Bride of the Emperor - IC Thread

[Norgeras]

From the outside it feels like the Entrance to a summer Camp, giggity young Woman with Coffers and a cheery attitude gathering to be left in. Where it not for the massive security apparatus around the Pop up village. The Site was surrounded by several security fences, Surveillance and patrolling Soldiers.


The Cottages themselves where overall Spartan, aside from high speed internet connections. Cameras everywhere on the Site to Broadcast everything the Participants do to the World. Well, almost everything. Bedrooms and Bathrooms where Camera free. Several Large Physical Noteboards where filled with Information, like communal Food times or announcements, emergency numbers and details about the first part of the contest.


One of these cottages has been dubbed the Refugee shelter by some of the participants, but in truth it was hosting the high profile Foreigners that had signed up for the contest, together with some of the local hopeful candidates.

Irene, Sieglinde and Brunhilde had taken a room far away from each other - overall each bedroom allowed for up to four occupants. Leaving one room completely empty for now, and 9 beds to be picked. The three awaited the other residents, sitting far apart and all looking at their phones what was going on.




The Large Dining Tent was usually a Massive Beer Tent for local fairs, now it was more akin to a posh refugee canteen. A countdown of 31 Days was setup on a huge monitor, determining the first Test to be held at that time.

The food available was overall modest, though there was a little trick to it. Apparently the Youth Senates where voting in the weekly foods for the Participants, and on top of that, had the power to grant some of them a better menu.

[Libby]

Darina arrived at the site carrying a tactical gear bag and a huge backpack full of clothes and a few luxuries away from home. She looked at the site and wondered if she had arrived at the right place as to her it looked more like some kind of prison camp than a place a future Empress would based at. She had debated with the Missionara back home about what to wear, she'd suggested wearing a Truthsayer uniform but the wise scholars of her faith had said that would be inappropriate as she only had honorary Truthsayer status. Instead she had donned the red uniform of the Honored Matres. She made her way inside and found a bedroom and began unpacking. It had been hard to know what to bring and so she'd brought everything from sports stuff to ball gowns. She found a place for each and then phoned her  family back in Kaitaine.

As one would expect with the grand-daughter of the Lord of the Conclave from Lodja Angelika Kubik received a escort from the local embassy. She had arrived with a fleet of wheeled suitcases and it needed a few trips from the embassy staff to help her get her things in and settled. Almost immediately she took out her phone and began giving people a 360 degree panoramic tour of the compound, "Not exactly where I would expect a future empress to be but hey I'm here now." She filmed herself saying before putting the mobile away.

The last of the Lodjains to arrive was Ophelie Danilov. It was clear Jasmina had learned a thing or two about media management in her time since being Chief Lady in Waiting. She had accompanied her sister to the entrance along with their close family friend Queen Stasya of East Moreland. It just so happened that the Queen was in the country looking at potential locations for after-show parties for the fashion week later in the year and Jasmina, just so happened," to persuade her to attend this. Ophelie's outfit had also been selected to send a message or two. The dress was, as royal ladies in Lodja wore, a pale blue however this had been carefully selected to not be the same shade worn by the actual royals. The dress finished just above the knee and was hemmed with a strip of gold, rather than the Queen of Lodja's silver, the hem depicted a series of rabbits, each the size of a thumbnail, that seemed to make a pattern as though they were running round the bottom of the dress. Stasya and Jasmina gave Ophelia a hug and then the candidate went inside keen to find a bed. She was slightly put out that she wouldn't have her own room but she was kind of friends with Angelika and so sought out the other girl and soon had claimed the bed next to her.

[DaveIronside]

Stasya had tagged along with Ophelie and her elder sister Jasmina because she thought it would be an interesting experience, plus it meant a chance to enjoy a few nights out with her Lodjain friends. The morning that the accompanied Ophelie to the drop off she had opted to wear a pretty yellow dress ensuring it was something eye catching enough to get the attention that she craved. Naturally she knew the media would be interested in seeing the girls arrive and so of course it was important to look the part too. As Jasmina and Ophelie said their goodbyes it didn't take Stasya long to find some media types keen to talk.

"Your Majesty" A reporter yelled. "Why have you come here today?"

