Oh, not that she would turn it down, but there's things she would like better.
Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
Oh, not that she would turn it down, but there's things she would like better.
I think letting Kat just gut him would be preferable to the idea of Petya's "kindness". She'd have him run ragged doing kitchen work, yard work, all sorts of good stuff that to an older Russian woman (especially one of Petya's age) she would see as being a kindness, after all, it builds character and will develop him into a fine upstanding man will it not?
...that's not to say I don't want to see that of course, but I leave it up to PM to write the story. He's a lot less sadistic than I am.
Part 85, Chapter 1307
Chapter One Thousand Three Hundred Seven
2nd February 1959
Mitte, Berlin
Marie was being carried by Douglas and had fallen asleep while they had been waiting for things to get underway. Currently she had her head resting on Doug’s shoulder and Kat could see a line of drool hanging from Marie’s mouth that was soaking into the wool of his coat. Kat didn’t dare let go of Tat and Kol because she already knew that they would wander off the instant she did. They might be standing among the gathered VIPs and dignitaries were the security was tightest, even here the last thing that Kat needed was to lose them in a crowd, again.
Keeping track of Jo was challenging enough. As soon as they had arrived, she had fallen in with Rea and Vicky, who had also pulled Birdie into their orbit. If that wasn’t trouble brewing, then Kat didn’t know what was. The risk was that as irreverent as Rea and Vicky were, today of all days they could easily go way too far. As Kat watched four men from the First Foot led by Lea Bäcker contained the twin girls and took them back to Louis Ferdinand and Charlotte. It was noticeable that they weren’t exactly gentle with them and considering that Louis had watched the whole thing then it meant that even he had grown tired of his youngest two daughters’ antics. For lack of anything better to do Birdie drifted with Jo back to where Kat was standing.
At almost eleven Alberta, or Birdie as she liked to be called, tried to be the proper young lady but only came across like a child pretending to be an adult. Kat had the dark suspicion that Birdie would still be like that when she was fifty. The best thing that had probably ever happened to her had been when Michael had told her that what would have been an arranged marriage a couple of generations earlier wasn’t something that she needed to worry about. In Kat’s opinion was that both Birdie and the UK would be well served if the next child Elizabeth and Philip had was a boy. So far, they’d had three daughters, so she was not willing to lay odds on how likely that was.
“Why don’t you join your parents?” Kat asked Birdie. She could see Elizabeth and Philip standing a few meters away with Birdie’s two younger sisters.
“I…” Birdie paused. “I want to be here.”
So that was it. She didn’t want the attention that standing next to her mother would bring. Not that standing with Kat and her family would bring any less today.
They were in just a small portion of the Tiergarten along with thousands of others to mark the event that indelibly marked this city, just like the damage to the victory column that had never been repaired in the twenty years since. It also happened to be possibly Kat’s greatest failure, but that was a different story that no one seemed to want to hear. Kat knew that if she had been paying better attention to her surroundings then she might have spotted César Sauvageot a few minutes sooner. Hundreds of lives would have been saved. The explosion itself might have been avoided, the Reichstag wouldn’t have lost much of its institutional memory, Stalin might have been successfully contained and Japan might not have seen it as an opportunity to vastly expand their empire. Kat had failed and the consequence had been a global war. No one else seemed to see things that way. Doug said that she considered herself far more important in the greater scheme of things then she really was.
At three o’clock in the afternoon a hush fell over the crowd. It was planned for there to be a minute of silence at two minutes after the hour, marking twenty years to the minute that a metric ton of explosives had detonated in the basement of the Reichstag completely destroying the building and turning the world upside down. As the bell towers in the city rang three somber times, everything fell silent. The only sounds were the wind and birds in the trees. The constant noise of the city suddenly ceasing was so jarring that Marie had woken up and was looking around.
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Ilse and Albrecht were with Albrecht’s family as they marked this anniversary. Ilse remembered what she had been doing when the explosion had happened. She had been hiding as a result of trying to avoid being punished for some forgotten infraction when she had felt what she had thought was an earthquake at the time. Later, they had seen military vehicles in the streets and Ilse had heard jokes being thrown around about what had happened. She also remembered seeing the photograph in the newspapers of a girl injured in the blast clinging to a soldier who was responding to the incident. Ilse had no idea at the time that they were in fact her brother and sister. No one at that orphanage had understood what had happened or what was barreling their way. Recently, Ilse had learned that among the children she had grown up with, the vast majority had either been casualties in the war or had been consumed by the streets in the years since.
