May 30th, 1942, Five Minutes Until The Televised Ceremony
Otto is having a good day.
Yes, the Schnees have been working hard but have steadily gotten the empire ready for the official day of the ceremony. There had been more than a few struggles - Hana had insisted on no one but elite German woman to announce those who would be chosen for the competition, and had finally settled on a group of her friends from the group to be sent out to the pre-determined locations. They had chosen the tributes ages before, using large glass bowls to draw from the slips for every child in the empire.
Of course, the bowls did not have every name of every child - it would be impossible to track them all down. But Otto had made sure that they were as close to perfection as they could get due to census workers taking town records and confirming them with the residents of towns around Europe, Northern Africa, and North America, and had them written down on lovely white slips, beautifully folded. Children of government officials close to Otto had taken handfuls of slips and placed them into the two bowls for every region. The bowls were placed on platforms for Otto to be filmed choosing the children for every region, in a large hall that had been used for dances and church dinners until Otto had re-appropriated it for rallies.
There, the twenty-eight bowls of slips had stayed until a film crew put themselves together and filmed him choosing the children who would fight in the competition. Hana and Otto still had not chosen a name for the children who would be fighting - they had tossed around different words, fighter, competitors, and combatants being a few he remembers.
Otto liked the word warrior - it made the competition seem noble, a bit more like the grand vision he had for it months before. He knew the dangers of a newly united empire. Time and time again, conquered countries would break up from an empire who had taken a few steps too far. If they did not have an identity of their own, they would rebel and go back to the old days, when life seemed to be simpler and the grass was greener. No, he needed something to distract them and pit them against one another.
When the first winner of the competition would be revealed to have spared their region from next year's match and gain their region extra stipends, then they would all start to take it seriously. For now, he is content with waiting for all of Europe - his Europe, and his surrounding nations to wake up to the fact that this isn't just a game.
It's just the beginning.
But Hana nudges him when the television set begins to broadcast the reactions of the chosen children, the room in which they're viewing the lottery filled to the brim with German officials and elite. Unbeknownst to the towns without children who were chosen for the competition, the twenty-eight towns with those children have camera crews ready to film the reactions of the chosen. After Hana had bemoaned the fact that they wouldn't get an opportunity to see the first reactions of those who would be participating, Otto had relented and let her 'escorts' travel to the towns and cities the day before.
Oh well, those are just minor details. And it's all been sorted out now. After all, the program is beginning.
He listens to a small, tinny voice, his own, begin to announce the chosen competitors. Otto frowns as he listens to the voice, so unlike his own, but in the end it doesn't matter. It might sound warped, but it sounds as strong as he wants it to me. The display of power is all that he needs. "The first two children heading to the competition, from the region of Canada, are Keenan Atherton and Abigail Kuepfer!"
The screen cuts to the reactions of both teenagers, as they begin to make their way out of the audience and to the stage. Abigail is in a plain dress and apron, looking like a girl from the nineteenth century, and gives a large gasp before turning pale. But she makes it to the stage without crying. There, Abigail stands as still as she can while one of Hana's friends gushes to the crowd in her stilted English that it is an honour for Abigail to be chosen. Otto turns to one of the men in the room, a man named Frederic who has been working on the opening ceremony for the competition. "She's the Amish girl, correct?"
"Oh yes," Frederic returns while Keenan shudders on the black and white screen. "She'll be an interesting person in the competition - her family is part of a traditionalist Amish group who doesn't use anything built after the eighteenth or nineteenth century, if I remember correctly. This will be a major shift for Abigail."
"The competitors from the United States are Elaine LaBelle and Beckett Walker!" the Otto on the television exclaims, but the men ignore the teenagers walk onto the stage.
"So we'll have something interesting to show the world. Intriguing." Otto nods before turning for the announcement of the Iberian competitors. Pablo Silva glares at the crowd while Andrea Gamper is trying not to cry, but failing all the while. Then the screen cuts to the French children, allowing Marius Alain and Gabriella Meier to stand on their stages and clench their fists, in both anger and misery.
But the most interesting set of reactions comes from Great Britain.
Caiomhe Bryne shrieks in the middle of the crowd, while the small town of Ireland that she lives in turns to stare at her in shock. But it's when she starts to swear at the crowd when the truly interesting part begins, Otto hearing several English swear-words that he's not heard before.
When the name of Thomas Barnum is announced, his town, hidden in the forests of what Frederic called Northumberland, makes no reaction. The boy begins to hobble up onto the stage, stumbling on his crutches and trying not to fall in the light of the cameras. Both of his legs look badly injured, and he struggles to get up onto the stage.
But then another boy steps out from the crowd, calling out to whichever one of Hana's friends was designated for the trip to England. "No! You can't let him go! I'll take his place, don't let him go! I'll take his spot instead!"
The shocked woman asks for his name, and he tells her that his name is Norman Bennett. The woman pauses, whispers to another man on the stage, then gives a shrug. "Please congratulate Norman for his decision to join us! Tell me, why did you volunteer for the competition? Was the boy your friend?"
"To be brave," Norman answers. Otto chuckles at the reply, then shakes his head in humour. Quite an interesting crop from the British Isles indeed.
Karol Karski, Dahlia Kachlicka, Luka Novak, Milena Kovac, Antoine Deslauriers, and Magdelena Pichler are the next competitors that Otto on the screen calls out, and their reactions are similar. All except for the two from Slavia, who trade desperate glances before being escorted off of the stage. "Luka is married to Milena's sister," Frederic whispers to Otto, and then he understands why they look so nervous.
Ignacio Russo and Maria Bellini look fierce, as he expects from Italy. The country might have been of minimal help during the war, but they chose the right side nonetheless. Otto enjoys a country that knows which side to pick.
When the Swiss children are chosen and the Afrikkaan selection begins, Otto is waved aside by Hana to discuss the arena. "The engineers are just about finished with the construction of the maze, with only the sliding walls in the centre to finish. Some want to use thick sets of plywood on wheels, but others say that tributes might be able to hack through it. And should we prepare to make sure that there are other sets of sliding doors in case we want to change up the structure of the maze?" she asks, just as the screen cuts to the Russian competitors.
"Whatever you want, dearest." Otto stops muttering to Hana and turns back to the screen with his small glass of champagne, the bright, bubbly liquid spilling onto the floor. He drains the cup in a sip and watches the Turkish children be brought up to the stage, the small children looking like they're about to cry as they stand in front of their cities. Deniz Aslan and Elif Kaya are the youngest competitors being taken to Berlin, so Otto doesn't doubt their fear. But that finishes the broadcast of the lottery, and the room settles back with a collective sigh of relief. It's gone off without a hitch - well, if they don't call Norman's volunteering a hitch. Otto finds it interesting that someone would have the guts to volunteer for a deathmatch, especially for someone they don't know.
Oh, they have a good crop of children this year.
Their blood, spilled on the walls of Hana's maze, will make the empire fear him all the more.
And that's our interlude! Hopefully this was enjoyable for you all, because we only have four more chapters to go before we hit the bloodbath! Yep, we'll have three train-ride chapters for all of the competitors before we head into the games, with a lengthy interlude to make up for their time in Berlin. Don't worry, you will still get your angst and all of that. But for now, we're getting ready to see everyone again as they travel to Berlin!
Enjoy the chapter! Keep voting in the poll, keep having fun, and I hope you keep reading! Until next time, TheAmazingJAJ