"Good Morning" Stasya smiled at the media. "I'm just here to support family friends." came the calculated response.

"You mean Lady Ophielie Danilov?" The reported followed up.

"Her and Neu Urburzis. Ophelie is a friend of the Pelagiya family and Neu Urburzis a friend of my East Moreland family. I know I speak for all of East Moreland when I say we're very fond of our rather unqiue relationship with Neu Urburzis. We're not truly allies, not in the sense most recognise the word, but we're nations that have taken a great deal of care to help and support the causes we all agree are important. Therefore the Kingdom cares deeply that your Emperor gets as happy a marriage as mine and Davids. Now I'm obviously going to say that it would be Ophelie who would make that happen. She's a beautiful Lodjain lady who understands how royal courts work and has already made a great contribution to several good causes that I think your Emperor would be excited to support himself. They'd make a great team."

"Will you be following the contest closely then Your Majesty" A second report called out.

"Of course. I intend to be here a few times in the coming months, we've fashion shows and the like coming up. I'm hopeful Ophelie does well and Angelika too. I just hope the people of Neu Urburzis grow to like them as much as I do. Now I'm sorry I must be leaving. Myself and Lady Jasmina have a dinner appointment with some dear friends to discuss some fashion week things." With that the duo returned to the waiting car and left hoping that in some small way Stasya may have helped the cause.

[Norgeras]

Brunhilde approved of two of her present competitors. Kubik and Darina. If any of those two would make it, she would at least rest easy someone would whip the little girl into an Emperor like she would. She gave an approving nod to them, while the others got at best an annoyed grunt out of her. Getting tired of waiting around, she put her massive frame in front of Kubik and Darina:

"Hey, Soldiers. Let's hit the Gym. It will be a while before we get our first actual task, might as well see what the competition is made out of, eh?"




Sieglinde gave Ophelia a nod with a shy smile: "Ah, hello there." the timid teenager said, by far the youngest in this house: "So, if i may ask. Outside of what we know from the Tabloids. What do you like to do?"

Irene quickly caught on and moved over, too. Taking a seat next two these, she chimed in:

"Tabloids can be quite menacing, can't they? Though they dropped me rather quickly when it was clear i wont return as high Profiles Figure skater."

Spoiler: show

 OOC: First task will be posted on Thursday. Please remember by then every Participant will have been observed and lived in the camp for a month already.

[paralipomena]

Noble Lady Shin arrived wearing a sleeveless blue dress at the contemporary fashion. While she was aware of the challenges ahead, she was not willing to concede a second defeat. She still found the scenery and situation a bit weird, something she did not expect to experience. Still, she was not anxious, as it was nothing too serious compared to the education she received as a young girl from the upper class back in her native country. She observed the other participants, as well as the staff of the place, with an immovable smile.

Tinatin was wearing a more daring black dress, covered by a long jacket. She also found the situation a bit awkward, the opposite as things were down in her own country, but she found the difference and contrast quite enthralling and exciting. The situation reminded her the community camps she attended during her teenage years but with none of its spirituality, something that did not disturb her much, rather the contrary. She observed carefully each of her likely rivals and wondered how friendly or nasty the competition was likely to become. In either case, she was prepared.

[Achkaerin]

The two Achkaerinese candidates, Catrin Waterstone and Poppy Locklyn had had a surprise waiting for them as they'd settled in, their primary reason - their orders so to speak for even being involved in this contest had mainly revolved around keeping a safe eye on Sophia Anselmo from within the contest, in short undercover work, however that was no longer their job as the Princess wasn't there so a minor adjustment had been made, they didn't have to think as much on the security mentality they could in fact now proceed with their secondary things and actually see how they fared in the contest, the odds of winning were the same as anyone else, if they won then this was the shortest job they'd probably ever have, if not then it was nothing ventured nothing gained. They did have one advantage, they were used to working together, they had a team ethos and while they were fairly certain that this was a contest that had the potential to get nasty albeit that depended on individual personalities they weren't about to stick the knife in each other.

[Norgeras]

On the first of February, the Camp was abuzz with the sound of excited chatter as the main announcement boards had lit up. Though what initially was a joyous moment turned into a very split audience. About half of them cheered and ran off to their housing, the others stood there, some in tears, others dumbstruck. The first mission had been announced:

"Good day, Future Empress and her Competitors.

