Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

ferdi254

Banned
One thing here though. An apprenticeship is something you do before university. Any university degree in microeconomics also includes accountancy. After university you expect to have a full job not go to an apprenticeship again. Difference in salaries today is a couple kEuro/month. Of course if you fluke in university that would be the way to go.
 
One thing here though. An apprenticeship is something you do before university. Any university degree in microeconomics also includes accountancy. After university you expect to have a full job not go to an apprenticeship again. Difference in salaries today is a couple kEuro/month. Of course if you fluke in university that would be the way to go.

Maybe what he meant was that the x years between you pass exam and receive the CA / CPA or whatever the local designation is or the internships during the degree? If i remember you had to have a accounting degree, 1 year post degree to prepare for accounting title exam and 2 year of experience before you could have the Cpa or whatever designation after.
 
Correct me if i'm wrong, but that Martin isn't the same one who was formely "Goebbels", ya know, the same surname of the guy who got the popsicle treatment courtesy of Kat's old Man, ruled a "Tragic Accident", and after it his mother changed their surname to hers to stop being linked to the dead idiot who insulted one of the highest Heroes of the German Empire?

The daughter of a Jewish Family, marrying the son of a fanatical, and dead Antisemitic......(snerk)......a fine piece of comedic irony at its finest. If i'm wrong, please ignore this.
 
Correct me if i'm wrong, but that Martin isn't the same one who was formely "Goebbels", ya know, the same surname of the guy who got the popsicle treatment courtesy of Kat's old Man, ruled a "Tragic Accident", and after it his mother changed their surname to hers to stop being linked to the dead idiot who insulted one of the highest Heroes of the German Empire?

The daughter of a Jewish Family, marrying the son of a fanatical, and dead Antisemitic......(snerk)......a fine piece of comedic irony at its finest. If i'm wrong, please ignore this.
No. Though Anne did briefly date the son of Martin Bormann IIRC.
 
Part 109, Chapter 1787
One Thousand Seven Hundred Eighty-Seven



20th February 1967

Cam Ranh, Vietnam

“I think you have lost your mind” Sigi said as she handed the document back to Louis Ferdinand across the same picnic table that the card drawing had taken place at a million years or so earlier. “This is like some Mary Shelly inspired nightmare.”

What she had been looking at had long reaching implications, not just for herself but for the vast majority of humanity as well. According to her half-brother, when the technology to identify genetic lines had become viable theoretically, he had thrown considerable resources at it. “To help people like our sister” was how he had put it, referring to Alexandrine, the sister who suffered from Down’s Syndrome who Sigi had yet to meet. The result though was definitive proof that Louis Ferdinand and Sigi had the same father in a way that went far beyond clumsy means such as blood typing. The rub was that as someone in the Raumfahrer Program, all of Sigi’s medical information was out there in the public domain, so it was inevitable that this was going to become general knowledge at some point. Louis said he was trying to get ahead of it.

“This acknowledges who you are” Louis said. The document stated that much and so much more as well. “I don’t want to have this thrust out into the public consciousness for obvious reasons. Frau Jensen, the woman who manages our family’s public affairs, thinks that you have a full enough plate already and adding your kinship to me on top of it would be unfair to you.”

“I’ve been stuck in quarantine for weeks, before and after going to the Moon” Sigi replied, “The only thing I have on my plate is exactly how horrible what I find in the icebox in my apartment will be when I get back to Rangsdorf will be.”

“You are wrong about that Sigi” Louis said, “You aren’t going to be allowed to go back to the 5th KHF, not after all that you have done. You have one of the most recognizable faces in the world. I can make a call to get your things gathered for you, to be there for wherever your next assignment happens to be.”

“Is it that easy for you?” Sigi asked, “Make a call and all your problems go away.”

Louis gave her a sad smile. “Not everything can be solved that way” He said, “The simple things, yes. The more complicated, messy things where other attempts to solve the problem have failed. With those I get to make unfortunate choices that the public might not understand if they knew.”

“Like an embarrassing illegitimate sister?”

“Don’t be melodramatic Sigi” Louis replied, “Of all our siblings you are probably the least embarrassing. The most embarrassing goes to Raphael in Rome, he’s like our father in that he just doesn’t know how to keep it in his pants. The world is a lot less forgiving of an Italian taxi driver. Your situation though, it reminds me of the fix that our cousin Gia… er, Jehane Thomas-Romanova, found herself in when Czar Georgy told the world that she had survived the Tumbler Ridge massacre.”

Sigi knew about the reclusive Grand Duchess of Russia and that was not the sort of life she wanted for herself. All she really wanted was to be back in the cockpit of an attack helicopter where life made sense. And how on Earth had they ended up with an Italian half-brother?



