Tzipora has her photo taken at Youth Meet 2063. Nuclear war in Germany breaks out eight days later.

This article is archived, and is no longer part of Vekllei canon.

Tzipora is smiling in the photo because she has won the competition for multilingual spelling. She is a recent citizen of Vekllei, a postcollectivist country in what we know as Iceland. She beat American boy scouts, Australian girl guides, Chinese and Soviet Pioneers and other youth organisations to win top prize.

The International Youth Meet is a games hosted biannually. Tzipora is representing the Vekllei Occupation Zone in Germany with a half-dozen other girls from the O.Z. The games of 2063 are hosted in Bremen, Germany, less than 80 kilometres from the Polish border and the site of a brief nuclear exchange between the U.S. occupation zones and Soviet Poland eight days after this photo was taken.

Tzipora wears the uniform of the Vekllei Blossoms, the female youth wing of Vekllei. She is eleven years old. The hammer and sickle pin she wears is not standard issue; it was pulled from a Soviet submariner hat she was given. The international community generally does not trust Vekllei. At the games, in their pastel cardigans, the Vekllei Blossom girls are targets for suspicion and bullying from the rest of the youth groups.

I’m an Aussie world builder. My world is one stuck in the nuclear age forever. Things are unravelling. Tzipora is worried about the safety of her parents and the future of the world. I haven’t posted before, so if you’re interested, ask me anything!