The first task shall be one to test how fast you may adapt to a new Situation.

Crochet, knit, sew, stitch, quilt or whatever you can imagine. We expect of you to handcraft an Object to be presented during the Fashion Week.

Whether you have to learn a new skill or push a known one beyond your limits, we expect greatness.

Several anonymous Sponsors have opened up Warehouses on the Campgrounds for you to gather Materials and knowledge, some might even be hidden!

The vote will be held after the Fashion week in the Senates.

Best of Luck, the Organizing Comittee."

Irene seemed moderately confident, reading the announcement on her Phone she quickly made her way to find the Warehouses. It seems she stood in line at one of the Warehouses with Sparkling Glitter, Glass Pearls and similar Baubles for now.

Brunhilde had one of her over the top artificial laughs, put both her hands on her hips and loudly announcend: "Onwards then!" before walking off into a different direction. She was waiting in line at what seemed like a Woodworkshop.

Only Siegline seemed somewhat intimidated, where she grabbed herself her Phone first and seemed to scoure the internet for some information before she too went out to seemingly search for either a hidden shop or a specific item.

[Libby]

The two Lodjain girls couldn't help but grin at each other. You didn't grow up in Lodjain high society without picking up both an insight into fashion and some workable skills with a needle and thread. Ophelia went off in search of some silk, some ink and a ruler. Once she'd acquired those things she rummaged through her own travel trunk looking for a particular dress she owned. It was somewhat of a sacrifice but she carefully unpicked the stitching and then having carefully shortened it from ankle length to knee length traced the outline onto the silk allowing her to effectively stitch the template back together in the knowledge that she'd get at least a half decent form fitting dress that would go some way to showing off her shapely legs. She carefully stored the parts, went to get dinner and then slept ready to begin again in the morning.

Angelika meanwhile had gone in search of cotton, the colour was going to be irrelevant and then it was off to find as many books as possible. She had helped out at University making the odd costume for fancy dress nights out. The shape of the dress was not really going to be the most important but by the time night fell she found herself in a similar position as her countrymen. As the sun came up they meet for breakfast as they had every morning since they'd been here and a quick videocall was made to someone they knew would be in the no. "Your Majesty" they both greeting Queen Stasya. Over the next half an hour they talked her through their ideas and she did her best to offer them advice. Having wished them well they both got back to work.

Having first sewn her dress together Ophelie took a ruler and ever so carefully drew five parrallel lines that ran in a looping curl around the dress in such a manner as to extenuate her figure. It was then a relatively easy job of transcribing musical notes onto it. To the unmusical of those who would be watching it would seem to just be a musically themed dress however to those in the know the notes would spell out the opening of the Neu Urburzis national anthem. It was Ophelie's hope that the dress would show not just her physical beauty but also her passion for music and a respect towards the nation that she would hopefully become Empress of. On the next sewing machine Angelika busied herself sewing her cotton creation together. Next she took a fine glue and delicately placed pages trimmed from books in two rows along certain lines she'd laid out with a fine silver thread. Once she'd done the dress looked like some strange scaled monstrosity with the pages forming thick rigid flaps. This though was probably only the half way point of her design. As the day began to see the sunset she began the process using scissors to ever so carefully cut strips that ran 9/10th of the way up each page essentially making them into thin strips held together by a border glued to the dress. By the time she had done the dress had lost all sense of stiffness and now resembled more of a layered fringe dress with the pages of her favourite book. Now everytime she moved the pages twisted and twirled in the breeze her graceful walk would create.  Both girls were satisfied with their attempts.

