Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
Yo know, I understand why he is like this. I understand his opinion. Being from a Commonwealth Country, yes i can understand. But still, having seen that the current modern monarchy still has their men perform military service one way or the other and advance through merit....
.....it still manages to tick me off that Parker really can't see beyond the obvious blindness he has.
In Parker's case, I think its a mix of nationalist propaganda, a combination of both a superiority and an inferiority complex, and that curious disconnect between what he has been taught and what is reality, which everyone possesses to one degree or another.
He has been taught that the US has no class system while Europe is deeply mired in it, despite the fact that he himself is member of the American upper-class. He enjoys every advantage of his privileged background, despite loathing many of his fellows, yet sees himself as having truly earned everything in his life on merit. His society & background is also misogynistic, which he fails to recognise. He has been taught that all princesses are spoiled, air-headed, little brats, just like 99.99% of the women he grew up with (refer to previous mysogyny comment) and Kiki is a REAL princess. His background in the American upper-class means that he comes from 'old' money, yet Kiki and her family represent 'Old' money families that consider his to be nouveau riche. He has also been taught to believe that America has a manifest destiny & is frustrated that that destiny seems to have stalled. He has been taught that empires are bad, backward and a blight on humanity, yet does not recognise that his own nation is an empire by any reasonable definition of the word. He resents Kiki for her background, for being a symbol of an empire that seems to be blocking his from true greatness, and for not quite matching up to his mental template of how things should be.
In many respects, Parker has much in common with that blithering idiot Mithras.
That is a very unfair but valid characterization of Parker because unlike Prisoner 875634 Parker has shown real personal growth in his life.
For Parker it looks like he has not really come to terms with Jonny's death and it hit him very hard because Jonny was the first true friend that Parker had who saw Parker more then the B.S. Ivy League snob that was introduced to us.
I had posted before that joining the CIA was the first truly independent decision that Parker made for himself and he has basically rejected his family's plan for him that mapped out his life from the career, job, and the wife that was practically picked out for him.
As for his antipathy toward Princess Kristina I have no doubts that Parker will change his tune when they go in to action together.
BTW if Ben visits Kiki before she is deployed I think that for some unfathomable reason Ben and Richie will get along together as Richie has shown previously that he has a bit of hero worship for Kiki.
I am just asking myself where M16 or British naval intelligence (or it's ITTL equivalent) dug up enough Intel to send a capital ship to just the right place.
Or which screw up/ bureaucratic mishap lead to the Brits being there at the right time to be able to pull a certain Prince's nuts out of the fire.
Or which screw up/ bureaucratic mishap lead to the Brits being there at the right time to be able to pull a certain Prince's nuts out of the fire.
When the KLM brass and Zella's bosses at ARD see the footage that she got they are going to be ecstatic and that just means that Zella gets to report on an even more dangerous story embedded with the Joint American-German Special ForcesTask Force in the Balkans.
In our previous discussion about television networks and German broadcasting in general we must remember that there has been ITTL no Nazi Germany and the subsequent occupation and division of Germany, radio and television is going to be much different then it is IOTL.
That means that the Author can devise any system that he wants and it will be a very plausible scenario for this timeline.
In our previous discussion about television networks and German broadcasting in general we must remember that there has been ITTL no Nazi Germany and the subsequent occupation and division of Germany, radio and television is going to be much different then it is IOTL.
That means that the Author can devise any system that he wants and it will be a very plausible scenario for this timeline.
It took half a year to finally catch up but it was definitely worth it! I love the storylines and developments of the characters and also the world which is very different to our time line but still quite plausible. The history of OTL actually started to appear to me as a less likely to happen then the one depicted here!
One thing I'd (and seemingly also many others) really like would be a world or at least Europe map. But maybe the author just wants to keep some things secret for next chapters...
One thing I'd (and seemingly also many others) really like would be a world or at least Europe map. But maybe the author just wants to keep some things secret for next chapters...
I didn't remember that it was a frigate and I am not really up to par on naval terminology.
I suppose it depends on which end of the big sticky outy thing that goes boom very loudly you find yourself.
