Though mind you, it’s a shame a certain Swedish metal band is all but certain to be butterflied away… if he lived long enough to hear it, he’d enjoy their song about him:
Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
Siblings. Can't live with them, not allowed to kill them.
A random lightning strike on the school grounds just after a frustrated Mathilda invokes Thor would do wonders for an anti-bullying program: "Don't harass Mathilda lest the Old Gods come for you!"
I've said it before, I'll say it again: Rook is Malcolm
John Dillinger - Greatest American Hero. Believe it or not.
No he isn’t. In the same chapter that he is introduced we learn his name. I can’t remember what it was exactly, but it was ”something Oberst”.
Part 128, Chapter 2174
Chapter Two Thousand One Hundred Seventy-Four
4th September 1972
Wahlstatt, Silesia
There were only twenty-four of them and as Gretchen learned, not one of them had the first clue as to what they were doing. To the others, this was all a lark. They were all from various minor Junkers families or were the daughters of various heroes and they had watched with glee over the Summer Holiday the consternation of their fathers and older brothers at the prospect of this. It seemed that she was the only one who was aware of what was in store, even so she had chosen this because spending the next six years at the mercy of Anna and her clique of friends was something that Gretchen considered nightmarish.
Mathilda, that strange girl who had joined her family over the summer was essentially going to Tzschocha in her place. Mathilda had a self-assurance and poise that Gretchen lacked, she had also treated Anna as if she were no more than an insect to her and Gretchen had envied her ability to do that. The adults of her family had clearly been pushing her to be friends with Mathilda, but why on Earth would someone like her want to be friends with someone like Gretchen? Not first the time, Gretchen wondered what her parents were thinking.
Getting off the train in Liegnitz, they had been herded onto a bus with the other first year students at the station. Gretchen had heard a lot of wild stories from Niko and Bas about what sort of greeting she would receive, but Opa had told her that the two of them were full of hot air.
Eventually, the bus pulled up a massive building. Opa had told her that it had once been an abbey, it certainly looked like it. A harried looking man in the uniform of an Oberstlieutenant and a dumpy looking Feldwebel accompanied by a woman wearing all black greeted them as they got off the bus and stood on the paving stones before the school entrance. The other buses were pulling in behind theirs and the students from those classes were staring at them as they milled around.
“Now, I am pleased to welcome you to what will be a bold and exciting new chapter for this institution. To introduce myself, I am Oberstlieutenant Adolf Gruber, and I will be your Headmaster during your time at the Prussian Institution of Wahlstatt. Boys, please go with Oberstabsfeldwebel Arbeit and… girls…” The Oberstlieutenant said before letting out an exasperated sigh, “Girls, please go with Stabsfeldwebel-Leutnant Pavlichenko. They will show you to your accommodations, get you situated, and brief you about what you will be doing over the coming days.”
Pavlichenko wasn’t wearing a uniform and the only clue of her rank, a Warrant Officer whose authority was roughly equivalent to that of a Hauptmann, was the Pioneer Corps Career badge that she was wearing pinned to her shirt. She looked at them coldly as if taking stock of them.
“I am supposed to teach History at this school, but they saw fit to stick me with you lot as well” Pavlichenko said with an accent that Gretchen couldn’t identify. “Now form a line, follow me, and no funny business. I am not your mother and have no problem with doling out harsh punishments, the consequences of stupidity should be painful. Understand?”
“Yes, Ma’am” Gretchen said along with the others.
It was clear that this woman was someone they did not want to mess with.
Lake Constance
After a week in Munich, Kiki had had enough. Sure, there had been fun parts like watching Freddy and Michael awarding sportsmanship medals to the various competitors or the occasional injury where she happened to be the closest Doctor with full access. For the most part though, she had been expected to play the part of the good hostess in a tense situation because the respective Governments of Germany and the United States had found a new reason to be at odds with each other. This time it was because the Abwehr, later the BND, had found a way to get an Agent into a high-ranking position within a key Government Agency. If Kiki had to guess, the American CIA was probably trying to figure out how it had been done so they could copy it at that very moment. It was all a part of the stupid games that Governments played, and Kiki found it all exhausting.
There were also other costs involved as well.