Darina meanwhile would have no idea what to do. The closest she'd ever come to high fashion was stitching together a ghillie suit during the war in Kaitaine. She didn't think such a garment would be what was required for the fashion week. She however had a secret weapon. A phone call to the Chapterhouse in Ui Cenneslaig she could unleash the skills of Missionara. It seemed to her that there was nothing that those geeks didn't know and before long she'd got one of them talking her through step by step how to tye dye fabric. The red of the Honored Matres first, she then used a second dipping using green, the colour of her Truthsayers. The fabric was left to hang over night and dry and in the morning the white cotton was now a swirling pattern of bright red and dark green. The cotton was dry and back on a video call with the Missionara's experts on traditional fashion and having acquired a mannequin a similar size to herself they began the wrapping to make a kind of outline of a female toga. Next there was endless pinning and stitching, she was worried about messing it up but as the girls on the video call told her it was just like stitching a wound up she soon found it getting simpler. With the folds and curves now secured in place what was left was to add a Bene Gesserit spin on the Neu Urbruzis design. She ended the evening following instructions of how to use the material that was left to make a flowing cape similar to those worn by the Truthsayers as they had fought in the deserts of the homeland. Its hood was deep and it would, if the wind permitted, bellow beautifully behind her. She was satisfied with the work and wished the Missionara a good night and then went back to sleep still unable to get the red tint out of her hand from the dye but satisfied that she'd learned a new skill.

[paralipomena]

Tinatin followed fashion and entered into one of the warehouses. She selected one large knife, and along another sharp metallic scissors and knitting needle started to work of it. Her late grandmother had taught her how to do it a long time ago. Regarding the detail, she felt she was likely to face a strong competition. It was a better choice, she felt, to attempt to focus in the originality. It took her much longer than she expected and remembered. Her sewing ability was not maybe  the best, particularly compared to her own mother and sisters. Still, the task was finished and she was quite satisfied of the result. As far as possible as the fabric available, she chose them so the hat had the colours and motifs of her own clan.


Noble Lady Shin entered into one of the woodworkshop warehouses and did not leave until after midnight. She spent several hours cutting the wood, soaking the pieces with boiled water, and preparing the glue after which she bundled up the ribs. She spent the next five days, preparing the drawing the sketches. Very often, more as an entertainment and a mode of preparing for the final product. When the time arrived, she put them together and cut them and gave them a circular shape. She finally added the paper she had prepared and designed through the week. The rest of the day, she spent painting and adding the decoration to both the paper and the wood. The fan was then finished.

Shin gave the final touch to the wooden surfaces with a tiny paint brush. In very tiny characters, she carefully inscripted: "Awating the blossoms, when a warmed and brighter moon arrives, I offer you this present, with all the devotion a breathing soul is able to offer".

[Achkaerin]

If truth were told getting their hands dirty so to speak was just about the best thing that the Achkaerinese pair could have hoped for, this was what they were trained for to think, to craft, to come up with something different. Catrin headed straight for the warehouse with fabrics to pick up what would amount to being her canvas and then went in search of the art supplies she required, she was certainly in for a long few hours of work. Finding the silk was fortunately straightforward, getting it to the correct size was a little trickier but the advantage of being a medical student was that she had developed the necessary attention to detail to get the fabric to the correct size and shape. That was the easy part, the hard part, the time consuming part was about to begin - first the dyeing process to get the silk to the right texture, once it had dried she went to work with the silk paints she'd acquired, it was always going to be colourful and have a pattern after all the process pretty much guaranteed both of those things, carefully she marked out the outlines for the shapes and made sure to neatly mark where the colour would change. Next Catrin filled in the blocks of colour, her movements with a paintbrush were not too dissimilar from how she'd wield a scalpel in medical school, cleanly, neatly and precisely. She smiled when it was done, the finished article looked as bright and stylish as she'd hoped it would.

Poppy may have relished the principle behind the challenge but she wasn't what would be called a fashion follower, yes sure she had some very fashionable dresses for when she played the piano in a concert or went to an official event, but she wouldn't have ever described herself as a fashionable individual. Still the point here was to showcase her skills, to show who she was and for that she was drawing primarily on all the times she'd watched her father doing his work, he was a watchmaker, and while what Poppy had in mind was different the skills were transferable. Notebook in hand she first sketched out and planned what she was going to do, then she went in search for materials first the precious metal required to make the chain and the casing, once she'd found those in a warehouse she went into crafting mode and forged the casing, the shape she had in mind was that of a pocket watch case, though ever so slightly bulkier than the norm because she was being a little more ambitious than just a simple pocket watch. While the metal cooled Poppy went in search of the tools she'd need and the further materials, some like the metal and glass were easily found, the hardest things to find was a metal cylinder of the right diameter, but she eventually found that hidden away in a small storehouse and the sheet music which she found in a secluded shop.

