Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II

“I know that he is ambitious and is trying to angle himself as a kingmaker” Manfred said knowing that wasn’t the whole truth, the Graf was also doing his level best to make himself King. “What has he done this time?”

You only need to alter a few words and it works for Otto too. Well, in past tense anyway.
 
Defining where the the difference between king and kingpin lies at times is something you'd need to hire a team of first fate lawyers for.
 
It always comes back to the line in the Godfather about the differences between a Senator and a Mafia Don. Not as much as you would think.
Difference between Otto and Manfred is about two - three generations. After all, not like the von Richthofen family got where they did doing nice things either....
 
Kat understood how Helene felt, she had made it clear what would happen to any recruiter from the Military or Intelligence Agencies who stupidly spoke to her children, it would involve a great deal of screaming and a missing person report. However, Kat knew that eventually they would be old enough to make their own choices. Not only that, but with Tatiana constantly going out of her way to spite Kat these days, the best way to get Tatiana to do anything would be for Kat to forbid her from doing it. Marie was not old enough to be that way yet, but Kat knew that was probably coming and wasn’t looking forward to it.
This is the mistake Helene made; forbidding Manfred from joining the Heer just made it all that much more attractive. As for the poor bastard who does recruit Tatiana, Malcolm or Marie; the Service in question will thank them for their achievement in serving the Fatherland... while toasting the memory of their dear departed colleague.
Malcolm still struggled in some subjects at school but had found that he had a talent for mathematics. He had become interested it the numeral languages that had been developed by Abwehr in the twenties and thirties originally as cyphers but had become the basis of computing in the areas of the economy where it had been applied.
Malcolm von Mischner-Blackwood; Computer genius /mathematician/physicist, par excellence.
Among Kat’s current wards, Josefine had started University and Suse Rosa was in her final year at the Gymnasia. While the two of them had always been dear friends, living under the same roof had drawn them closer together. It was a welcome development for both because Kat knew that Jo and Suse complemented each other when they teamed up. Suse was also more like Gerta than she was willing to believe, that meant that Kat would need to keep a close eye on her. So, none of Kat’s children were headed down that sort of road, for now anyway.
May God have mercy on the soul of the poor dumb bastard stupid enough to try anything shady with either of them too, because the ancient Gods sure as hell won't.
The day after Christmas, the hammer came down exactly as Manfred had figured that it would. Getting woken well before dawn to crawl though icy muck wasn’t anyone’s idea of a good time. That was their introduction to Oberstaber Jost Schultz. He had said that he was disgusted by the soft lifestyle that they had enjoyed over the previous months and that he would make real soldiers of them. Jost made it clear that in his thinking, he was doing them a favor. Word had also gotten around about Manfred being one of the hunters who had helped provide Christmas dinner along with how he had dropped three boars with five shots in seconds. He should have realized that was the sort of thing that drew the wrath of Instructors, worse of all he had seen it coming. Everyone else had not knowing as an excuse.
Welcome to the real Heer, boys.
 
Difference between Otto and Manfred is about two - three generations. After all, not like the von Richthofen family got where they did doing nice things either....
There is the old saying: "The only reason some things are illegal is that the government doesn't like the competition."
This is also how royalty & the nobility got started. Again, Terry Pratchett gave the perhaps the best definition of the real, old time kings of history as being someone wearing a crown while holding an unsheathed sword and saying "I have the crown and I will kill any bastard that tries to take it from me" (or something similar).
 
Part 105, Chapter 1704
Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred Four



31st December 1965

Tempelhof, Berlin

Kat’s prediction about the kids falling asleep on the couch in the parlor came true around ten o’clock. Doug was able to get a few photographs of the children with the dog asleep in there. He knew that Kat adored pictures like those. That included Malcolm and Tatiana, at just shy of their fifteenth birthday they might have been past that. Evidently not. Suse and Jo who were seventeen and eighteen respectively, found it funny and helped Doug with the lighting. Hans and Helene’s daughter, Ina was reading a book with Marie’s cat on her lap. Occasionally, they heard a bit of the party that was going on downstairs as the household staff were throwing a party of their own.

