on either side of the Chamber, and we're glad to have gotten this over the line." The statement was concillatory, but in truth his teeth were gritted; now he almost wished the Declaration had failed to pass.

Bastard. Bastard. The bastard had betrayed him. He was only meant to secure seventeen votes from one party, not nineteen from all four. Now he'd be looking for repayment, and all the other parties, too, cap in hand, would soon follow.

"Does this mean that opportunities will open up for future co-operation with other parties?"

He smiled. "You're a very good political journalist, I must say, and the Government will always work with other stakeholders and parties in Parliament as and when needed to get our agenda through. No further questions, please, I have a busy night ahead of myself. Do take care."

And Kurt Baumann walked off, out of Parliament, into the waiting car. There were rumours of another meeting in Foxchester — whether Starblaydi or Krytenian, he didn't know — and he had to make arrangements to fly out. There was no time for Parliament anymore. Not for a while, at least; Seidl and the rest of the goons on the other side of the Chamber would have to wait until he returned — but he would return to Kotzellach City a weaker politician on the domestic side of things.

A victory for themselves, then; one that had a potential to become pyrrhic; but a victory, nonetheless.

Kotzellach would join Anaia.