The next step was perhaps the hardest because in the twenty first century what she was going to have to do manually was more usually done by a computer, first things first she got out her laptop and inputting the variables of the cylinder and the music notes she mapped where she needed to place the pins on the cylinder, putting on her safety goggles she went to work, positioning pins on not one but five cylinders. She took a breath before placing each cylinder in turn into the mechanism and listening as the sound came out, she'd designed each cylinder to play a different traditional folk song of Neu Uburzis and a small door on the back of the casing would allow the owner to easily swap the cylinders around if they wished, for the moment she fitted one cylinder in place and put the other four in a small silver case lined with velvet on the interior. Now she carefully crafted the partition layer of the item, making the sound holes look elegant before placing it over the music box element and fixing it in place. She was back on better known soil now as least as far as her knowledge went, putting together with great care the mechanism for the watch, piece by piece she put the timepiece together making sure it kept the right time, that it could be wound and that the sound from the music box floated through from the back and was triggered when the front of the watch opened. After finally fitting the transparent cover over the hands she fixed the lid in place and tested the catch making sure it could flip open and stay securely shut. She etched a small poppy onto the clasp, it was her makers mark, and then engraved a pattern onto the outside of the lid. Sliding the safety glasses up onto her forehead she smiled, it was done.

[Norgeras]

The day during the Fashion week had come and gone, just as half the camp.

It was a brutal culling, many of them barely getting more votes than their direct relatives caused many broken dreams. The members of the favorite house all scrapped by, some more successful than others.

Sieglinde had risen to the third Spot in the last polls, her handmade piece of bobbin lace lingerie had caused a large stir and intrigued many voters to go for her rather forward aproach.

Brunhilde had somewhat struggled with the contest, while her hand carved statuette was a beautiful piece, it didn't really create the interest she had hoped for. while rank 34 was still far above others, it caused the weight lifter to rethink her strategy.



Ophelie had placed 4th in the last polls, her overall status and well made item had kept her at a good place.

Darina on Number 5, while her overall popularity helped, it seems her playing it relatively safe didn't win her much of an edge.

Angelika sat at a comfortable 8th Place for now, though same as Darina, it seems most people thought she played it a little to safe.



Catrin, while her rank was far below the others at 116, meant for her initial poll she rose from the thousands to the hundreds.

Poppy made the largest leap, rising from the thousands to place 22, though the initial buzz she created with the item might carry over for the next rounds.



Tinatin rose to Rank 7, her traditional angle having convinced a lot of people to vote for her.

Noble Lady Shin had gained Rank 2 from this first Poll, her way of creating a fashionable yet traditional item that wasn't another dress had stood out and given her a large leap forward.



Irene had placed Rank One, but the day of the announcement she was nowhere to be seen. In fact, while Lady Shin was the second in the Poll, her name was first on the Polls for now, with Irene suddenly missing from the List of the contenders.




Sieglinde had been a nervous wreck, the attention she had gotten on social Media had overwhelmed her somewhat, and she had been hiding most of the day in the Room before she had been given some help with handling social Media from the Contest support staff. She was now sitting in the Main room and trying to handle the large amount of attention she now had.

Brunhilde on the other hand was busy trying to calm her fans down, filming a Short in a little corner that had purposely green walls of the cabin:

"So, it didn't go as planned, but that won't mean anything yet. I made one wrong throw in the past and still won many times! So keep holding tight, and we still go for gold!"





There was also a Handwritten letter left on the Pin board, written by Irene:

"To the remaining contenders,

due to my parents having been unknown and living in an orphanage for a long time, I've had a DNA test done. I will not release this information myself, feel free to share it yourself. It is yet unclear who exactly my mother was, but I've been asked to drop out since i apparently share about half my DNA with the emperor. So yeah, seems i'm his half Sister on his Fathers Side.

Honestly, feels weird i was in a contest to marry what seems to be my half brother? This is all still a bit much,

but to my future Sister in law? i Guess?

Good Luck whoever it will be.

Irene."