Kat believed that there were bright lines between what had happened and what came later. Ilse thought that it was her sister once again trying to come up with a way to torture herself and wished she would stop. The world happened to people like them, not the other way around and it was seldom in a good way.
2nd February 1959
Mitte, Berlin
Marie was being carried by Douglas and had fallen asleep while they had been waiting for things to get underway. Currently she had her head resting on Doug’s shoulder and Kat could see a line of drool hanging from Marie’s mouth that was soaking into the wool of his coat. Kat didn’t dare let go of Tat and Kol because she already knew that they would wander off the instant she did. They might be standing among the gathered VIPs and dignitaries were the security was tightest, even here the last thing that Kat needed was to lose them in a crowd, again.
Keeping track of Jo was challenging enough. As soon as they had arrived, she had fallen in with Rea and Vicky, who had also pulled Birdie into their orbit. If that wasn’t trouble brewing, then Kat didn’t know what was. The risk was that as irreverent as Rea and Vicky were, today of all days they could easily go way too far. As Kat watched four men from the First Foot led by Lea Bäcker contained the twin girls and took them back to Louis Ferdinand and Charlotte. It was noticeable that they weren’t exactly gentle with them and considering that Louis had watched the whole thing then it meant that even he had grown tired of his youngest two daughters’ antics. For lack of anything better to do Birdie drifted with Jo back to where Kat was standing.
At almost eleven Alberta, or Birdie as she liked to be called, tried to be the proper young lady but only came across like a child pretending to be an adult. Kat had the dark suspicion that Birdie would still be like that when she was fifty. The best thing that had probably ever happened to her had been when Michael had told her that what would have been an arranged marriage a couple of generations earlier wasn’t something that she needed to worry about. In Kat’s opinion was that both Birdie and the UK would be well served if the next child Elizabeth and Philip had was a boy. So far, they’d had three daughters, so she was not willing to lay odds on how likely that was.
“Why don’t you join your parents?” Kat asked Birdie. She could see Elizabeth and Philip standing a few meters away with Birdie’s two younger sisters.
“I…” Birdie paused. “I want to be here.”
So that was it. She didn’t want the attention that standing next to her mother would bring. Not that standing with Kat and her family would bring any less today.
They were in just a small portion of the Tiergarten along with thousands of others to mark the event that indelibly marked this city, just like the damage to the victory column that had never been repaired in the twenty years since. It also happened to be possibly Kat’s greatest failure, but that was a different story that no one seemed to want to hear. Kat knew that if she had been paying better attention to her surroundings then she might have spotted César Sauvageot a few minutes sooner. Hundreds of lives would have been saved. The explosion itself might have been avoided, the Reichstag wouldn’t have lost much of its institutional memory, Stalin might have been successfully contained and Japan might not have seen it as an opportunity to vastly expand their empire. Kat had failed and the consequence had been a global war. No one else seemed to see things that way. Doug said that she considered herself far more important in the greater scheme of things then she really was.
At three o’clock in the afternoon a hush fell over the crowd. It was planned for there to be a minute of silence at two minutes after the hour, marking twenty years to the minute that a metric ton of explosives had detonated in the basement of the Reichstag completely destroying the building and turning the world upside down. As the bell towers in the city rang three somber times, everything fell silent. The only sounds were the wind and birds in the trees. The constant noise of the city suddenly ceasing was so jarring that Marie had woken up and was looking around.
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Ilse and Albrecht were with Albrecht’s family as they marked this anniversary. Ilse remembered what she had been doing when the explosion had happened. She had been hiding as a result of trying to avoid being punished for some forgotten infraction when she had felt what she had thought was an earthquake at the time. Later, they had seen military vehicles in the streets and Ilse had heard jokes being thrown around about what had happened. She also remembered seeing the photograph in the newspapers of a girl injured in the blast clinging to a soldier who was responding to the incident. Ilse had no idea at the time that they were in fact her brother and sister. No one at that orphanage had understood what had happened or what was barreling their way. Recently, Ilse had learned that among the children she had grown up with, the vast majority had either been casualties in the war or had been consumed by the streets in the years since.
Kat believed that there were bright lines between what had happened and what came later. Ilse thought that it was her sister once again trying to come up with a way to torture herself and wished she would stop. The world happened to people like them, not the other way around and it was seldom in a good way.
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Glad to see Doug give Kat some proper perspective on things, hopefully by the time the 50th anniversary rolls around Kat will have finally realized that not everything is dependent on what actions or non actions that she takes.
Kat also has to gear herself up as there is going to be for the next few years the 20th anniversaries of a lot of events that in ways has very much defined Germany and the World.
By now Kat should understand that the war with the Soviet Union was inevitable and that was also going to lead to Japan taking the actions that it did.