Mitte, Berlin

In recent years, Martin had found the silences with Anne becoming longer and longer. She had her own life and career, which consumed much of her time. Sure, Anne joked about how if you encourage your children to become writers then they will never have enough money for drugs. Still though, she sometimes got an advance for her work that was for eyewatering sums because she was becoming one of those writers who commanded public attention. Martin had realized the role that he played in their relationship, the stable and boring one, and had started to find it grating. That was especially true whenever Anne brought up the very notable people that she regularly rubbed elbows with.

“This is really good, authentic” Anne said as she sat the typewritten pages down on the table. “You only have a few chapters here, but I would love to see where it goes.”

Martin stared at the pages that he had never intended for his wife to see. The elaborate fantasy that he had concocted about stealing money from a client, the powerful and wealthy patron of the wife of the protagonist. Of course, his imaginings had swiftly turned to the reality of how he would inevitably get caught and what he might do to get out of it. Normally, he lacked the single-minded focus of his wife when she was writing a rough draft, but he had gone on for thousands of words before he had stopped because of exhaustion. It was cathartic to get that out of his system without actually going something that he knew was stupid. That was reflected in how the character kept spinning around, digging himself deeper into the mess he had created.

“You think its good?” Martin asked.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Anne said, “When you go into the market, they have racks of books about crime. People eat it up. For an author to be able to explain a convoluted subject like accounting in a way that people understand is difficult.”

“Really” Martin asked.

“Yes” Anne said, “It is especially relatable because everyone is tempted to have their hand in the till occasionally.”

“Er… yes, everyone” Martin said.
 
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Ever since the embezzlement of the Hozenhollern Trust came to light a crime novel about forensic accounting that explains how it done that is accessible to the general public would be a best seller and add to that a potential movie sale for big bucks will make Martin feel more equal in the marriage.
 
I wonder what le Carre will be writing this timeline. "not so different" will have a different impact in a world where the powers really are not that different.

We've seen Fleming, but would spy fiction be as big a genre?
 
I wonder what le Carre will be writing this timeline. "not so different" will have a different impact in a world where the powers really are not that different.

We've seen Fleming, but would spy fiction be as big a genre?
We might see the spy fiction genre go in to industrial espionage direction as there are no major power rivalries ITTL that are at the same level of intensity as it was IOTL, there will be the need of corporations to find out what their competitors are up to.
IOTL there were "unwritten rules" in the spy game that countries followed somewhat but ITTL there may not be the same amount of discretion by corporations and there is much more violence and bloodshed involved .
As a possible scenario could be two different oil companies trying to gain access to information about the same potential oil fields and the people who controls it, that could lead to things like coup attempts carried out by mercenaries hired by the oil companies.
 
I just read The Vienna Waltz of the Ring Of Fire series. I suddenly realized I was being entertained by a book dealing with fiscal policy and the creation of a national currency.
 
I just read The Vienna Waltz of the Ring Of Fire series. I suddenly realized I was being entertained by a book dealing with fiscal policy and the creation of a national currency.
That's one of the best ones honestly.

I use it as the other end of the "Ram Rebellion to Vienna Waltz" scale of Ring of Fire series
 
I wonder what le Carre will be writing this timeline. "not so different" will have a different impact in a world where the powers really are not that different.
John le Carre was mentioned by his real name, David Cornwell in TTL. He was the one who exposed German activity in North America and ended the career of Johann Schultz as well as infiltrating the OKW offices of Abwher.
 
I wonder what le Carre will be writing this timeline. "not so different" will have a different impact in a world where the powers really are not that different.

We've seen Fleming, but would spy fiction be as big a genre?
With no Soviet Union and no, (longer), Kim Philby to burn him to the Soviets, he's probably still an SIS officer, (although less welcome in Germany these days), although is probably still writing his "anti-Bond" novels.
 
Louis said, “You aren’t going to be allowed to go back to the 5th KHF, not after all that you have done.
So what does Sigi do now that she can not go back to a combat unit?
If she has the academic credentials and can go to a research institution and apply her experience in to the next generation of space missions.
IOTL Neil Armstrong went to the University of Cincinnati, Sigi would be a natural at Berlin Technical University where she can also teach at the War Academy attached to the University.
Also dump trucks full of money are going to show up for endorsement deals, book deals, and movie rights just to name a few of the possibilities.
IOTL the Apollo 11 astronauts went on an international goodwill tour and just think of Sigi in America promoting the peaceful exploration of space and the mere existence of her being a woman will make her a lighting rod over the roles that women in America are forced to stay in.
 
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