Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

In all the time that we have following Kiki she has not shown any interest in any other guys except for Ben, and she has met men who could have drawn her interests from Kings, Princes, those who are from high ranking titled families, sons of rich families, her fellow students and later young doctors that she has trained with but there has not been anyone that she wanted to be with except Ben.
Ben has on his part basically fell in love with Kiki from the first time he saw her through his telescope and there is no one else for him.
He has taken the time to get to know Kiki before he found out that she is a princess and has stuck with her in all of her problems and given her whatever support he could.I
Ben has shown great patience in trying to get Kiki to the next logical level of their relationship which is marriage but he is in the end is not going to force Kiki to do anything that she doesn't want to do and it and if she shows any reservations to getting married then that is her decision and Ben is going to respect that.

Very true.

Mind you...you notice while Kiki's groused about being 'tricked' into it, and several other things, she hasn't demanded that a halt be called to proceedings. I think it's pretty clear that while she has many, many issues and what have you...she wants to marry him, it's just that she's got enough neuroses to keep an army of psychiatrists busy for years. So I honestly think that, no matter how she mutters and torments herself, she's not going to turn around and 'NOPE' out. At most, she may go 'RIGHT, we're going to have a talk. I'm still working after we marry, don't try to talk me out of it...'

...then, once she realises Ben has no issue with any of this, and is even happy for them to be childfree, she'll burst into tears and have a therapeutic cry-out session.
 

altamiro

Banned
If she decides she doesn't want marriage/kids he is then free to decide what to do if he does. He is an eligible bachelor in his own right these day!
If she does not want marriage/kids it still does not mean she does not want an (exclusive) relationship, just not as close as a typical marriage. Not everyone wants the fully traditional model with all details. It is then up to Ben whether it is still acceptable to him in that form.
 
If she does not want marriage/kids it still does not mean she does not want an (exclusive) relationship, just not as close as a typical marriage. Not everyone wants the fully traditional model with all details. It is then up to Ben whether it is still acceptable to him in that form.

I think she's fine with marriage, just she's worried about making her career work with that. Ben, however, is entirely easygoing so...

Kiki's main problem is not communicating about her other problems.
 
Remember to give proper praise and credit to the One True Master of TTL personal relationships. The person who, simply by existing, has taught Ben the skills with which to woo Kiki.

Douglas Blackwood.
 

ferdi254

Banned
Flying jet planes may be fun but not if someone tries to shoot you down and even less if that someone succeeds.
And Kiki should be aware that Ben is one of the most wanted bachelors in Germany. He may be a bit small (astronauts tended to be, me I would not fit in a mercury capsule and yes, I tried) but otherwise...
 

altamiro

Banned
And Kiki should be aware that Ben is one of the most wanted bachelors in Germany. He may be a bit small (astronauts tended to be, me I would not fit in a mercury capsule and yes, I tried) but otherwise...
Then she will tell herself that losing Ben is justly deserved punishment for something else she has done (but this something is NOT keeping him at arms length, rather something unrelated), and she has one more thing to beat herself up with.
Threats like this absolutely are not going to work.
 
Then she will tell herself that losing Ben is justly deserved punishment for something else she has done (but this something is NOT keeping him at arms length, rather something unrelated), and she has one more thing to beat herself up with.
Threats like this absolutely are not going to work.

At this point, I think that Berg, Ben and her psychiatrist need to arrange for her to get slightly drunk. Once that happens, she'll most likely find it much easier to talk. OK, some of it might be incoherent, but odds are good she'll just let it all out.
 
I don't think that Kiki Fischer appreciates the fact after she gets her M.D. that by her experience and accomplishments alone will allow her to write her own ticket even if she wasn't a princess and along with Ben getting his Ph.D in Astronomy ( his doctoral dissertation was basically a picture of him in space with the dark side of the Moon in the background) that together they can pick and choose whatever options there are.
Kiki can go on reserve status instead of a desk job with the JMS, Kiki and Ben can go to the GPI if there is an observatory around and Kiki can run a clinic on one of the islands, Kiki with her experiences in combat and training in trauma medicine and Ben with the construction of the world's largest telescope on land that he owns they can go to California with Kiki doing research at one of the top places in the world for emergency medicine UCLA Medical Center and Ben can go to Cal Tech in Pasadena for technical help because Cal Tech is in charge of the Palomar Mountain Observatory and Hale Telescope.
The only thing is it they choose the last option is that Kiki must also agree to serve as Grand Marshal of the Rose Parade.
 