As I've re-read this part of P-M's last post and I wonder whether what Louis saw (and Zella got on video) is one of the first (ITTL) uses in anger of a ship-launched SSM? If HMS Naiad was the same Leander-class frigate as IOTL, the missile would have been a Seacat SAM, which, according to its Wikipedia page "...was also seen as offering useful secondary roles as a lightweight weapon to use against light commercial shipping and fast attack craft.".
Anyway, speculation is all we have until P-M posts the next update.
Part 108, Chapter 1756
Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Fifty-Six
25th September 1966
Laupheim, Württemberg
Because she had called ahead, Kiki was there to meet Sigi as she got out of the car that had picked her up from the train station. She looked tired and while it was subtle, Kiki could see that Sigi looked stressed. In January, the Taxidiotis Program would resume and Sigi was to command a flight that would probably be one of the most watched events in human history. It would need to be perfect and the pressures had to be enormous.
“Shouldn’t you be in Peenemünde?” Kiki asked Sigi as they walked towards the Mess Hall.
“Kapitän von Richthofen gave me a week off and I wanted to get as far from there as I could get” Sigi said, “Besides, I heard from Louis and Lotte that what my niece was up to was interesting.”
“Interesting in the Chinese sense perhaps” Kiki said, “I have to get Hellcats and American Green Berets to work together in preparation of an upcoming operation. They clearly don’t trust each other, and the American Commanding Officer blames us, as in all Germans, for the death of a friend of his when we were on opposite sides in Korea.”
“I will trade you two Russians, a Co-Pilot and Systems Operator, a Mission Specialist who is normally a test pilot at Junkers and a French polymath Science Officer who has implied that he suspects that at least one of the other members of the crew is mentally retarded. Their egos are enormous, and they cannot seem to go five minutes without arguing over something stupid” Sigi said with a bit of weariness, “Somehow I’m supposed to make them into a team that can land on the moon and then get them home safely.”
Kiki couldn’t help but laugh at that. “How do we get ourselves into these situations?” She asked.
“Genetics supposedly” Sigi replied, “Our ancestors haven’t known how to stay uninvolved since at least the year 1061.”
“That’s all” Kiki said, “I thought it went back further than that.”
“That’s just the Hohenzollerns” Sigi said, “There are plenty of other branches in the family tree that go back further. Ever heard of the Carolingians? Charlemagne.”
“You know a lot about this” Kiki said, she was aware of much of what Sigi was saying having researched it herself when she had still been a child.
“Knowing who I am is important to me” Sigi said, “I just hope that our respective brothers don’t get any ideas in the coming months though.”
Kiki’s father and Friedrich had been discussing what to do about Sigi for some time. With her increasingly prominent role, publicly acknowledging that Sigi was the daughter of Wilhelm the III might prove advantageous. Kiki understood why Sigi would not be interested in them doing that, probably better than anyone.
Opening the door to the Mess Hall, Kiki could smell cooked food which meant that the noon meal was about to be served. It would lack the formality of Sunday nights, but in many respects was far more enjoyable.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Ritchie was seated at the table with his team as they ate lunch. Last week and this week, the cooks had gone all out on Sunday. That suggested that they must do this every week, which was a joyful development for as long as they were here. Parker was sitting glumly at the head of the table, having realized that he had made a complete ass of himself in front of the Princess hadn’t sat well with him. Or was it because Kristina simply hadn’t cared? Ritchie thought that it was sort of odd, back home Parker was a Manhattan Blue Blood with old money. Here in Germany in the presence of the likes of Kristina, Parker was viewed as being at about the same level as Ritchie. Oddly, no one here cared about Ritchie’s Mexican background like they did back home. The German soldiers had asked him a few times if he was a Spaniard and Ritchie hadn’t understood the significance of that. It had turned out that years earlier Spanish volunteers had fought in the Soviet War and made quite a reputation for themselves, one that Ritchie was benefiting from.
“Check that out” Huck said looking over Ritchie’s shoulder.