Zella had said that an old friend of hers had somehow gotten killed because of this whole mess and that the family of sorts that he’d had in Berlin were at a total loss. It wasn’t as if they could have a proper funeral for him, not without breaking certain promises that they had made.
Going back to Lake Constance and just watching the sailboats cruise around the lake from the foredeck of the Epione was a welcome change. Like on most afternoons, Rauchbier was doing his level best to prevent the sofa in the saloon from floating off. Still, he needed to take his run a couple times a day. That was why Kiki had taken him ashore to a field where he run to his heart’s content, hopefully leaving whatever small game happened to be present alone. The last thing that Kiki needed was that sort of trouble.
4th September 1972
Wahlstatt, Silesia
There were only twenty-four of them and as Gretchen learned, not one of them had the first clue as to what they were doing. To the others, this was all a lark. They were all from various minor Junkers families or were the daughters of various heroes and they had watched with glee over the Summer Holiday the consternation of their fathers and older brothers at the prospect of this. It seemed that she was the only one who was aware of what was in store, even so she had chosen this because spending the next six years at the mercy of Anna and her clique of friends was something that Gretchen considered nightmarish.
Mathilda, that strange girl who had joined her family over the summer was essentially going to Tzschocha in her place. Mathilda had a self-assurance and poise that Gretchen lacked, she had also treated Anna as if she were no more than an insect to her and Gretchen had envied her ability to do that. The adults of her family had clearly been pushing her to be friends with Mathilda, but why on Earth would someone like her want to be friends with someone like Gretchen? Not first the time, Gretchen wondered what her parents were thinking.
Getting off the train in Liegnitz, they had been herded onto a bus with the other first year students at the station. Gretchen had heard a lot of wild stories from Niko and Bas about what sort of greeting she would receive, but Opa had told her that the two of them were full of hot air.
Eventually, the bus pulled up a massive building. Opa had told her that it had once been an abbey, it certainly looked like it. A harried looking man in the uniform of an Oberstlieutenant and a dumpy looking Feldwebel accompanied by a woman wearing all black greeted them as they got off the bus and stood on the paving stones before the school entrance. The other buses were pulling in behind theirs and the students from those classes were staring at them as they milled around.
“Now, I am pleased to welcome you to what will be a bold and exciting new chapter for this institution. To introduce myself, I am Oberstlieutenant Adolf Gruber, and I will be your Headmaster during your time at the Prussian Institution of Wahlstatt. Boys, please go with Oberstabsfeldwebel Arbeit and… girls…” The Oberstlieutenant said before letting out an exasperated sigh, “Girls, please go with Stabsfeldwebel-Leutnant Pavlichenko. They will show you to your accommodations, get you situated, and brief you about what you will be doing over the coming days.”
Pavlichenko wasn’t wearing a uniform and the only clue of her rank, a Warrant Officer whose authority was roughly equivalent to that of a Hauptmann, was the Pioneer Corps Career badge that she was wearing pinned to her shirt. She looked at them coldly as if taking stock of them.
“I am supposed to teach History at this school, but they saw fit to stick me with you lot as well” Pavlichenko said with an accent that Gretchen couldn’t identify. “Now form a line, follow me, and no funny business. I am not your mother and have no problem with doling out harsh punishments, the consequences of stupidity should be painful. Understand?”
“Yes, Ma’am” Gretchen said along with the others.
It was clear that this woman was someone they did not want to mess with.
Lake Constance
After a week in Munich, Kiki had had enough. Sure, there had been fun parts like watching Freddy and Michael awarding sportsmanship medals to the various competitors or the occasional injury where she happened to be the closest Doctor with full access. For the most part though, she had been expected to play the part of the good hostess in a tense situation because the respective Governments of Germany and the United States had found a new reason to be at odds with each other. This time it was because the Abwehr, later the BND, had found a way to get an Agent into a high-ranking position within a key Government Agency. If Kiki had to guess, the American CIA was probably trying to figure out how it had been done so they could copy it at that very moment. It was all a part of the stupid games that Governments played, and Kiki found it all exhausting.
There were also other costs involved as well.
