Difficult to do without issuing a "Shoot on sight" order on the Papparazzi
Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
Difficult to do without issuing a "Shoot on sight" order on the Papparazzi
hm i think it sounds more like he is planning to get the command spot and than retires as active astronaut.
Hmmm, well the latest update went on a direction I didn’t expect (par for course). If Kiki’s upset I think she has good grounds. Could the Kaiser and his intended not find a less awkward, more sensitive way of introducing their plans given both her experience with Kira and recent troubles?
..... Considering the current level of precision in the Landing, I rather doubt that Albrecht would be willing to play Russian Roulette with his arse specially in a pin point landing.... Even a hundredth of a mm would mark the difference between a correct landing and a VERY shaky landing if not the odds of a greasy and burnt landing.....
Given that Ilse is supposed to be delighted by it as well as furious, I assume it would be some sort of Earth observing environmental mission thing.
What is going to be the ramifications of this marriage?
This is a merging of the upstart Hohenzollern Family with the decaying Habsburgs of the Grand Duchy of Austria and this may lead to concerns by Austrians and other European countries that this might lead to a merger between Germany and Austria... Just kidding by this time ITTL the role of dynastic marriages is done with.
This is a merging of the upstart Hohenzollern Family with the decaying Habsburgs of the Grand Duchy of Austria and this may lead to concerns by Austrians and other European countries that this might lead to a merger between Germany and Austria... Just kidding by this time ITTL the role of dynastic marriages is done with.
I may be wrong but i thought that Austria-Hungary split at the end of WW1 and Austria became a part of Germany ITL.
Part 83, Chapter 1274
Chapter One Thousand Two Hundred Seventy-Four
1st April 1958
Berlin
It felt strange to be back in the Palace after two eventful years. Before Kiki had even made it to the solarium, she realized that this place would never be her home again. The solarium itself had radically changed. Her mother’s artwork was gone, replaced by the plants that resembled the ones that her mother had ordered removed two decades earlier. Charlotte had no idea the personal history that this room held for Kiki, it was just a pleasant room to have tea in during a rainy spring afternoon. It took some effort, but Kiki managed to avoid getting upset over this. Doctor Berg had made Kiki repeat several times back to her that any perceived slight by Charlotte was unintentional and Kiki had too many emotions tied up in all of this to trust her own judgement.
According to both Gräfin Katherine and Doctor Berg this latest round of hard feelings was Kiki’s own fault. Considering how rarely the two of them were in total agreement about anything, Kiki supposed that she ought to take them seriously. Probably the most jarring thing was when Kat had pointed out that many characterized her relationship with her father as estranged. Kiki had disagreed with that until Kat had asked when the last time she had spoken with her father before she had called him over his engagement or had even seen him for that matter. The last time she had seen her father was at her mother’s funeral and the last time she had spoken with him beyond the expected pleasantries had been before she had been sent to Japan. No one had asked her opinion because she had made herself unavailable to even be asked. The reason that Charlotte had arranged to meet Kiki without telling her who she was, was because she wanted to get a good read who Kiki was without any anger and resentment clouding the meeting. It spoke volumes that Charlotte would have felt she needed to worry about that in the first place.
Today, Kiki found herself in the uncomfortable position of having to mend fences. She had arranged to meet with her father, and they had a nice talk to get reacquainted. He had talked to Kiki while he worked on the engine of one of his beloved touring cars. Strangely, he said that he had not met Charlotte at one of the tedious social events that he said had come to feel like a cattle auction. He had not elaborated about where he had met her, instead he had said that getting married again had not been in his plans until Charlotte had entered his life and things had snowballed. He had then suggested that Kiki have tea with Charlotte so that they could smooth things out on an equal footing.
“I’m so pleased that you came” Lotte said as Kiki sat down, “I was afraid that you would still be angry.”
Kiki was angry, but she wasn’t about to let that dictate her actions.
“I’ve been trying to change things from how they’ve been” Kiki said as she wondered how she had let things slide so far.
“That’s good” Lotte said with a smile. She really was nice, something that made this difficult for Kiki. If she had been a real shrew then Kiki could tell her off in a fit of self-righteous anger and feel perfectly justified.
“You are exactly how Louis described” Lotte said as she handed a plate of biscuits to her. Kiki waited for her elaborate, but instead it stretched into an awkward silence.
“What did my father say?” Kiki finally asked.
“He said that you are prettier than you realize, extremely intelligent, and you try to act more mature than you really are” Lotte replied, “Sometimes you are successful, sometimes not. He also said that he thinks you should act your age but not in the way that most parents would mean when they said that.”
Despite her lack of communication over the last two years, Kiki had figured that her father had kept close tabs on her. Some of the things he had said to her while they had last talked had suggested as much.
“Oh” Kiki replied, “My father told me that he didn’t meet you at a social function.”
Kiki said that to change the subject, the last thing she really wanted to talk at length about was herself.
“No, we did not” Lotte replied, “That isn’t a particularly interesting story though.”
“It’s something I would like to know” Kiki said, “My father didn’t elaborate.”
“Louis wanted to set up a charitable foundation in your mother’s name last year” Lotte said, “He needed help with it and my brother Robert suggested to him that I was the perfect person to help him and we ended up working closely together.”
Kiki heard that, to have the Archduke of Austria suggest like that had a lot of implications. For decades Austria had remained steadfastly independent as the last stronghold of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, though many felt that it would be a natural addition to the German Empire. Many others felt that the days of Royal Houses, dynastic marriages and everything that went with them were quant relics at best.