Ritchie turned and saw Kristina chatting with another woman, same dark blue uniform tunic but different. While he was unable read someone’s service history by looking at the ribbon bar here like he could back in the States, this woman was a Light Colonel and a Pilot.
“The problem with being in the minors is that you can always see that the majors exist” Mullens said.
“Why is always about Baseball with you?” Huck demanded.
Which resulted in an argument about Baseball metaphors, leading Kravitz and Mullens to get into the Yankees vs. Red Socks fight that they had been having for years.
Mitt, Berlin
Once again, Zella found herself rushed back to Berlin and was in the Television studios of FBB the Berlin-Brandenburg affiliate of ARD. The videos of the clash that she and Yuri had recorded had prompted the rush back to Berlin. Not only had she managed to catch the flotilla in action, she had caught a ship being sunk by two rockets fired from a ship of the British Royal Navy as well. A first apparently. Yuri had filmed the rescue operation as sailors from the Komet were hauled aboard as their boat sank. Her supervisor had told her that she needed to take a well-deserved vacation and to do it some place where nothing was likely to happen, but after the events of the last couple months he wasn’t sure where that would be.
Zella took her seat in the chair opposite the anchor, trying to ignore the makeup caked onto her face and heard herself get introduced. ARD’s Action Reporter Marcella von Holz, she liked the sound of that.
25th September 1966
Laupheim, Württemberg
Because she had called ahead, Kiki was there to meet Sigi as she got out of the car that had picked her up from the train station. She looked tired and while it was subtle, Kiki could see that Sigi looked stressed. In January, the Taxidiotis Program would resume and Sigi was to command a flight that would probably be one of the most watched events in human history. It would need to be perfect and the pressures had to be enormous.
“Shouldn’t you be in Peenemünde?” Kiki asked Sigi as they walked towards the Mess Hall.
“Kapitän von Richthofen gave me a week off and I wanted to get as far from there as I could get” Sigi said, “Besides, I heard from Louis and Lotte that what my niece was up to was interesting.”
“Interesting in the Chinese sense perhaps” Kiki said, “I have to get Hellcats and American Green Berets to work together in preparation of an upcoming operation. They clearly don’t trust each other, and the American Commanding Officer blames us, as in all Germans, for the death of a friend of his when we were on opposite sides in Korea.”
“I will trade you two Russians, a Co-Pilot and Systems Operator, a Mission Specialist who is normally a test pilot at Junkers and a French polymath Science Officer who has implied that he suspects that at least one of the other members of the crew is mentally retarded. Their egos are enormous, and they cannot seem to go five minutes without arguing over something stupid” Sigi said with a bit of weariness, “Somehow I’m supposed to make them into a team that can land on the moon and then get them home safely.”
Kiki couldn’t help but laugh at that. “How do we get ourselves into these situations?” She asked.
“Genetics supposedly” Sigi replied, “Our ancestors haven’t known how to stay uninvolved since at least the year 1061.”
“That’s all” Kiki said, “I thought it went back further than that.”
“That’s just the Hohenzollerns” Sigi said, “There are plenty of other branches in the family tree that go back further. Ever heard of the Carolingians? Charlemagne.”
“You know a lot about this” Kiki said, she was aware of much of what Sigi was saying having researched it herself when she had still been a child.
“Knowing who I am is important to me” Sigi said, “I just hope that our respective brothers don’t get any ideas in the coming months though.”
Kiki’s father and Friedrich had been discussing what to do about Sigi for some time. With her increasingly prominent role, publicly acknowledging that Sigi was the daughter of Wilhelm the III might prove advantageous. Kiki understood why Sigi would not be interested in them doing that, probably better than anyone.