Flying jet planes may be fun but not if someone tries to shoot you down and even less if that someone succeeds.
And Kiki should be aware that Ben is one of the most wanted bachelors in Germany. He may be a bit small (astronauts tended to be, me I would not fit in a mercury capsule and yes, I tried) but otherwise...
Yeah tried sitting in Mercury capsule on that aircraft carrier moored in New York. They were meant for short people
 
Part 114, Chapter 1891
Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Ninety-One



8th November 1968

Rural Brandenburg

It was as if Poland had never happened. The 7th Recon had been back into their regular training and today that included laying in icy mud as an armored car that was shooting 20mm shells over their heads at an “enemy position” advanced past him. It was the latest incarnation of the eight wheeled “cars” that shared the same turret, engine, and armament as the SpZ-4 APCs. They were the heaviest vehicles used by the Battalion after a handful of APCs used by the Command Staff. Christian could see the face of the Radio Operator through a small hatch that was open just behind the turret. He didn’t know if it was true, but it was said that the Radio Operator had an identical set of controls so that he could steer the vehicle as it backed up in keeping with the doctrine of keeping the heaviest armor pointed at the enemy. It was also said that it was so that the armored cars could get out of trouble as fast as they got into it, which seemed far more likely to Christian.

The only really difference between this and the Spring Exercise, which was about a million or so years earlier, was that because he had been promoted Christian found that his responsibilities had not only doubled, but he found himself having to be the one who got the others moving. He was starting to see why the noncoms he had dealt with in the past had always seemed abusive. Yelling and kicking everyone in the same direction now that he was the one having to do the yelling and kicking. Oberstaber Schultz had listened to his grumbling and had replied. “Welcome to the club” Schultz said after Christian had been invited to lunch table used by the Company’s Noncoms. “That is why they pay us the big bucks.”

The Oberstabsfeldwebel had been a Noncom in the Panzer Dragoons for longer than Christian had been alive. Having come from the 140th “Souville Hill” Regiment to the 7th Recon when it had been reconstituted a couple years earlier, Schultz had been given a free hand in ruthlessly molding the Infantry of the Recon Battalion to his liking. That had included Christian Weise when he had arrived from the training depot. Schultz saw Christian’s performance during the Polish action as a validation of his methods. The only thing that seemed to bug Schultz was how Hans’ boy had been stuck babysitting the Emperor while the Lieutenant in his place had turned out to be a total non-entity. Christian had been shocked to hear that and had realized that Schultz viewed the Junior Officers in a similar way to how he saw the Soldaten.



Mitte, Berlin

It felt strange to be back in Berlin after such a long absence. Anya Maksimova had been little more than a child when she had left. She had returned because the Berlin Consortium for the Performing Arts had several positions needing to be filled including Choreographers and one of Anya’s former Instructors in the Moscow Ballet had recommended her. Because she was the adopted daughter of a German Citizen and had lived in the City for several years, Anya was able to travel to Berlin and take the job without as much fuss as others might have found themselves having to contend with.

As it was, Anya found out that the Consortium managed dozens of theaters, music venues, and other centers of the Arts with the express mission of making culture accessible for people at all levels of society. It was more than enough to keep her busy for several lifetimes. It was an odd sort of public/private enterprise, which meant that Anya technically worked for the City of Berlin and received most of the benefits that a regular City Worker received. At the same time, her paycheck came from the Royal Endowment started by Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen decades earlier, which was said to have been kept flush by donations from wealthy patrons who shared her vision of Berlin being one of the world’s great cultural centers.

Sasha had known the woman who had been dubbed the “Mad Duchess” by her detractors personally and said that Feodora had seen the world with clearer eyes than most did. She thought that it was wonderful that Anya’s life work would help further her legacy. Later, Fyodor had mentioned something that had surprised Anya by telling her that Feodora had seen right through the subterfuge of the German Empress and Katherine von Mischner. Recognizing Sasha for exactly who she was because a feature of Sasha’s face had been inherited from Queen Victoria of England, a mutual ancestor of theirs. For a long time, Feodora was the only blood relative that could acknowledge Sasha without putting her life in danger.

For Anya personally, she had found herself surprisingly homesick once she got settled into her new apartment. While she didn’t miss Moscow’s harsh winter, her family was there. Sasha, Fyodor, and even little Alexei when he wasn’t being a little shit. For lack of anything better to do, Anya went to the Natural History Museum in the evenings. She had loved this place when she was a child. The slab of rock that contained the skeleton of the Archaeopteryx that had loomed so large in her imagination was still in the same display. There were things about all of that Anya understood now which she had not at the time. Sasha had adopted her though she had not exactly been prepared to do so at the time, just Sasha had understood just how much at-risk Anya had been and it had been the only way to save her. The Nuns at the Convent orphanage had not been able to prepare the children under their care for the Hobbesian world that was Post-War Russia, it was an impossible task. There was also the role that the fossil in advancing the theory of Darwinian Evolution. The little girl who Anya had been would have not been able to understand that at all. What were tens of millions of years to a child?
 