“How did that turn into a marriage proposal?” Kiki asked.
Lotte smiled at that. “Louis is such a dear, he took weeks, but he eventually asked me to have dinner with him” She said, “I almost said no, because I was working with him, but that turned into another date, followed by another and another. Next thing I knew months had passed and you know the rest.”
Regretfully, Kiki didn’t know the rest because she had been uninvolved and elsewhere.
1st April 1958
Berlin
It felt strange to be back in the Palace after two eventful years. Before Kiki had even made it to the solarium, she realized that this place would never be her home again. The solarium itself had radically changed. Her mother’s artwork was gone, replaced by the plants that resembled the ones that her mother had ordered removed two decades earlier. Charlotte had no idea the personal history that this room held for Kiki, it was just a pleasant room to have tea in during a rainy spring afternoon. It took some effort, but Kiki managed to avoid getting upset over this. Doctor Berg had made Kiki repeat several times back to her that any perceived slight by Charlotte was unintentional and Kiki had too many emotions tied up in all of this to trust her own judgement.
According to both Gräfin Katherine and Doctor Berg this latest round of hard feelings was Kiki’s own fault. Considering how rarely the two of them were in total agreement about anything, Kiki supposed that she ought to take them seriously. Probably the most jarring thing was when Kat had pointed out that many characterized her relationship with her father as estranged. Kiki had disagreed with that until Kat had asked when the last time she had spoken with her father before she had called him over his engagement or had even seen him for that matter. The last time she had seen her father was at her mother’s funeral and the last time she had spoken with him beyond the expected pleasantries had been before she had been sent to Japan. No one had asked her opinion because she had made herself unavailable to even be asked. The reason that Charlotte had arranged to meet Kiki without telling her who she was, was because she wanted to get a good read who Kiki was without any anger and resentment clouding the meeting. It spoke volumes that Charlotte would have felt she needed to worry about that in the first place.
Today, Kiki found herself in the uncomfortable position of having to mend fences. She had arranged to meet with her father, and they had a nice talk to get reacquainted. He had talked to Kiki while he worked on the engine of one of his beloved touring cars. Strangely, he said that he had not met Charlotte at one of the tedious social events that he said had come to feel like a cattle auction. He had not elaborated about where he had met her, instead he had said that getting married again had not been in his plans until Charlotte had entered his life and things had snowballed. He had then suggested that Kiki have tea with Charlotte so that they could smooth things out on an equal footing.
“I’m so pleased that you came” Lotte said as Kiki sat down, “I was afraid that you would still be angry.”
Kiki was angry, but she wasn’t about to let that dictate her actions.
“I’ve been trying to change things from how they’ve been” Kiki said as she wondered how she had let things slide so far.
“That’s good” Lotte said with a smile. She really was nice, something that made this difficult for Kiki. If she had been a real shrew then Kiki could tell her off in a fit of self-righteous anger and feel perfectly justified.
“You are exactly how Louis described” Lotte said as she handed a plate of biscuits to her. Kiki waited for her elaborate, but instead it stretched into an awkward silence.
“What did my father say?” Kiki finally asked.
“He said that you are prettier than you realize, extremely intelligent, and you try to act more mature than you really are” Lotte replied, “Sometimes you are successful, sometimes not. He also said that he thinks you should act your age but not in the way that most parents would mean when they said that.”
Despite her lack of communication over the last two years, Kiki had figured that her father had kept close tabs on her. Some of the things he had said to her while they had last talked had suggested as much.
“Oh” Kiki replied, “My father told me that he didn’t meet you at a social function.”
Kiki said that to change the subject, the last thing she really wanted to talk at length about was herself.
“No, we did not” Lotte replied, “That isn’t a particularly interesting story though.”
“It’s something I would like to know” Kiki said, “My father didn’t elaborate.”
“Louis wanted to set up a charitable foundation in your mother’s name last year” Lotte said, “He needed help with it and my brother Robert suggested to him that I was the perfect person to help him and we ended up working closely together.”
Kiki heard that, to have the Archduke of Austria suggest like that had a lot of implications. For decades Austria had remained steadfastly independent as the last stronghold of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, though many felt that it would be a natural addition to the German Empire. Many others felt that the days of Royal Houses, dynastic marriages and everything that went with them were quant relics at best.
“How did that turn into a marriage proposal?” Kiki asked.
Lotte smiled at that. “Louis is such a dear, he took weeks, but he eventually asked me to have dinner with him” She said, “I almost said no, because I was working with him, but that turned into another date, followed by another and another. Next thing I knew months had passed and you know the rest.”
Regretfully, Kiki didn’t know the rest because she had been uninvolved and elsewhere.
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Austria may be too Catholic for the Protestants in Germany to be comfortable with.
..... That is at this point a rather absurd argument, specially in sight of the very Catholic Poland and the very sizeable Orthodox population post WWII, for not talk of the deceased Kaiserine... Russian and Orthodox to boot. Try again.
Good argument, but Poland while part of the German Empire, it is a separate distinct political entity while a merger between Germany and Austria would mean a complete integration in to Deutschland proper.
An argument can be made by this time ITTL that Austria and Germany while sharing the same language, it has two distinct and separate cultures and many people in Austria might not want to be "dominated" by an increasingly "poloygot" Germany.
On the other hand this could be part of the National Liberals plan to increase the number of ethnic Germans to counter act immigration from non Germans.
Still on another hand I think that the Austrian people may be more culturally and politically conservative then the Germans are at this time ITTL and that will mean more votes for the National Liberals.