Opening the door to the Mess Hall, Kiki could smell cooked food which meant that the noon meal was about to be served. It would lack the formality of Sunday nights, but in many respects was far more enjoyable.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Ritchie was seated at the table with his team as they ate lunch. Last week and this week, the cooks had gone all out on Sunday. That suggested that they must do this every week, which was a joyful development for as long as they were here. Parker was sitting glumly at the head of the table, having realized that he had made a complete ass of himself in front of the Princess hadn’t sat well with him. Or was it because Kristina simply hadn’t cared? Ritchie thought that it was sort of odd, back home Parker was a Manhattan Blue Blood with old money. Here in Germany in the presence of the likes of Kristina, Parker was viewed as being at about the same level as Ritchie. Oddly, no one here cared about Ritchie’s Mexican background like they did back home. The German soldiers had asked him a few times if he was a Spaniard and Ritchie hadn’t understood the significance of that. It had turned out that years earlier Spanish volunteers had fought in the Soviet War and made quite a reputation for themselves, one that Ritchie was benefiting from.
“Check that out” Huck said looking over Ritchie’s shoulder.
Ritchie turned and saw Kristina chatting with another woman, same dark blue uniform tunic but different. While he was unable read someone’s service history by looking at the ribbon bar here like he could back in the States, this woman was a Light Colonel and a Pilot.
“The problem with being in the minors is that you can always see that the majors exist” Mullens said.
“Why is always about Baseball with you?” Huck demanded.
Which resulted in an argument about Baseball metaphors, leading Kravitz and Mullens to get into the Yankees vs. Red Socks fight that they had been having for years.
Mitt, Berlin
Once again, Zella found herself rushed back to Berlin and was in the Television studios of FBB the Berlin-Brandenburg affiliate of ARD. The videos of the clash that she and Yuri had recorded had prompted the rush back to Berlin. Not only had she managed to catch the flotilla in action, she had caught a ship being sunk by two rockets fired from a ship of the British Royal Navy as well. A first apparently. Yuri had filmed the rescue operation as sailors from the Komet were hauled aboard as their boat sank. Her supervisor had told her that she needed to take a well-deserved vacation and to do it some place where nothing was likely to happen, but after the events of the last couple months he wasn’t sure where that would be.
Zella took her seat in the chair opposite the anchor, trying to ignore the makeup caked onto her face and heard herself get introduced. ARD’s Action Reporter Marcella von Holz, she liked the sound of that.
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P-M has stated that Slovenia is independent, and has claims on Trieste along with Italy. And Istria appears to be Croatian, despite Trieste still belonging to Austria.
Zella? Holiday? Nothing Happens?
She is Emil and Maria's daughter. She will literally find something happen to her, or happen upon somehting.
That explains everything.
Its why we need a map of Europe, I think.
Agree. I remember being surprised that Yugoslavia wasn't formed.
German couple walk into a Travel Agent's office.
Wife: "Hello, we'd like to book a holiday please"
Travel Agent: "We might be a littke more expensive as we normally deal in corporate travel"
W: "That's fine. Just to confirm, do you arrange travel for ARD"?
TA: "Yes we do" starts beaming proudly, "In fact, we arranged the travel of Zella Von Holtz and her crew to the Balkans to capture her most recent report with the KLM. As well as this, we've just booked her and her crew to their next location".
W: "That IS good news, then you're just the agency we would like to deal with".
TA: "Well that's great to hear, now where would you like to go"
Husband: "Well, we were going to ask your advice on that one, weren't we dear"
W: "Yes, where can you recommend that's on the opposide side of the world to where you've just sent Miss Von Holtz please"?
TA: "Have you considered the Middle East? Iran & Iraq are a delight this time of year..."
Wife: "Hello, we'd like to book a holiday please"
Travel Agent: "We might be a littke more expensive as we normally deal in corporate travel"
W: "That's fine. Just to confirm, do you arrange travel for ARD"?
TA: "Yes we do" starts beaming proudly, "In fact, we arranged the travel of Zella Von Holtz and her crew to the Balkans to capture her most recent report with the KLM. As well as this, we've just booked her and her crew to their next location".
W: "That IS good news, then you're just the agency we would like to deal with".
TA: "Well that's great to hear, now where would you like to go"
Husband: "Well, we were going to ask your advice on that one, weren't we dear"
W: "Yes, where can you recommend that's on the opposide side of the world to where you've just sent Miss Von Holtz please"?
TA: "Have you considered the Middle East? Iran & Iraq are a delight this time of year..."