Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

Niko is getting a valuable lesson in How Not To Underestimate Your Opponent. Marie is taking their sparing seriously. What Niko has mistaken for 'clowning around' is merely a combination of a different style of fencing, greater experience with the blade and a more exact appreciation of her opponents skill level. She is still, however, playing with him, Much like a adolescent cat would. Bas is going to enjoy spreading the story of how Niko got his arse handed to him by his cousin, his GIRL cousin, around the other students when they go back to school. Hell, he'd even tell their fencing instructor before his brain could engage enough to tell him that would a "Bad Idea". This would, of course, result in a greater intensity in their training, possibly even including an invitation to Marie and Kat tour the school.

Remember that Marie has a personal interest in being able defend herself after being kidnapped, which when combined with wanting to be a pirate a while back, gave her a lot of incentive to learn combat skills, something I doubt Kat has neglected despite her intentions to shield her children. As such, I expect Marie to be reasonably skilled with pistols & knives as well, possibly even able to fight with a blade in both hands. Not to mention unarmed combat. Hell, with her wide ranging interests, I would not be surprised if Marie was also skilled with both bows & crossbows. With her flamboyant style and obvious skill with weapons, could Marie be destined for the Olympics? Either the fencing or pistol teams for the Summer Games or the biathlon in the Winter Games, assuming that she learns, or has learnt, how to ski cross country.
 
When I was reading the last update I thought that it was going to end with someone saying "The wrong kid died" but Niko has just learned a hard learned lesson in hubris and humility and if he takes it to heart will serve him well.
For Sophie and Ziska Marie is once again their hero and the other female cousins will take inspiration from Marie.
Ina is someone who is not to be underestimated and will continue to surprise people to her advantage.
Bas is a true Schultz in that he has leadership abilities that will begin to emerge and will challenge Niko in the future, remember his father Tilo when introduced to us was the lowest of the low in the Seebaitallion and by what can only be called Stupid something and another thing is now the commander of the Marine Infantry and his Uncle Jost is a legend in the Heer for his meanness.

Kiki was earlier complaining about Nella and Nan coming over to her cottage and pretty soon Mirai is going to join them, a solution to that is for Marie to have an after school job looking over the girls (with supervision of course) for a few hours a couple of days a week.
Marie is one those people who are more comfortable with either older people or younger children and I think that Suga would like Mirai to be fluent in Japanese (if she is not already) and Marie with her apparent language skills will reinforce that.
 
This particular product gets mentioned by name in the next chapter.

Pervitindose.jpg
 
Part 118, Chapter 1975
Chapter One Thousand Nine Hundred Seventy-Five



23rd April 1970

Los Angeles, California

“It might sound strange, but shit that goes down on the other side of the globe has a way of finding its way here” Wilkinson said, “When I first joined the Department, the German Military had been passing out pharmaceutical grade methamphetamine under the brand name Pervitin like it was candy throughout the Second World War. By the time it reached here in late 1946 the Germans had already banned its use outside of direct medical supervision because they had already discovered that it tended to make people who took it for too long psychotic and that shit is highly addictive. No one saw fit to warn us what was coming.”

That got Ritchie’s attention as they sat on the hood of their patrol car eating “Lunch” as midnight rolled around. The Taqueria they had stopped at did brisk business with the late-night crowd, both the Police and the criminal element. Regardless of what was happening out in the neighborhoods, the Taqueria was considered neutral ground so long as no one was stupid enough to attempt to rob the place. Then it would be a race to see who got to that idiot first, the difference being that if the Police won then the skel would live to see sunrise. It was a simple enough meal, mission burritos and Coca-Cola that was bottled down south of the border in Mexico. Ritchie had been around the world and he had been unable to find food like this anywhere else.

The thing that had prompted Wilkinson to tell Ritchie about the past was the bulletin sheets that had been passed around during rollcall about how Intelligence had heard tell that the Civil War in China was resulting in cheap heroin finding its way to the West Coast. There had already been large scale busts in San Francisco and Seattle, so it was only a matter of time until it turned up in Los Angeles. At the same time, there was a potent German Psychiatric Drug that had been found in a raid on a house in Laurel Canyon. The Department had gotten an expert from BASF on the phone and he had warned them that the abuse of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide could trigger a psychotic break and came with a whole host of other risks. Between that and the increasing number of guns that had been finding their way onto the streets, it was looking like they were going to have an interesting summer ahead.

“So, you saw a lot of these Pervitin addicts?” Ritchie asked.

“They were like the zombies from that film that came out last year, except they don’t just shuffle around” Wilkinson said, “They are totally unpredictable, and they will try to steal everything that isn’t nailed down or on fire.”

“You expect that to happen again?”

“Not quite” Wilkinson replied, “Cheap heroin results in a whole bunch of new addicts and a new drug that the cool kids all have to try typically means a lot of money is going to be changing hands. And whenever there is a lot of money on the table, the real crazies come out of the woodwork.”

“Exactly where do you think we fit in?”

“I think that you may have need for that machine gun in the trunk before too long” Wilkinson replied, referring to the M-10 A3 Stoner Rifle that Ritchie had used his Department connections to have issued to him. In a pinch he wanted that sort of firepower as opposed to trying to reload the old-fashioned S&W .38 Special revolver that he had been issued after the shooting started. Ritchie had tried to get a 1911 .45 but he had been told that the streets of Los Angeles were not a warzone and when he was wearing the Police uniform, he wasn’t in the Army, so his weapon needed to reflect that.