Zella had said that an old friend of hers had somehow gotten killed because of this whole mess and that the family of sorts that he’d had in Berlin were at a total loss. It wasn’t as if they could have a proper funeral for him, not without breaking certain promises that they had made.
Going back to Lake Constance and just watching the sailboats cruise around the lake from the foredeck of the Epione was a welcome change. Like on most afternoons, Rauchbier was doing his level best to prevent the sofa in the saloon from floating off. Still, he needed to take his run a couple times a day. That was why Kiki had taken him ashore to a field where he run to his heart’s content, hopefully leaving whatever small game happened to be present alone. The last thing that Kiki needed was that sort of trouble.
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Oh, Kiki, Smoke is getting older, if he gets a rabbit, skin it and cook it up for him.
Interesting - so the made the Hochrhein shippable again (for a value of again, prior to good road in railway infrastructure it was used, regardless of obstacles...). I'm assuming one of the projects to bypass the Rheinfall got built, maybe the one OTL proposed in the 60s?
Makes one wonder just how far upriver that would allow ships to go? I know the current bridges upriver from Lake Constance aren't built with shipping in mind, but judging by the stream - Feldkirch should be doable - maybe even further. Depending a bit on run-on-the-river power stations, maybe all the way up to Domat/Ems for smaller ships. (Though medieval shipping seemed to have ended at Feldkirch and/or Altach depending the sources you consult - but the 'Rheinregulierung' did a lot of work predating the PoD, and some more after, that might change calculations a bit.)
altamiro
Banned
How the hell did Kiki get the Epione up the Rhine Falls?
There are no navigable connections between Lake Constance and any other waterways. All larger boats on Lake Constance were constructed in situ, there are seevral shipyards on the lake for exactly this purpose. Unless of course Epione has a profile narrow enough to be rail-haulable, which I doubt. Or was some sort of a boat lift built?
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Geographically, going from Munich to Lake Constance via the Rhein is a huge detour. Isar (not shipable) to Danube to the Thein-Main-Donau channel to the Main, downwards to the Rhein, then up the Rhein to Lake Constance... = several days of travel. I suspect she when up the Danube and then some (OTL not existing) channel from one of the rivers flowing towards the Alps to the lake.
Sorry Peabody-Martini, geography ist sabotaging your story there.
Sorry Peabody-Martini, geography ist sabotaging your story there.
Short answer, she didn't. She went around it.
Long answer, even in OTL there was a proposed canal, lock and tunnel system running through Benken and rejoining the Rhine at Paradies above Schaffhausen, bypassing Rhine Falls. The trouble was that this would also bypass the portage at Schaffhausen which resulted in local resistance that got this project shelved, ITTL that didn't happen.
And no handwaving involved.
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Rook is based in Germany. The Oberst (colonel) was the officer that Manny reported to and was discussing intel provided by Rook, via satelite, with in Argentina.
The possible beginnings of a long-lasting friendship.
It will be interesting to see how the V8 Club gives John Ellis his send off.
if Django Reinhardt is still alive, he’d lead the first bracket from the early days, followed by a cavalcade of acts throughout the history of the V8 club. Possibly culminating in the greatest jam session of all time. Zella will probably ensure a mobile recording unit is set up to tape the lot.
No, Rook’s last name is literally Oberst.
Not sure where 'Benkin' is (maybe Benken?) and Paradies, well, probably the Klostergut Paradies, then that would have been a massive project that I can't offhand find information on. Just eyeballing it some 5km straight line, 2 of them going through a hill standing at around 150m over the river valley.
The solution I though of can be found here. Unfortunately only in German, but page 2 of the PDF has a map that shows one of the three proposed solutions - all just about bypassing the falls, including a 500m tunnel and being just over a kilometre all told - for some 600m 'shortcut'. (It died OTL because of cost, local resistance and more so resistance from the railway companies - portage was dead for more than half a century by the PoD.)
Considering there was a bilateral treaty between Germany and Switzerland OTL in 1926 about creating a way to open up the Bodensee for shipping, it's however not out of question. And kind of the kind of thing the Germans would supply a couple thousand pioneers for TTL. (And that's not counting that OTL Austria voiced support, and offered monetary support, for the project in 1950...)
Second largest New Orleans style funeral in Berlin's history, though probably a lot more variance in the music.