It looks like Vicky and Rea are going to be tabloid newspaper fodder in the next few years just like Princess Stephanie of Monaco is IOTL.
Kat also has to gear herself up as there is going to be for the next few years the 20th anniversaries of a lot of events that in ways has very much defined Germany and the World.
By now Kat should understand that the war with the Soviet Union was inevitable and that was also going to lead to Japan taking the actions that it did.
It looks like Vicky and Rea are going to be tabloid newspaper fodder in the next few years just like Princess Stephanie of Monaco is IOTL.
I just had an evil thought, imagine the royal twins meeting up with Tilo's nephews. Would humanity survive? Could we unleash them as weapons on the enemies of Germany?
I'm pretty sure there are treaties banning such a deployment
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I wonder if something like the Baader-Meinhof Gang Red Army Faction will appear?
With the passing of years since the defeat of the Soviet Union, the might be a reexamination of Marxist theory and I could see middle class and upper middle class professional students deciding that the Lang Revolution has been betrayed and only violent revolutionary action will change the course of Germany.
With the passing of years since the defeat of the Soviet Union, the might be a reexamination of Marxist theory and I could see middle class and upper middle class professional students deciding that the Lang Revolution has been betrayed and only violent revolutionary action will change the course of Germany.
There's an old joke about the rarity of a "Revolutionary" without a trust fund that probably belongs in political chat that might be used. At this point ITTL, things are actually going quite well in the world. Sure there is starvation in the Far East, Anti-Colonialism is gathering steam in Africa, the Russian Army terrorizing Central Asia, and Arabian Peninsula being an unstable mess, so this is no utopia. Where things will get interesting is that the Spring Revolution is now two generations in the past.
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The reason I asked about the possibility of something like the Baader-Meinhof Gang Red Army Faction making an appearance is that while the KPD in Germany and Marxist-Leninism in general are discredited there should be quite a few Trotskyist and non Leninist Marxists still running around in academic circles offering new interpretations of Marxism to new university students who could considered to be gullible.
For those who have been born after 1934, they are probably the first generation of young men who has not faced conscription when they turned 18 and that is going to be a big cultural sea change in Germany.
In the post about Augustus Lang funeral there was a young scruffy student that handed Emil a leaflet with a a picture of Lang that said "Be your own Revolution" and that could be interpreted in so many ways that is not peaceful and productive.
For those who have been born after 1934, they are probably the first generation of young men who has not faced conscription when they turned 18 and that is going to be a big cultural sea change in Germany.
In the post about Augustus Lang funeral there was a young scruffy student that handed Emil a leaflet with a a picture of Lang that said "Be your own Revolution" and that could be interpreted in so many ways that is not peaceful and productive.
Unlikely..... If anything, Augustus Lang exemplified the concept of PEACEFUL REVOLUTION, a bloodless change in society and government, and in open contrast to the Marxism-Leninism's claim of armed Revolution and "Dictatorship of the Proletariat.....
A middle way in contrast to the hard right and Hard left movements.. One that managed to conciliate the existence of a Social State, a capitalist economy, and a liberal Monarchy in a single country....... Given the sheer success of Germany in World War II, and the 20 years after it, it has only vindicated Augustus Lang's political doctrine while the Soviet Union crumbled as an example of tyranny, corruption and inefficiency, and the Japanese Empire was made to surrender and start the path towards their reform in the German style of government......
If something like the Baader Meinhof rose, it would be short lived, as unlike OTL, they would lack any support......and unlike OTL, they would end meeting the guillotine in Spandau without hesitation, being labeled as "Neo-Stalinist terrorists"....
Very good points but I think the death penalty was abolished and while you are right about Lang and peaceful revolution it would not be the first time that someone completely missed the point and reinterpret into something that is far from what it originally was.
Another thing is there are always people who basically are nihilistic and will justify their actions no matter how violent it is on some theology, theory, belief or philosophy.
Part 85, Chapter 1308
Chapter One Thousand Three Hundred Eight
7th February 1959
Tempelhof, Berlin
As Zella paged through the anatomy textbook that Kiki had on the bookshelf in her dorm room, she found herself fuming mad again. The illustrations were beautifully done, showing the make up of the human body in full color. Unfortunately, the book also revealed an old problem that had been angering Zella for years and after the events of the prior day she was about ready to explode. The morning before her mother had given her an ultimatum regarding the Ducati. Zella had until the end of the month to come up with a plan to get it repaired or else it would be disposed of as her mother saw fit.
