Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
Congrats, P-M, Kiki won the Turtledove for Best Character!
(By a huge margin, as well!)
(By a huge margin, as well!)
And that is another honor that Kiki feels that she doesn't deserves.
Congratulations PM with winning the Turtledove for best character! I couldn't agree more. Looking forward to many more chapters! Especially the up and coming chapters with Ben staying in the castle.
Keep up the great work.
Keep up the great work.
Kat won it too, they can have a gripe session together about it.
That's one. Then another where you have to cover a set distance, and shoot certain targets. Stopping optional. Mechanized biathlon...
Chapter One Thousand Six Hundred Eighty-Nine
30th July 1965
Mitte, Berlin
It was hardly a surprise that Helene was livid. The problem was that she was not exactly sure who was to blame. It was understood that her father had pushed her son in that direction for years, but it was hardly a surprise that the he was completely unapologetic. As far as the Graf was concerned, his grandson was exactly where he needed to be. Manny himself had said that it was for Ina that he had made the choice that he had without elaborating on what that meant. Helene could hardly get angry with her daughter. Ina would just wilt if confronted directly and Helene understood that Manny had this weird idea that he was somehow protecting his sister. Then there was Gerta. How could she be completely unaware of what Manny and Suse had been up to? Gerta’s response was typically flip “Would you have preferred it if they had been fucking?” was what she had asked in reply and Helene had stood there in stunned silence. Most sane parents seldom had a problem with their children pursuing better academic scores, just as it had turned out Helene had discovered that there was an exception to that.
For Hans, finding out the key role that his Aunt Marcella had played had been particularly troubling. “He isn’t ready to go to University” Aunt Marcella had said, “I only talked to him about his girlfriend and that was the conclusion he reached?” Hans knew how his Aunt really worked. Thirty years earlier she had played a similar role, telling him that his lack of a future in the neighborhood gave him few choices. The truth had been that the goal had been to send Hans as far away as possible before he fell under his father’s influence. Hans learned years later that everyone, but most especially Kat, would pay heavy price for that decision.
However, Helene knew that Hans had gone to great lengths to keep Manny from this course of action, even going so far as to making the recruitment standards were raised ostensibly to exclude him. So that meant that he was one of the few people she wasn’t angry with. Still, they had gotten into a huge row about exactly what they should do now. Helene wanted him to do something to get Manny back home that instant and Hans had tried to explain that there wasn’t a whole lot that even he could do without doing damage to his son.
He had been on the phone with the CO in Heuberg and what he had heard had been exactly what he knew would be expected. The Drill Instructors had glommed onto Manny being a General’s son as well as the formal name and title of “Freiherr Manfred von Mischner.” In the thinking of men like that it became the automatic assumption that Manny was a goldbricker and they had landed on him with both feet. Hans knew exactly how that worked, the Instructors really wanted to see what Manny really was and because of his connection to Hans the standards he was expected to meet were far higher than those of an ordinary recruit. According to the Commanding Officer of Training Depot, Manny was doing well despite all of that. He was expected to complete basic on schedule and go on to advanced training in Wunsdorf. One of the three Dragoon Regiments that made up the backbone of the 4th Panzer Division would have him most likely as a Platoon Leader. That meant that Manny would be on the sharp end for the duration of his career.
Hans knew that he would never get a day of day of peace if Manny did that. Beyond his own worries as a father, he had Helene to consider. Picking up the phone, Hans made a call to Stefan, who still commanded the Administrative Services of the 4th Division and he would know just what slots were available for someone like Manny away from the front lines, the Quartermaster or Signals Battalion for example. As Hans considered it, it was the perfect solution. Manny would get this out of his system and would return to University after a couple years of counting beans or relaying messages in headquarters. Helene would probably take some convincing, but so long as Manny didn’t get seriously hurt, she would be fine.
Potsdam
There were a few things that Louis Ferdinand Junior was having to get used to again. Trees or sleeping in a room larger than a phonebooth that he didn’t have to share, but most of all the most jarring thing was his own family after being gone for so long. His father looked older and the years spent as Emperor were clearly weighing on him. Freddy and Suga had a daughter. Michael spent most of his time in Prague. Kiki was her usual self and told him that she was looking forward to completing Medical School next year. Ria and Vicky were still not getting along though Vicky was trying to fix things. Nella was radically different, the better part of two years was an eternity for a child.
It had not been until he had taken to time to think about it that Louis had realized that his life had come to a standstill while he had been in Antarctica. Everyone else had progressed in various ways. Presently he was enjoying the leave that had built up while he had been on duty for months on end and backpay that he had nothing really to spend on. Louis was completely at loose ends and he was starting to understand why Kiki had bought a boat when she had gotten back from Korea.