[Libby]

The results had not entirely pleased the two Lodjain's, the task being fashion based they had hoped to do so much better and walk away clearly at the top of the rankings. They did their best to seem unaffected though and wished the girls who were leaving the best but with very little sincerity behind the words. Darina meanwhile was relieved, she was not exactly the most fashionable of girls and deemed her skills perhaps a little more practical than creative. That in mind she had breathed a sigh of relief when her result had landed. They returned to their acommodation and updated their families of the goings on. It was Opheilie who was first to post things on social media but having spoken to Angelika first, they made a joint post talking of the fun they'd had with their projects and then giving a link to a website that ran auctions on rare clothing, both had posted their outfits on there with the information of the proceeds being split between the Global Childbirth Initiative and Lukhemia charity that Prince Augustin had helped support. They promised they'd encourage the other girls to do likewise. Each figured that if the contest was popular enough to attract that much attention people would probably love to get to own things they'd seen and helping charities, particularly ones run by their hosts royals was hopefully going to help earn a few extra points.

When news came of Irene's birth right it was Darina who made the first calls, this was the kind of information the Missionara Protectiva would like to know, they kept meticulous records of royal bloodlines and there was every chance that this gem of information would be of interest and by the sounds of it could be kept secret for a while. That being said the Missionara would now be adding notes to family trees even as they spoke.

[Achkaerin]

While others may have been a little disappointed the two Achkaerinese girls were quite elated with their results, after all the task hadn't really been completely in either of their wheelhouses so they'd been forced to adapt to the circumstances and it appeared they'd both come out of it fairly well, Catrin may not have ranked close to the other favourites but at least she was still there, Poppy meanwhile had reread the ranking list about fifty times just to make sure she wasn't seeing things, placing twenty second was a pretty big deal and was a meteoric rise from where she'd been previously. The pair had celebrated their success by spending some time in Poppy's room, reading through the social media reactions to the rankings and replying, making sure to thank everyone for their support. Poppy's music box watch seemed to have generated a fair amount of interest to the point where she started seeing comments saying 'oh I'd love one of those playing...' or 'I'd like one that looked like...' having seen them, Poppy was soon taking orders via social media initially and then a website that Catrin helped her set up, and Poppy wasn't going to charge a single coin. At the end of the day this was a popularity contest and Poppy knew she had to try and capitalise on her surprise success. She knew she could make them between challenges and get them shipped which hopefully would help her further down the road.

But still that was one challenge safely negotiated by the pair of them, now they just had to wait and see what the next one brought to them.

[Libby]

Angelika had some time on her hands between events. Between making Tik-Toks, going to the gym and generally just taking part in the day to day social life of the camp. She did however find time to get the Kubik family enterprises onto a little task for her. Seeing that one of her rivals was offering people something for free it was time to unleash the hordes. With careful phone calls placed across Mundus as many of the plebs relying on Kubik patronage that had contacts abroad went onto Poppy's website and began ordering the watch. The aim was that the sheer weight of the number needed and the skill required to build them would sap as much of Poppy's time as possible and then put her at a disadvantage, maybe make the world see her as anti-social or even better if she failed to keep to her promise then it would make a poor example. Either way the mischief amused Angelika a little as she saw the Lodjain patronage system swing into overdrive ensuring they did their best to help out their "Lord".

[Norgeras]

"The Test has been ongoing since the other Candidates left."

was all the news that everyone talked about the Camp that day. The Message suddenly appeared on the Infoscreesn everywhere, and to put it mildy, quite a few where Panicking. Only the Cabin with the Hopefuls seemed quiet so far.

[paralipomena]

Tinatin had not shared the obvious disappointment of the other contenders. The whole affair had stopped to be that amusing for her, even after the entertaining news of Irene's depart. She simply shrugged when she read the announcement. She wondered if the rest of the process would offer something useful for her.

Noble Lady Shin, instead, had taken the time after the last test for some self-examination, despite her overtly positive result. Every morning, she woke up early, lighted a candle, washed her face and arms, and meditated before a brief walk through the space around the camp. After their lunch, she carefully wrote about her own thoughts about the contests and the other contestants. She attempted to find if there was any system behind what the contestants had offered in the previous tests and their results. The message surprised her. She wondered if she had overlooked the differences between her own expectations and the demands of their hosts. She had been surprised that they were not demanded to express their own thoughts and their communication skills, or inquire on their personal and world views.