Tempelhof, Berlin

For the first time in a long time, Marie Alexandra liked what she saw in the mirror. The silk dress that she was wearing was cornflower blue, the same color as Kristina’s banner which was hanging in the Medical Service Branch Hall in the Berlin Imperial War Museum. It was to be the dress that would wear to Kiki’s wedding in a few days, and Marie was excited that she would be in the wedding party this time. It was an acknowledgement that she was finally a grown up, sort of. Not that it had all been smooth sailing. Marie had almost messed the whole thing up when she had humiliated her cousin Nikolaus without really intending to, at first. She had intended just to show him how wrong he was when he had said that fencing wasn’t for her. Unfortunately for Niko, she’d had been given lessons in fencing, Krav Maga, and had even been taught to use a hand fan made of enameled steel plates that had been given to her as a gift from Mistress Natsumi. Her mother had insisted upon it and had told her that she might consider teaching Marie how to use a pistol this summer if she proved she could be responsible. Lately, she had also been trying to get Herr Kage to teach her because she knew that he was a Shinobi and that there was a lot she could learn from him. Basically, Niko had never stood a chance and when he lost his composure, she spent the next several minutes toying with him.

That whole episode had called into question Marie’s maturity and nearly everyone had been disapproved of her actions. The exception to that had curiously been Opa von Richthofen. The Kurfürst had said that she had taught Niko an important lesson about controlling himself in a fight and how an opponent who can goad him into angerly, rash moves will have already won the fight. He had also made a comment about needing to have a word with Niko’s fencing instructor that had an ominous tone to it.

Then, everyone was forced back to the preparations for that Sunday. Looking in the mirror again, Marie opened her jewelry box, finding the emerald hairpins and pendant that had been gifts from her mother having been passed down to the women of her family for generations. Next, she found the emerald earrings that were a recent addition to the collection. They had been a birthday present from her father after her mother had relented and allowed her to get her ears pierced a few days before her fourteenth birthday. It was something that her mother had never done, and she had been reluctant to allow Marie to. The reason she said was that earrings tended to get caught on things and she wanted it to be an informed choice made by Marie. Taking her time to pin up her hair, she smiled at her reflection.
 
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Maybe Marie would like to spend some vacation time at Opa V. Richthofen's place out in the woods to learn some things about nature. Would make some interesting conversations between him and her about what she has learned to use, also having him and his people give her firearms instruction might be fun.
 
Marie without her mother's emotional and mental issues is going to be even more dangerous then Kat ever was it will just be in a more controlled manner.
Marie being in the wedding party is going to find herself being charge of the younger members of the party as Mirai will once again be the Flower Girl teamed up this time with Gia' son Alexi as the Ring Bearer and in this timeline it is never too early to start shipping.
With Marie's apparent talent in languages I could see her talking to some of the more important guests in their language and impressing them.
I will bet the first time time the Manfred von Richthofen was called Opa by any of the non blood children he was first taken aback a little but then his ego kicked in and started to preen.
 
It says something about Kat's instincts that her opinion on earrings is based on them catching on things.

Hopefully the "War on Drugs" has someone paying attention to the strategy instead of tactics this TL.
 
IOTL the Rockefeller Laws were very popular at first in the Minority communities as they were getting hit first and hardest by drug usage.
Also at this point IOTL the United States was in the "Downer" wave with heroin and barbiturates being prevalent with the " High" wave with cocaine and amphetamines coming in the mid-70's.
Rehab at that time was mostly going "Cold Turkey" with no therapy dealing with the underlying causes until Betty Ford started her clinic.
The main problem with the crackdown on drugs was the unintended consequences of law enforcement going after the low-level drug dealers while making deals for shorter sentences for the higher ups which led the the street level dealing being conducted by younger and younger gang members who were more prone to use violence to keep and expand their territories.
 
The silk dress that she was wearing was cornflower blue, the same color as Kristina’s banner which was hanging in the Medical Service Branch Hall in the Berlin Imperial War Museum. It was to be the dress that would wear to Kiki’s wedding in a few days, and Marie was excited that she would be in the wedding party this time.
........
Unfortunately for Niko, she’d had been given lessons in fencing, Krav Maga, and had even been taught to use a hand fan made of enameled steel plates that had been given to her as a gift from Mistress Natsumi. Her mother had insisted upon it and had told her that she might consider teaching Marie how to use a pistol this summer if she proved she could be responsible. Lately, she had also been trying to get Herr Kage to teach her because she knew that he was a Shinobi and that there was a lot she could learn from him.

Paging Gospodin Chekov, Gospodin Anton Pavlovich Chekhov!
 
Egad. If she learns from a ninja, people might start fearing her as the next Tiger once Kat officially retires.
I thought Tat's the one going in that direction, but then again, the title of this TL...

Also, yeah, of course Opa von Richthofen is the one that finds the whole affair educational. He's also right though, with the whole "letting your opponent getting under your skin" thing.

Marc A
 
's rather sad when a brides special day is more about other people, a lot of whom she doesn't paticularly like, than her.
It's sad, but also not uncommon in many circles. There's a reason some people I know have held private wedding--which scadalize some people. (One friend had her family say that the wedding wasn't real, because a civil servant can't marry people; a wedding must be done under the eyes of god.)
 
It seems to me that Ritchie ist heading towards being the founder of SWAT or something similar. He ist getting better gear and is better trained. At some point someone will ask him "show me some stuff from your army days" and so "Ritchie's Madmen" are born more or less by accident.
 
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