30th July 1965
Mitte, Berlin
It was hardly a surprise that Helene was livid. The problem was that she was not exactly sure who was to blame. It was understood that her father had pushed her son in that direction for years, but it was hardly a surprise that the he was completely unapologetic. As far as the Graf was concerned, his grandson was exactly where he needed to be. Manny himself had said that it was for Ina that he had made the choice that he had without elaborating on what that meant. Helene could hardly get angry with her daughter. Ina would just wilt if confronted directly and Helene understood that Manny had this weird idea that he was somehow protecting his sister. Then there was Gerta. How could she be completely unaware of what Manny and Suse had been up to? Gerta’s response was typically flip “Would you have preferred it if they had been fucking?” was what she had asked in reply and Helene had stood there in stunned silence. Most sane parents seldom had a problem with their children pursuing better academic scores, just as it had turned out Helene had discovered that there was an exception to that.
For Hans, finding out the key role that his Aunt Marcella had played had been particularly troubling. “He isn’t ready to go to University” Aunt Marcella had said, “I only talked to him about his girlfriend and that was the conclusion he reached?” Hans knew how his Aunt really worked. Thirty years earlier she had played a similar role, telling him that his lack of a future in the neighborhood gave him few choices. The truth had been that the goal had been to send Hans as far away as possible before he fell under his father’s influence. Hans learned years later that everyone, but most especially Kat, would pay heavy price for that decision.
However, Helene knew that Hans had gone to great lengths to keep Manny from this course of action, even going so far as to making the recruitment standards were raised ostensibly to exclude him. So that meant that he was one of the few people she wasn’t angry with. Still, they had gotten into a huge row about exactly what they should do now. Helene wanted him to do something to get Manny back home that instant and Hans had tried to explain that there wasn’t a whole lot that even he could do without doing damage to his son.
He had been on the phone with the CO in Heuberg and what he had heard had been exactly what he knew would be expected. The Drill Instructors had glommed onto Manny being a General’s son as well as the formal name and title of “Freiherr Manfred von Mischner.” In the thinking of men like that it became the automatic assumption that Manny was a goldbricker and they had landed on him with both feet. Hans knew exactly how that worked, the Instructors really wanted to see what Manny really was and because of his connection to Hans the standards he was expected to meet were far higher than those of an ordinary recruit. According to the Commanding Officer of Training Depot, Manny was doing well despite all of that. He was expected to complete basic on schedule and go on to advanced training in Wunsdorf. One of the three Dragoon Regiments that made up the backbone of the 4th Panzer Division would have him most likely as a Platoon Leader. That meant that Manny would be on the sharp end for the duration of his career.
Hans knew that he would never get a day of day of peace if Manny did that. Beyond his own worries as a father, he had Helene to consider. Picking up the phone, Hans made a call to Stefan, who still commanded the Administrative Services of the 4th Division and he would know just what slots were available for someone like Manny away from the front lines, the Quartermaster or Signals Battalion for example. As Hans considered it, it was the perfect solution. Manny would get this out of his system and would return to University after a couple years of counting beans or relaying messages in headquarters. Helene would probably take some convincing, but so long as Manny didn’t get seriously hurt, she would be fine.
Potsdam
There were a few things that Louis Ferdinand Junior was having to get used to again. Trees or sleeping in a room larger than a phonebooth that he didn’t have to share, but most of all the most jarring thing was his own family after being gone for so long. His father looked older and the years spent as Emperor were clearly weighing on him. Freddy and Suga had a daughter. Michael spent most of his time in Prague. Kiki was her usual self and told him that she was looking forward to completing Medical School next year. Ria and Vicky were still not getting along though Vicky was trying to fix things. Nella was radically different, the better part of two years was an eternity for a child.
It had not been until he had taken to time to think about it that Louis had realized that his life had come to a standstill while he had been in Antarctica. Everyone else had progressed in various ways. Presently he was enjoying the leave that had built up while he had been on duty for months on end and backpay that he had nothing really to spend on. Louis was completely at loose ends and he was starting to understand why Kiki had bought a boat when she had gotten back from Korea.
Last edited:
Why do I get the feeling that if Manfred jr. is sent to the signal battalion, that he’ll get involved in something big and end up making even further into action then if he had just been a regular dragoon?
The other side of things, Lous Junior will be an interesting story to follow, a young soldier with plenty of money and nothing better to do Is often a recipe for a disaster of varying paths. Been awhile since the royal family has had a scandal involving something nobles believing should happen only after marriage, but alas that is for the author to worry about and us to find out.
The other side of things, Lous Junior will be an interesting story to follow, a young soldier with plenty of money and nothing better to do Is often a recipe for a disaster of varying paths. Been awhile since the royal family has had a scandal involving something nobles believing should happen only after marriage, but alas that is for the author to worry about and us to find out.
The title of the story should not be taken lightly.
Shits going to go down and he will be in the middle of itt.
All of a sudden, I see Louis Jr. deciding to buy a motorcycle and go adventuring while on leave. For tips, he picks up a book about an around-the-world trip by motorbike & realises that he knows the author personally. He then impulsively decides to visit Zella & the rest is history...
Now where did Ian go/ Or rather what exactly did Kat do with him?
Even in signals, supply or the AG’s in the Rangers for example, you have to qualify just like anyone else. You still have to volunteer for the rangers just like an ordinary infantryman.
As in OTL, drinking heavily and smoking like a chimney have predictable results. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6997/ian-fleming