[Norgeras]

On the Third of April, a new bit of Information was released:


"The Test for the Candidates has varied depending on in which house you stayed. You all have been given some intel on one of the leaving candidates and what you did or didn't do with said information has become your test. We have been observing your and your surroundings social Media accounts to release a summary for each candidate, the vote will be held the next Sunday."




Sieglinde was somewhat floored, as she had simply decided not to talk Irene on her Social Media she should be fine, but the test seemed odd. Only once Brundhilde also entered the common room with a shit eating grin on her face did the picture become far clearer. A lot of other girls had gossiped heavily with the information left behind, about personal injuries problems with parents, Money Issues. The Cabin here with the Foreigners and these two was virtually the only one where the Info hadn't leaked to a Broader Audience. The bulky Athlete did look over at Darina's door though:

"Hey there Girl. They do suspect you told at least someone. Though seems it's not held against you."





Current notes on the Contestants:


Brunhilde: Headstrong, she mostly talked about her own shortcomings and her future challenges in the contest to her followers. Did not leak the information from what we could determine.

Sieglinde: Did not leak the Information from our ability to determine, was rather overwhelmed with the sheer amount of social media attention she got.



Tinatin:  has not shared the information to our Knowledge, nothing else noteworthy.

Lady Shin:   seems to have disappeared from social media for now, did not leak the information.



Catrin: has not shared the information to our knowledge, did start handling the logistics for another contestants venture in the meantime.

Poppy: has not shared the information to our knowledge, did start a venture of making and giving away more of the music boxes.



Darina: There is a chance she might have shared the Information to a close relative or friend back home, but no public social media posts or similar. Miss Irene did get four contact requests from Men belonging (or proclaiming) to the Bene Gesserit Faith. Since nothing of the sort was seen on her social media platforms, it is to be expected the topic has been mishandled by an indirect associate rather than Miss Darina.

Ophelia: Hasn't shared the Information, did partake in the Leukemia fund of Prince Augustin in her free time.

Angelika: Hasn't shared the information, partook in efforts to support the Leukemia Fund and has promoted Contestant Poppy's ventures on her social media.

[Achkaerin]

So that's it the thought went through Poppy's mind when she read the information on the board, it made sense pick one of the former competitors give a little bit of information about them to the other competitors while withholding that information from the public, a sensible test about information that might as well have been rephrased into the question 'can you keep a secret?' It was however for both Poppy and Catrin a question that was easily answered when viewed that way - firstly they lived in the world of secrets and you couldn't operate in that world if you didn't know how to keep one. The truth was that at some point the secret was going to come out, it was inevitable, and even if it wasn't there were two Achkaerinese in there, there was no need to take to social media over it or pick up the phone and make the call about it as far as either Poppy or Catrin were concerned for the simple reason that Irene being related to Orion was something that whoever managed the Uburzi Royal's media wasn't going to be able to sit on. The chess player in Poppy told her that.

More intriguing on the board was other information firstly there was the suggestion that Darina had leaked the information and secondly it appeared that Angelika was part of the reason why she'd noticed an uptick in the number of music box orders. Poppy had put a thank you note under Angelika's door before heading back to her own room where she found Catrin finishing setting up some camera equipment, this was a knock on of the orders increasing, Poppy had started using her keyboard to play the musical pieces that she was 'programming' into the music boxes, she'd do a stream of a few of the pieces and talk with those who were supporting her, answer questions and all that mostly music related which was right in her wheelhouse, Catrin would join in and they'd do a couple of duets - Poppy on the keyboard set to piano and Catrin on her violin.

[Norgeras]

It was already Monday Morning when the results had finally come in. Several of the Senates had to be recounted due to a technical issue and Emergency meetings due to the Nya Aland situation. But the Results came in at Breakfast. It was now only about 500 remaining Contestants. While none of the Hopefuls and foreign Candidates had been eliminated, their rankings had been thrown into disarray. The votes formerly on Irene having been dispersed to other candidates causing a bit of a shake up.



Catrin fell back to Rank 231, and is at risk of elimination in the next rounds. The sentiment was that she seemed more concerned to help Poppy than her own success.

Poppy rose to Rank 15, while many believe it to be a carry over from her previous success, it seems she gained some of Catrins votes.
 