The adults of the house then sat around the table in the library talking until just before midnight. Ilse and Albrecht had come back from Silesia where they had spent the Christmas Holiday. It seemed that Albrecht was rather aghast at what his father had been up to over the last several months. “I think that old vulture has really lost the plot this time” Albrecht said to Doug when he got the chance. “He thinks that he can appoint himself the Elector of Silesia.” Kat must have overheard that, but she didn’t say anything. Doug knew that Kat had some strong opinions about the Graf, how she had once taken a promotion in the Imperial Court so that he wouldn’t interfere with her brother’s marriage. Her getting elevated to be the Fürstin of Berlin might be what was driving the Graf, but one could never tell with him. Doug knew that he had always been an extremely ambitious man and was not one to let an opportunity to advance the Richthofen family pass.

There was a brittle peace between Kat, Hans, Helene, and Stefan that was holding for the moment. Doug had heard from Nizhoni earlier that night over dinner that Kat and Hans had cooked up a project and that Stefan had unknowingly gotten Manfred the Younger caught up in the middle of it. That had also been right before Stefan had been promoted and appointed to the General Staff of the 2nd Army, so he hadn’t been able to undo his mistake. Until Nizhoni had told him, Doug had not seen the big picture. He had understood that the Mischner siblings were arguing among themselves, but that was hardly out of the ordinary.

At a quarter to midnight, they went in to wake up the children. They found that they needed to wake up Suse as well after she had fallen asleep in one of the library’s armchairs. As they counted down to midnight, Doug thought about everything that had happened over the previous year. He figured that it had been a good one and his hope was that the coming year would go just as well. Next spring, they were planning a trip to Canada to visit Doug’s parents and sister, it would be the first trip like that since Kat had become the Fürstin of Berlin. That ought to make it interesting.

Doug was carrying Marie as they made their way out through the front door, lowering her gently onto her feet when they stepped onto street. At the stroke of midnight fireworks started going off all over the city and Kat stepped close to give Doug the first kiss of the new year. For a few seconds Doug completely forgot the others around him, it was just Kat and him. Then Hans popped open a bottle of Champagne, snapping Doug back to reality, and was pouring glasses that he was passing around. Helene handed one of them to Doug before taking one for herself.

Marie was looking at the glass in Doug’s hand curiously, so he caught Kat’s eye and she nodded with a slight smile on her lips. They had discussed this, how they needed to occasionally acknowledge that Marie was getting older. “You can have a sip” Doug stage whispered to Marie. And she was delighted right until Marie tasted it, then she had the expected sour look on her face.



Heuberg, Württemberg

It was Saturday morning as well as New Year’s Day now that midnight had come and gone. It was bitter cold, and it was snowing harder as Manfred made his way to the main gates. Christian had told him that Heuberg was supposedly the coldest place in Germany and as Manfred walked between the guard shacks making sure that those on making sure that those on Sentry Duty were awake, he believed it. He had been forced a few days earlier to explain how he was in no way connected to his Paternal Grandfather’s activities. That was when he found out that an extensive background check had been done on him and presumably the others who had volunteered.

That meant that Obenhaus must have known what the score was before Manfred had walked into his office, he just wanted to see if Manfred would tell him the truth. The whole thing had been a test and like so much that had been happening over the last week it was difficult to tell what was real on top of being cold, wet, and exhausted constantly. Jost had been a real nightmare. The day before New Year’s Eve the Platoon that Manfred had been assigned to had found themselves hip deep in cold water trying to get across a stream. Jost had mentioned that he had found himself in similar situations many times in Russia and had a Lieutenant who had understood that their own personal needs were often secondary to the mission. Then Jost had dropped the name of that Lieutenant, Hans Mischner. The rest of the men had looked at Manfred accusingly after that, like if Jost was punishing them for something that his father had done before he had been born.

Suddenly, Manfred did not have a whole lot of friends except for Christian. Tonight, Jost had ordered him out of the barracks and told him to keep those on sentry duty awake because he would be punished if Jost caught any of them sleeping. As Manfred kicked the side of the guard shack to awaken the Soldat inside he knew two things. The first was that he would probably be persona non grata in the Mess Hall, the other was that he had been told that the Noncommissioned Officers were playing similar games with all the Fahnenjunkers.
 
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Ah, got to love the recruits not picking up on the main point of what Jost was saying but instead focusing on the least important piece of information in it.
 
