Based on one of my announcements. What if Jezabat and other former competitors were invited back to the Old Builders' world for a reunion?
The "you" here is Ramone/a.
"Should we do it now?" Otto asks hesitantly.
Harper crosses her arms. "You can't put this off for too long, Otto. If you don't tell them now, they're gonna find out the hard way, and it's not gonna look good for any of you."
Otto nods, but his voice is shaky. "I... I understand. It's just that I wanted everyone to be here..."
"Everyone IS here! They're all checked off on your invite list!" Harper says as she gestures to the assembly. "Now, let's tell them what's happening to you."
"All right," Otto agrees, though he's pensively looking down.
As for Jezabat and her teammates, they're chatting amongst themselves as you and the others are waiting for Otto to make his announcement. You can overhear other conversations between other competitors, and between gladiators.
"What do you think this is about?"
"Are there gonna be some new gladiators?"
"The next event must be a BIG one!"
"Maybe he's already decided the nominees for this year's awards!"
"You don't think Hadrian and Mevia came back, do you?"
"Is he opening a new venue?"
"Did someone get killed in the last event?"
"He said we could bring people we know. Is he trying to encourage them to play the Games?"
There's also a good handful of people who are sitting down, staying completely silent, and staring out into space. Some competitors, current or former, try to make conversation with them. They either reply half-heartedly, shake their heads, or distance themselves. One competitor asks you about your rod. You say you'll wait until later to demonstrate a spell, knowing how important this announcement is to most of the crowd. You spot someone anxiously fiddling with their inventory, and Tristan's roommate frantically stroking her cat.
Finally, Otto and Harper step forward to the center of the plaza.
"Your attention, please!" Harper says.
Otto holds his hands together. His tone is unstable, and much less vivacious than the competitors are used to hearing. You can feel the mood drop. "Good afternoon, everyone. I'm grateful you could all be here today. I would like to begin by telling you just how gratifying it is to have hosted the Games for so long. For any of you who remember it, we have been through a very dark time. One where the Games were not at all enjoyable for the players, and those running the show took great advantage of their power. I have done everything I can to right these wrongs, and I hope I've succeeded."
Many of the competitors give a round of applause. The gladiators clap as well.
"It has been such a joy. These Games are made possible with your support. And I..." Otto pauses for a moment, frowning. "I've greatly enjoyed my time with you. I-I hope that somehow, you can find a way to keep them going."
The competitors mutter statements of agreement, such as "Absolutely!" or "Of course we will!"
Otto sighs. “And so... I am announcing that I am stepping down from running the Games."
A wave of surprised gasps rushes over the entire crowd. In the back, a gladiator with pink hair shouts, "Wait, what?!"
Harper has to come clean. About eight months ago, she installed a doorbell for her house in Crown Mesa. She'd completed the circuit and was going to call it a night, but just before she could go to bed, she heard a loud knock. Ivor jolted right off the bed. When she opened the door, there was Slab, a longtime gladiator for the Games, formerly known as Slab the Immovable. There was a fraught look on his face.
"Slab? What are you doing here? How did you get here?
“Get to the library, right now. There’s somethin’ wrong with Otto, and I mean REALLY wrong.”
What? Wasn’t a season of the Games still underway? What had happened for her to urgently follow Slab to the world she came from? The two of them went past the arenas and the competitors’ villages, all the way to the library Otto kept records in.
Sure enough, when Harper opened the door to his study, she found him collapsed on the floor with a quill in his hand. He could barely move, he was shivering up a storm, his voice cracked every time he tried to talk to her, and he looked lightheaded. When Harper tried to help him up, he stumbled, as if the gravitational pull of the room had grown stronger for him. She immediately sent for a medic.
Soon after, Otto was diagnosed with Straywalk. It’s one of those conditions that flare up at a later point in your life. You get so stiff that you can’t speak or move like you used to, and you always feel like you’re freezing, even when it isn’t cold out. Harper’s never going to forget the look she saw on Otto’s face when he was told he had it. From then on, he’s been focused on getting better, but he and Harper both know it isn’t going to last. Straywalk can be treated, but it’s unfortunately incurable, and it will worsen over time.
It pains Harper- and everybody playing the Games, she assumes- to know what Otto has to do. He haw always loved those games, and if he had it his way, he would just keep hosting them, especially since he’s been hard at work repairing the damage that Hadrian, Mevia, and even himself had done. But, even if it disappoints him, and even if he feels like he still has some making up to do after all these years, everyone insists that this is the right call.