Tinatin fell to Rank 13, mostly attributed to her passivity

Brunhilde rose to Rank 8, her self criticism seems to have hit a nerve and regained her some lost favor.

Darina fell to Rank 7, which is mostly attributed to the likely leak from her side. While it wasn't held directly against her some lost faith in her as the empress due to that.

Lady Shin fell back to Rank 4, mostly attributed to her passivity. While her followers still believe that she is the most graceful of the candidates, she is seen by others as too timid to be a Wife standing next to an emperor.

Angelika rose to Rank 3, mostly attributed to her supporting the Leukemia fund and Poppy's ambitions while keeping an active role in her media campaign.

Sieglinde rose to Rank 2, with the only thing holding her back so far being her seemingly overwhelmed by the social media onslaught

Ophelia took over the Lead on Rank 1, attributed not only to her work with the Leukemia Fund, but also her Rosendahl interview that released well timed ahead of the Vote.






The Mood in the Camp was rather mixed. Some of the contestants had already given up when the test was revealed, showing that they gossiped badly about others online and had been ostracized by others for it. Yet even not sharing the information didn't save others. If you weren't able to make yourself a presence you still lost out.

Others, like Brunhilde, had gained traction by showing remorse or desire to overcome their weaknesses, and gained more from making a mistake and acting accordingly after. Of course, Brunhilde decided to make a Post online about the results as they came in, shoveling porridge into herself:

#PhysicalTestWhen

Sieglinde had made an effort to give some of the Candidates she knew from her home area a farewell and some hugs while she did decide to copy the other contestants with some social media posts. Though she decided to make a more political statement:

#ReadyToHelp

where she mentioned that even if the contest was important for Uburzis, the Nation was more than ready to side with Aland if they ever asked for it.




Once the others Left, many of the cabins stood empty, allowing the top 30 contestants to pick and move into a solo cabin now. Which Sieglinde did, though she made it clear if anyone was interested she'd let them join in, while Brunhilde invited Darina to join her in one: "Muscle Girls fit best together." she teased with a hearty laugh

[Libby]

Ophelie was of course thrilled with the results but she alos understood there was a long way to go. There were still hundreds of candidates and while she'd been consistently in the top half of the pack she wasn't about to rest on her laurels. She mainly though for now hoped there may be some nice pastries at dinner. Angelika too was pleased if not a little disappointed that she hadn't quiet the same connections as Ophelia in snagging a global interview. The two Lodjains kept their joint rooms, it was nice to have someone to sit and talk to, the problem was they realised that they'd both miss the Summer Ball season back home but they began to cook something up. They'd written to Queen Natalya and in the post had come a licence to host a ball in the camp. Obviously they're was unlikely to be the chance to run a full scale one but at least it could be fun. They took their licence to the organisers and asked whether they could have a night at the end of May to host a "White Ball" as tradition was in Lodja.

Darina was happy to stay in a communal block too, after all her life had been spent in boarding schools, then barrack blocks during the war to free her homeland. She was happy to hit the gym but wouldn't call herself a "muscle girl" she though wasn't silly enough to upset others. "Yes, but how about I introduce you to some cross-fit.....its a bit more functional than just humping iron around" she said. She changed into sports gear and headed over to where the gym was. There she laid out some barbells, some skipping ropes, some kettlebells and the like. She waited for Brunhilde to turn up and go through the "Work out of the Day (WOD)" that was set up on the Truthsayers fitness app.

[Libby]

Darina had been waiting for a few days for the package to come in and when it did she was rather pleased. She checked it carefully and the seal on the small ornate wooden box was still intact. There was a small time frame for her to get into the part of the village that made the food before everyone got ready for the evening meal. She worked quickly, it wasn't as if she hadn't done this hundreds of times before. Milk, eggs, flour, spot of butter and then just quick flipping in the pan and a dusting of the secret ingredient. Before long she'd made about 100 large pancakes and each contained just a pinch of melange. The Spice Harvest in Kaitaine had just been completed and as a result supplies had been sent out to members of the Sisterhood across Mundus. Now it was just time for the others to try them. She placed them on the serving hatch with a note saying "Melange Pancake, help yourself"