The adults of the house then sat around the table in the library talking until just before midnight. Ilse and Albrecht had come back from Silesia where they had spent the Christmas Holiday. It seemed that Albrecht was rather aghast at what his father had been up to over the last several months. “I think that old vulture has really lost the plot this time” Albrecht said to Doug when he got the chance. “He thinks that he can appoint himself the Elector of Silesia.” Kat must have overheard that, but she didn’t say anything. Doug knew that Kat had some strong opinions about the Graf, how she had once taken a promotion in the Imperial Court so that he wouldn’t interfere with her brother’s marriage. Her getting elevated to be the Fürstin of Berlin might be what was driving the Graf, but one could never tell with him. Doug knew that he had always been an extremely ambitious man and was not one to let an opportunity to advance the Richthofen family pass.
Ah, the nobility! Keeping up with the Joneses since the dawn of civilisation, if not earlier.
As they counted down to midnight, Doug thought about everything that had happened over the previous year. He figured that it had been a good one and his hope was that the coming year would go just as well. Next spring, they were planning a trip to Canada to visit Doug’s parents and sister, it would be the first trip like that since Kat had become the Fürstin of Berlin. That ought to make it interesting.
Margot has been seeing someone about her issues and there has been some improvement in her since the grand-kids showed up. Still, having to admit that the 'foreign gutter trash' who seduced her little boy is now a princess might still be a wee bit of a stretch for her.
Marie was looking at the glass in Doug’s hand curiously, so he caught Kat’s eye and she nodded with a slight smile on her lips. They had discussed this, how they needed to occasionally acknowledge that Marie was getting older. “You can have a sip” Doug stage whispered to Marie. And she was delighted right until Marie tasted it, then she had the expected sour look on her face.
I have a cousin (18 at the time) who had her first taste of champagne at a family friend's wedding reception. She wondered what all the fuss was about. It tasted just like sparkling grape juice, so she tucked into it. Then she tried to get up & walk, only to find that her legs no longer wanted to work.
Ah, got to love the recruits not picking up on the main point of what Jost was saying but instead focusing on the least important piece of information in it.
To be fair, it DID take Jost a little while to pick up on the main point too, and he learnt it DURING a shooting war... in Russia.
 
He figured that it had been a good one and his hope was that the coming year would go just as well. Next spring, they were planning a trip to Canada to visit Doug’s parents and sister, it would be the first trip like that since Kat had become the Fürstin of Berlin. That ought to make it interesting.
Oh. Oh-nooooooo.
 
Oh. Oh-nooooooo.
Yeah, if Margot(? Ben's mother) thinks she's had trouble before, technically Kat would count as a foreign dignitary now (of the City of Berlin, as opposed to just German Government), and that means everything will be out in force. Hell, if the Queen is in Canada at the time for a Commonwealth tour, I wouldn't be shocked to see them cross paths.

Either way, a "fun" time for Malcolm, who if he hasn't retired yet will be hoping anyone else would just take over this part of the show for a while...
 
There is the old saying: "The only reason some things are illegal is that the government doesn't like the competition."
This is also how royalty & the nobility got started. Again, Terry Pratchett gave the perhaps the best definition of the real, old time kings of history as being someone wearing a crown while holding an unsheathed sword and saying "I have the crown and I will kill any bastard that tries to take it from me" (or something similar).
-shrug- The nobility started by being the best asskickers around. It took hundreds of years to temper that bellicoseness into something more manageable by the rest of the society.
I always liked this painting - for me it represents the hidden killers parading under that velvet, silk and lace.
Debat-Ponsan-matin-Louvre.jpg
 
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-shrug- The nobility started by being the best asskickers around. It took hundreds of years to temper that bellicoseness into something more manageable by the rest of the society.
I always liked this painting - for me it represents the killers parading under that velvet, silk and lace.
Debat-Ponsan-matin-Louvre.jpg
Brilliant painting. It really depicts the contempt they held for their lessers, especially the ones impertinent enough to dare voice their displeasure with the state of things. If it had been painted even 100 years earlier, the artist probably would have hidden it from public view in the interests of keeping their head attached to the rest of their body.
 
Brilliant painting. It really depicts the contempt they held for their lessers, especially the ones impertinent enough to dare voice their displeasure with the state of things. If it had been painted even 100 years earlier, the artist probably would have hidden it from public view in the interests of keeping their head attached to the rest of their body.
In this case, it's the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre against the Hughenots (a branch of Protestants). Quite a few of those were nobles themselves.
 
In this case, it's the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre against the Hughenots (a branch of Protestants). Quite a few of those were nobles themselves.
Still seen as inferior, and worse; a threat to THEIR power. And as for the Hugenot nobles? Not only heretics, but class traitors for turning on their fellow Catholic majority. I mean, how DARE they translate the Holy Bible into French AND hold services in French as well? If you do that, the peasants will know that Christ was on THEIR side!!!
 
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