Then she had to deal with a rude comment made by a musician. Conrad Schenk, a reporter for the Arts & Entertainment Desk of the BT and Zella’s boss, had asked her to set up an interview with an up and coming Rock & Roll Band. The Lead Singer had been all attitude when Zella called. He had remembered her from when she had been to see them play a couple of months earlier. After the show, he had made a pass at Zella, and she had rebuffed his advances. On Friday afternoon he had listened to what Zella had to say and then made it all about her. “Having a just a smile and a pair of nice tits is no way to get through life” That pig had said to her, “Besides, all the boys know that you don’t swing our way anyhow.”
That comment confirmed who had been spreading rumors about her sexuality over the last couple months. Zella would have happy smashed him over the head with the nearest heavy object at hand if she had been there in person. It was typical male behavior, he wrongly assumed that Zella was a lesbian because she wouldn’t sleep with him as opposed to his chronic poor hygiene and the very attitude that had led him to spread those rumors. There was also minor detail that Zella had yet to meet anyone that she would want to have a relationship in the first place, the idea of an empty tryst didn’t appeal to her at all. Zella had eventually told Conrad that the band wasn’t available for an interview and had sent a memo telling the typesetters to remove any mention of the band’s upcoming shows from the A&E promotions page. She hoped that they enjoyed the obscurity resulting from their singer’s boorish behavior.
Today, looking through Kiki’s text book she saw something that was an old complaint of hers. Almost all the illustrations were of a masculine nature. The few that dealt with female anatomy were done a hasty, embarrassed fashion. It wasn’t the first time that she had encountered it either. She was explaining this to Kiki when she stopped Zella mid-sentence.
“There is a reason why Doctor Berg’s specialty is needed” Kiki said.
“That’s not the point” Zella replied, “You want to go into emergency medicine. I would like to know that a Doctor in that field knew the difference between an ass and elbow, especially if it were my ass and elbow in question.”
“I think that most Doctors could tell the difference between those two things” Kiki said.
“That is not what I meant” Zella said, “Is the female body really that scary. Looking at this, you would think so.”
Kiki didn’t even try to hide her annoyance at what Zella had just said. “You said the exact same things about your artistic studies and look at how much trouble that got us in.”
It was a reminder that Zella had done a series of extremely detailed studies of Kiki and Aurora, the two of them had provided an incredible contrast. Kiki was a bit taller than average and extremely thin, where Aurora was shorter and a bit pudgier. It had all been in response to one of Zella’s teachers basically implying that any representation of a woman’s body was automatically pornographic. She had disagreed.
“I didn’t ask you get so involved in that. Remember, you volunteered.” Even as Zella said that, she knew that wasn’t exactly the whole truth. She had lucked out in that Kiki had taken most of the heat in that incident. Gräfin Katherine had also suggested to her mother that she shouldn’t be punished to severely. That was completely out of character for Katherine, to this day Zella had no idea why she had done that. After more than a year Zella still had her friends give her her dirty looks if they so much as saw Zella’s sketchbook.
In response, Kiki gave Zella another dirty look. They had known each other too long for a line like that to work.
“You know who you sound like?” Kiki asked, “One of the students I’ve encountered who play at being radicals, whose advocation for the revolution extends only to the point where they might get cut off by their family. Nothing is ever their fault either.”
“Admittedly, we did take things too far” Zella replied, “And are you saying that I’m wrong about this book.”
Kiki frowned and sat silently on her bed with her arms crossed. It was what she did when she knew that Zella was correct but didn’t want to her the satisfaction of saying so. With that Zella closed the book and put it back on the bookshelf. The problem, as Zella saw it, was that Kiki had become a prisoner here. Zella’s parents were always telling her that when she started attending University, it wouldn’t be just to learn. She would need to figure out who she was in the process.
7th February 1959
Tempelhof, Berlin
As Zella paged through the anatomy textbook that Kiki had on the bookshelf in her dorm room, she found herself fuming mad again. The illustrations were beautifully done, showing the make up of the human body in full color. Unfortunately, the book also revealed an old problem that had been angering Zella for years and after the events of the prior day she was about ready to explode. The morning before her mother had given her an ultimatum regarding the Ducati. Zella had until the end of the month to come up with a plan to get it repaired or else it would be disposed of as her mother saw fit.
Then she had to deal with a rude comment made by a musician. Conrad Schenk, a reporter for the Arts & Entertainment Desk of the BT and Zella’s boss, had asked her to set up an interview with an up and coming Rock & Roll Band. The Lead Singer had been all attitude when Zella called. He had remembered her from when she had been to see them play a couple of months earlier. After the show, he had made a pass at Zella, and she had rebuffed his advances. On Friday afternoon he had listened to what Zella had to say and then made it all about her. “Having a just a smile and a pair of nice tits is no way to get through life” That pig had said to her, “Besides, all the boys know that you don’t swing our way anyhow.”
