yboxman
Banned
(EDIT: Most of the posts for this TL, including some of the maps, are on this WIKI. http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/do..._execution_preempted_-_a_lethal_otsu_incident. Will occasionally update it)
May 11 May 1891, Otsu, Japan
Tsarevich Nicholas lay back in the rickshaw, allowing his mind to drift as he listened to the idle Banter of the two Georges behind him (1). Decorum required that he, as Tsarevich, be given the more comfortable single Rickshaw and in any event this suited both his and their preferences.
Though his brother and cousin showed him proper respect and deference it was painfully clear that their wits and temperments were better matched with each other than with him. Merely watching them discuss with equal seriousness the relative merits of the new ships of the Japanese navy and the tea-house girls who had entertained them the past evening (2).
From the banter it is quite clear that they, or some others, had offered additional "entertainment" to the two princes later in the night. He himself had not partaken of those pleasures. It was less appropriate for the Tsarevich… even if he could muster the courage and skill to make the appropriate advances. Or the interest.
He had been overtaken by a longer than usual spell of apathy ever since they had left Ceylon. Armies and palaces, after all, were the same the world over, and unlike his cousin and younger brother that was all he was permitted to see (3).
Their energy was occasionally sufficiently infectious to raise him from his sloth. But sometimes, as now, it was simply distracting.
Distracting enough for him not to notice as the police escort trotting ahad of the rickshaw broke formation and charged at him, sabre drawn. Only at the last minute did he raise his head to stare at his attacker, the movement serving only to bare his throat to the blade.
The second blow mutilated his right arm, belatedely raised to protect his face from a second blow, but his vision was already dimming from blood loss when the third blow was blocked by his cousin's cane. As the assailant wrestled with his cousin his younger brother tackled him to the ground, pounding his head into the pavement with a sickening crack.
For Nicholas, however, it was too late. The first blow had sliced his jugular, and the fountain of blood could not be stanched. Though later hagiographies of the Tsarevitch would claim he had instructed his brother to avenge him, or cursed the treacherous race of Nippon he died, in truth, in silence and feeling nothing but a mild surprise.
So did his assailant, as his outraged younger brother hacked him to death with his own saber, his cousin, police escorts and rickshaw drivers unwilling to interfere.
(1) Which is the POD. Prince George of Russia never develops TB and joins his brother on his eastern voyage. It has much more of an impact and expands his horizons much more than was the case for Nicholas OTL.
(2) By all accounts Prince George of Greece was bored senseless by the end of the voyage by the company of his rather dull cousin. It seems likely he would tend to drift together with the wittier prince George of Russia.
(3) Imagine engaging on a year long voyage through Greece, Egypt, Arabia, India, Singapore, Siam, Bali, China and Japan and being bored shitless by the experience. Imagine making no effort to go anywhere beyond the foyer of the five star Hotel you are staying at. Well, that's just the kind of guy Nicholas II was. He should have been born a Muzik in a Mir somewhwere in Tver. He would have lived his entire life within it's confines without registering or considering the effects of war, revolution and collectivization on his life.
May 11 May 1891, Otsu, Japan
Tsarevich Nicholas lay back in the rickshaw, allowing his mind to drift as he listened to the idle Banter of the two Georges behind him (1). Decorum required that he, as Tsarevich, be given the more comfortable single Rickshaw and in any event this suited both his and their preferences.
Though his brother and cousin showed him proper respect and deference it was painfully clear that their wits and temperments were better matched with each other than with him. Merely watching them discuss with equal seriousness the relative merits of the new ships of the Japanese navy and the tea-house girls who had entertained them the past evening (2).
From the banter it is quite clear that they, or some others, had offered additional "entertainment" to the two princes later in the night. He himself had not partaken of those pleasures. It was less appropriate for the Tsarevich… even if he could muster the courage and skill to make the appropriate advances. Or the interest.
He had been overtaken by a longer than usual spell of apathy ever since they had left Ceylon. Armies and palaces, after all, were the same the world over, and unlike his cousin and younger brother that was all he was permitted to see (3).
Their energy was occasionally sufficiently infectious to raise him from his sloth. But sometimes, as now, it was simply distracting.
Distracting enough for him not to notice as the police escort trotting ahad of the rickshaw broke formation and charged at him, sabre drawn. Only at the last minute did he raise his head to stare at his attacker, the movement serving only to bare his throat to the blade.
The second blow mutilated his right arm, belatedely raised to protect his face from a second blow, but his vision was already dimming from blood loss when the third blow was blocked by his cousin's cane. As the assailant wrestled with his cousin his younger brother tackled him to the ground, pounding his head into the pavement with a sickening crack.
For Nicholas, however, it was too late. The first blow had sliced his jugular, and the fountain of blood could not be stanched. Though later hagiographies of the Tsarevitch would claim he had instructed his brother to avenge him, or cursed the treacherous race of Nippon he died, in truth, in silence and feeling nothing but a mild surprise.
So did his assailant, as his outraged younger brother hacked him to death with his own saber, his cousin, police escorts and rickshaw drivers unwilling to interfere.
(1) Which is the POD. Prince George of Russia never develops TB and joins his brother on his eastern voyage. It has much more of an impact and expands his horizons much more than was the case for Nicholas OTL.
(2) By all accounts Prince George of Greece was bored senseless by the end of the voyage by the company of his rather dull cousin. It seems likely he would tend to drift together with the wittier prince George of Russia.
(3) Imagine engaging on a year long voyage through Greece, Egypt, Arabia, India, Singapore, Siam, Bali, China and Japan and being bored shitless by the experience. Imagine making no effort to go anywhere beyond the foyer of the five star Hotel you are staying at. Well, that's just the kind of guy Nicholas II was. He should have been born a Muzik in a Mir somewhwere in Tver. He would have lived his entire life within it's confines without registering or considering the effects of war, revolution and collectivization on his life.
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