Thanks to everyone who has read/reviewed/submitted a character! It makes me super happy to see a new review or a new PM'd character when I get on! There are still more SYOC spots, so please submit!
***DESPITE THE ACTUAL SELECTION STUFF STARTING IN THIS CHAPTER, THERE ARE STILL SPOTS WHICH I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE BEING FILLED AND NO WINNER HAS BEEN DECIDED YET***
Also if your character doesn't appear yet, don't worry. If I've replied and said that the character has been accepted, they will definitely appear soon.
If there was one thing that the castle excelled at, it was a good cover up. All the guests were informed (and in the process, intimidated) that they were required to not say anything to anyone about Taliyah's death. All reporters at the party were bribed with a ridiculous amount of money to only run stories about the festivities, not the murder, and the entire Elisono family was given two weeks of stay at the castle to host the funeral, which was to be a very private affair. Kat herself had extended the offer to pay for the funeral, not to cover up the death, but because she knew how much the family was hurting. She had even had Adina and Yvette custom sew the outfits of the family. She personally had organized the funeral, and as she sat in the back row of the chairs, she found it very hard not to weep for the girl who she had spoken to once. Guilt crushed Kat from all corners, spun with worry and doubt. There had been no leads in the murder, and if someone had gotten away with it at her high-security party, what could happen during the Selection? She didn't want to risk the lives of innocent girls for a selfish purpose.
However, two very important conversations had set in stone Kat's choice to continue with the Selection. After Taliyah's death, Kat stayed in her room for the next day. She knew, of course, that that was terrible behavior for an heir, but she felt as though she physically could not move. It was as though the guilt and tragedy from the murder was all piled on top of her, pinning her down. How was she to go on with the Selection knowing that someone could be hurt? If an assailant could get into the castle on such a high security day as her birthday party, it seemed probable that it could happen again during the Selection. If someone were to die, it would be all her fault.
It was in this pit of misery that Berlin came to Katalina's room. At first she knocked on the door, the light rap-rap shattering the dead silence Kat had been lying in. When Kat did not answer, Berlin simply opened the door. Unlike Adina, Yvette, or even Alder, who had all tried to strip Kat of her silent, unmoving haze by talking to her and trying to bargain with her, Berlin simply sat down on Kat's bed and laid with her. She seemed to know that what Kat needed was not someone to pressure or push her, but to just be there with her. To comfort her without words. Kat would talk when she was ready to talk, but Berlin seemed to know there was no speeding up the process. Despite how little Kat had talked to Taliyah, she felt like she knew her. Because really, in a nation so prejudiced, Kat knew that her story was reflected everywhere, in all of the lonely gay girls. The acceptance of those around the person depended on the individual, but otherwise it was much the same. The feeling of knowing Taliyah, and the fact that the reason she was dead was most likely because of coming out to Kat destroyed her. If she hadn't had that party, if she had behaved like a lady of her position and not talked to Taliyah, if she had this, if she had that, the girl would not have died.
Kat lay on the bed with Berlin next to her for hours, trapped in a cloud of toxic thought before finally speaking just one word. "Why?" she asked.
Berlin's nervous green eyes flickered to her sister's face, trying to assess what was only emptiness, "Well... well, I think they were trying to scare you," she spoke softly, as though to a wounded animal, "I think they don't like the Selection, and they want to stop it, so they're doing this crazy act to stop it… to try to stop the acceptance you're starting. And I think if you stop… if you cancel the Selection, and give into this monster then every single gay little girl and boy out there is just going to feel even more hurt and keep getting pushed into the corner."
Even though Kat didn't want to hear it, and every bone in her body told her to give up and don't let anyone else get hurt, the little voice in her head told her Berlin was right. If she stopped the Selection to protect the girls, she would only hurt them more. She had to keep going.
"It's my fault," Kat said in a croaky whisper, after a few minutes of silence.
"How?" Berlin raised her eyebrows.
Kat looked away from Berlin, "She came out to me… someone must have heard, and… and th-then."
"Katalina," Berlin frowned, using the name she rarely used, "It's no way your fault. It's the bigoted monster who did this whose fault it is. She probably was happy to have told you and be accepted, think of who you are. Actually, I was talking to her brother… I feel bad, but I forget his name, um… well, he said she was such a fan and must've died happy knowing she got to meet you."
"Talon," Kat muttered, "His name's Talon."
"Yeah, Talon. Well, Kat, the point is that you can't give up on the Selection. The country needs this," Berlin squeezed Kat's hand, "and if you do, you'll always regret it. I know you, and I know you want to run and hide so you don't hurt anyone, but even more people will be hurt if you do."
And so Berlin left, leaving Kat feeling better, and certainly more determined. She couldn't give up, not now. Not just for her, but for the prejudice-filled country.
This was the first of the very important conversations that convinced her to keep the Selection going. The other one occurred soon after the funeral, and in fact Kat was still wearing her black dress. It was all black, of course, and went up to her neck in lace. It fell to her knee, and had no sleeves. She was staring at herself in her floor length mirror, her green eyes looking empty and red, and her dark brown hair tangled. Her pale skin looked paler and her slim body seemed sallow and weak. She looked a mess, over a death of a girl she barely knew. About only half an hour after the funeral ended, Adina knocked on her door to tell her that King Tyran had requested her presence. She merely nodded and shuffled down the hall and up the stairs to the king's office, not really noticing what went on around her, caught in a haze. When she entered her father's office, the old man sat stroking his bushy brown beard and mustache, looking through some papers.