That comment confirmed who had been spreading rumors about her sexuality over the last couple months. Zella would have happy smashed him over the head with the nearest heavy object at hand if she had been there in person. It was typical male behavior, he wrongly assumed that Zella was a lesbian because she wouldn’t sleep with him as opposed to his chronic poor hygiene and the very attitude that had led him to spread those rumors. There was also minor detail that Zella had yet to meet anyone that she would want to have a relationship in the first place, the idea of an empty tryst didn’t appeal to her at all. Zella had eventually told Conrad that the band wasn’t available for an interview and had sent a memo telling the typesetters to remove any mention of the band’s upcoming shows from the A&E promotions page. She hoped that they enjoyed the obscurity resulting from their singer’s boorish behavior.
Today, looking through Kiki’s text book she saw something that was an old complaint of hers. Almost all the illustrations were of a masculine nature. The few that dealt with female anatomy were done a hasty, embarrassed fashion. It wasn’t the first time that she had encountered it either. She was explaining this to Kiki when she stopped Zella mid-sentence.
“There is a reason why Doctor Berg’s specialty is needed” Kiki said.
“That’s not the point” Zella replied, “You want to go into emergency medicine. I would like to know that a Doctor in that field knew the difference between an ass and elbow, especially if it were my ass and elbow in question.”
“I think that most Doctors could tell the difference between those two things” Kiki said.
“That is not what I meant” Zella said, “Is the female body really that scary. Looking at this, you would think so.”
Kiki didn’t even try to hide her annoyance at what Zella had just said. “You said the exact same things about your artistic studies and look at how much trouble that got us in.”
It was a reminder that Zella had done a series of extremely detailed studies of Kiki and Aurora, the two of them had provided an incredible contrast. Kiki was a bit taller than average and extremely thin, where Aurora was shorter and a bit pudgier. It had all been in response to one of Zella’s teachers basically implying that any representation of a woman’s body was automatically pornographic. She had disagreed.
“I didn’t ask you get so involved in that. Remember, you volunteered.” Even as Zella said that, she knew that wasn’t exactly the whole truth. She had lucked out in that Kiki had taken most of the heat in that incident. Gräfin Katherine had also suggested to her mother that she shouldn’t be punished to severely. That was completely out of character for Katherine, to this day Zella had no idea why she had done that. After more than a year Zella still had her friends give her her dirty looks if they so much as saw Zella’s sketchbook.
In response, Kiki gave Zella another dirty look. They had known each other too long for a line like that to work.
“You know who you sound like?” Kiki asked, “One of the students I’ve encountered who play at being radicals, whose advocation for the revolution extends only to the point where they might get cut off by their family. Nothing is ever their fault either.”
“Admittedly, we did take things too far” Zella replied, “And are you saying that I’m wrong about this book.”
Kiki frowned and sat silently on her bed with her arms crossed. It was what she did when she knew that Zella was correct but didn’t want to her the satisfaction of saying so. With that Zella closed the book and put it back on the bookshelf. The problem, as Zella saw it, was that Kiki had become a prisoner here. Zella’s parents were always telling her that when she started attending University, it wouldn’t be just to learn. She would need to figure out who she was in the process.
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Odds are that the band is going to break up a LOT sooner than OTL, specially once their Artistic Representative digs in the reason why their concerts's assistance and offers have dried up.
Take in consideration that more than likely Zella's mother ALSO heard of the rumours, and waited in the wings for Zella's actions, likely green-lighting them, if not also blacklisting the group with several friends of her... VERY influential ones at this stage of their lives.
And that doesn't includes WHAT Emil Von Holz will do as he heard the rumours being spread about his daughter,likely informed by John himself.
The first hint, it will be that more than likely their contract to keep playing in the club of John will not be renovated.
Then expect the band being given the FULL treatment, including photographs, cavity revision and such, for another stunt of their singer...
Then their Representative asking their Singer WHAT THE FUCK he did..... He finally remembering the talk with the gal who rejected him........ He remembering her name....and their representative paling to a cadaveric shade... Then exploding in insults and curses against John ........
...... Followed by explaining the FULL BACKGROUND of Zella Von Holz-Acker and the FULL scale of shit creek what he just got into their band's career.... Short to say, while lead Singer, nobody will trust him to lead the Band after this screw up..... Considering that he just got them blacklisted in the artistic press and scene in Germany, their best bet to rise to popularity......
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