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This is the same fossil that Anya is looking at and also one of the best known in the world.

CckkMeAJRTfYN2sPJeqvxC-1200-80.jpg
 
The only thing that Jost hate more than saluting another Mischner is saluting his Baby Brother Tilo at least he can brag that he once beat up the Commanding General of the Marine Infantry in Korea during WW II (although Reier and Tilo have a different viewpoint).

Glad to see Anya making an appearance and starting to make a make for herself.
 
I don't think that Kiki Fischer appreciates the fact after she gets her M.D. that by her experience and accomplishments alone will allow her to write her own ticket even if she wasn't a princess and along with Ben getting his Ph.D in Astronomy ( his doctoral dissertation was basically a picture of him in space with the dark side of the Moon in the background) that together they can pick and choose whatever options there are.

Doctoral Thesis Board Member #1: "Can we accept this? It's basically just a photo of him with the moon showing through that little window."
Board Member #2: "The DARK side of the moon. Taken from inside a spacecraft. In lunar orbit. In space. Direct observation of a feature of an astronomical body that no-one has ever seen before."
Board Member #3: "Exactly. It's something any astronomer would kill for and his full thesis does identify several features of significance. Besides there are the issues pertaining to future funding & patronage to think about."
BM #1: "What issues?"
BM3#: "His girlfriend is Princess Kristina."
BM#1: "Oh, right. You've both made excellent points. I think we can agree that his doctoral thesis is acceptable under the circumstances."

Kiki doing research at one of the top places in the world for emergency medicine UCLA Medical Center and Ben can go to Cal Tech in Pasadena for technical help because Cal Tech is in charge of the Palomar Mountain Observatory and Hale Telescope.

After all the wars that Germany has fought ITTL, I'd say that the premier centre for studying emergency medicine would be Berlin.

Yelling and kicking everyone in the same direction now that he was the one having to do the yelling and kicking. Oberstaber Schultz had listened to his grumbling and had replied. “Welcome to the club” Schultz said after Christian had been invited to lunch table used by the Company’s Noncoms. “That is why they pay us the big bucks.”

Thousands of small children suddenly became still as a chill shivered its way down their spines. Little did they know that the torch had been passed and their fates were sealed. Oberstaber Shultz, who had learnt his trade from the Mad Dog himself, had just selected his heir.

Schultz saw Christian’s performance during the Polish action as a validation of his methods. The only thing that seemed to bug Schultz was how Hans’ boy had been stuck babysitting the Emperor while the Lieutenant in his place had turned out to be a total non-entity. Christian had been shocked to hear that and had realized that Schultz viewed the Junior Officers in a similar way to how he saw the Soldaten.

Senior non-coms have three jobs. Train the soldaten, train their own replacements and train the junior officers. All while hoping that their charges live long enough to learn the lessons.
 
After all the wars that Germany has fought ITTL, I'd say that the premier centre for studying emergency medicine would be Berlin.
Kiki's thesis is about the comparison between the survival rates of automotive accidents that have safety equipment like seat belts and safety glass to those that don't have it.
Even with out the OTL wars that the United States fought in the UCLA Medical Center because of the freeway system will still have plenty of experience in trauma medicine not to mention the "Saturday Night Gun & Knife Club".
Of course this is an extremely unlikely scenario that I have imagined it is just that there are so many ways that this timeline and the characters can go in and still be both logical and surprising at the same time.
 
Kiki's thesis is about the comparison between the survival rates of automotive accidents that have safety equipment like seat belts and safety glass to those that don't have it.
Even with out the OTL wars that the United States fought in the UCLA Medical Center because of the freeway system will still have plenty of experience in trauma medicine not to mention the "Saturday Night Gun & Knife Club".
Of course this is an extremely unlikely scenario that I have imagined it is just that there are so many ways that this timeline and the characters can go in and still be both logical and surprising at the same time.
Has the freeway system been built yet ITTL? Without the impetus of OTL WW2 & Cold War, it could be seriously behind schedule and/or a very different beast from what actually exists.
 
Has the freeway system been built yet ITTL? Without the impetus of OTL WW2 & Cold War, it could be seriously behind schedule and/or a very different beast from what actually exists.
President Truman built it in the first thread and IOTL California started to build freeways on their own in the 1930's.
 
Then she will tell herself that losing Ben is justly deserved punishment for something else she has done (but this something is NOT keeping him at arms length, rather something unrelated), and she has one more thing to beat herself up with.
Threats like this absolutely are not going to work.
I would not see it as a threat, just as a recognition that everyone has limits, and that Ben could reach his and choose to withdraw to avoid further pain to himself.
 
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