"Ah, Katalina. You're here. Please, take a seat," King Tyran said, addressing the chair in front of his desk.
"What was it you wished to talk to me about, father?" Kat inquired, getting straight to the point.
"Well you see… after the unfortunate incident with Miss Taliyah, your mother and I have talked and we believe it might be best for you to call off the Selection," Tyran leaned forward, locking his fingers together and resting his elbows on the desk, "We don't want to endanger any civilians by bringing them here, and there's already quite a bit of resistance throughout the country."
Kat blinked, taking in what her father was saying. Rarely did he even talk to his daughter, preferring to send attendants with tasks for her to do.
"So, the Selection shall be called off, yes," Tyran nodded to himself.
Kat blinked again, before speaking with intent, "No."
"What, child?"
"I said no. If you're worried about security, on the next draft pull more soldiers to the castle and specifically train them for the Selection. Add to the force, train harder, and change security passwords more frequently. Heavy background checks can occur throughout the castle, as well as on the Selection contestants. As for the country, we need this. This Selection is such an important step in what your parents tried to do. All the protests just mean we need it more, people need to understand that this is normal, that I'm normal. If we cancel now, homophobia will only swell. Please, father, this is so necessary," begged Katalina.
"But-"
"And if you cancel it now, I'll make sure the press knows that this was not my decision," Kat spat.
Tyran blinked, his mouth twitching in annoyance, "You can't just go to the media like that. Not only would that harm the nation, you'd be backstabbing your own family!"
"Funnily enough, that's exactly what you'd be doing if you canceled the Selection."
And so Kat stood and left her father with a shocked look on his face. Her anguish and hurt didn't need this right now, and she wouldn't let her prejudiced father take advantage of that fact. After this and her conversation with Berlin, she knew what the country needed, despite how afraid she was, and how much pain she was in. She could never stop the Selection when the country needed it so much. Kat walked up to the castle post center and ordered a speedup on the delivery of the Applications. This was happening whether or not King Tyran wanted it.
-uUu-
"Will you do it with me?" the girl with sandy blonde hair asked, her shaggy bangs hanging over her eyes, "Please?"
"Luna, you know I'm straight," her best friend, Fleur, replied with a laugh.
"I can't go alone," the other girl mumbled, her gaze dropping to the ground, "I'm too afraid."
"Get Sol to go with you. I'm sure he would," Fleur smiled, patting her friend reassuringly on the shoulder.
Luna shook her head, "I tried. He's busy. Please?"
Fleur shrugged, "Alright. There's no way they'd pick me over someone as great as you, Lun, so I guess I'll go."
-uUu-
"Oh my god, you have to, Tati!" Haddie grinned at her friend, "You're the gayest person I know!"
Tatiana frowned at the ground, "Haddie… don't say that so loud," she mumbled softly.
The two Sixes had met through work, when Tatiana was fourteen and Haddie sixteen, and Haddie was hired to clean the house of the Threes Tatiana nannied for. Haddie was the only one who knew she was gay, and always worked to boost her best friend's admittedly low self esteem.
"I can't come out… I could lose work, and my parents need me. And what if my parents didn't accept me? You know they've been trying to set me up with so many boys recently… they want me to marry up at least one caste," Tatiana shrugged.
"You know that they'd stop if you just came out."
"I can't, Haddie, I keep telling you… I'm too scared," Tatiana frowned at the conversation they'd had many times before.
"Maybe not now, Tati, but soon. I know you have it in you," Haddie squeezed Tatiana's shoulder, "Anyways, I gotta go. Got another cleaning duty in about thirty minutes. Seeya, girl."
"Seeya…" Tatiana mumbled as Haddie walked away, and began the trek to her work.
-uUu-
Lysa Pinegrove smiled for the camera, the brilliant white light flashing in her face, making it hard not to blink. The photographer told her she could go, and she stood up and thanked him before walking out the door. She'd done it. She'd apply to be in the Selection. When her mother, who had lived through one of these, took her to the City Hall she'd stated that the line was shorter than back when she'd watched a Selection, but it wasn't surprising. The percentage of gay girls to straight ones was very imbalanced. Her mother had said it would increase her chances of getting in, pushed her into a chair and pounded her face with makeup, and then handed her her already filled out application and drove her off to apply.
"Shouldn't it be my choice?" Lysa asked, her arms on her hips.
"Nonsense. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, not just for you but for our whole family. Think of how few girls are going to apply, and then you just have to win the Princess's heart," Harpra Pinegrove waved her hand as though it was a small matter, "You could lift us all to being Ones. Ones. We'd be royalty. So no, you don't have a choice."
But Lysa really needed a choice. It wasn't that she was straight, no, far from it. Lysa loved another girl, a girl back home, more than anything in the world. That wasn't something she planned to give up, Selection be damned.
If you haven't submitted a character but like the story, please do. I still need more! In the next episode, the actual beginning of the Selection will occur so if you have specific requests for the makeover for your character tell me. Thanks!