Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

ferdi254

Banned
The remark of Rea reminds me of a movie where a white guy blackfaces himself to get money to get a grant to take on study loans and of course gets detected. Anybody familiar with the name?

Amd until the 70s it HAD ACTUALLY been illegal to rent any unmarried couple a room OTL and yes those laws there had not a recent development.
 

Falkenburg

Monthly Donor
The remark of Rea reminds me of a movie where a white guy blackfaces himself to get money to get a grant to take on study loans and of course gets detected. Anybody familiar with the name?

Amd until the 70s it HAD ACTUALLY been illegal to rent any unmarried couple a room OTL and yes those laws there had not a recent development.

Soul Man (iirc) <shudders>
 
First thing; that is a damn fine wedding present Rea gave Vicky and Anne. (Also called it on the scandal sheets.)

Lets' face it, despite what the law, the people of Bavaria and society in general think, that is exactly how Vicky and Anne truly see it; as THEIR wedding. The other couple involved see it exactly the same way; their wedding. They just did what they had to in order to achieve their goal.

Second; Rea & Japik will, unfortunately, suffer some splashback over her gift to her sister. That arsehole prosecutor, who is from Bavaria remember, will certainly step up his harassment of Berlin's LGBTQA+ community out of a politically calculated sense of moral outrage to the 'insult' Rea offered to his homeland, his church and his ego. While he won't openly target Rea specifically, he sure as hell would go after her friends and if some of them get hurt in the process... well, omelettes & eggs you know? And he wouldn't be too sad (privately, at least) if Rea was caught up, or even hurt herself, in one of his harassment raids, after all it's not his fault if the bully boys he sent in didn't recognise the Princess and why was she in a den of deviant perverts anyway?

Third; the Moondogs are about to go down in history as the Fathers of Punk & Heavy Metal, and as the spiritual force behind the protest movements that are going to explode around the world. ITTL, I'd say the punk rockers will definitely have flowers in their hair.

Fourth; Kiki is probably the only person in the entire world who doesn't realise that she IS Ben's intended and vice versa. The only people who are perhaps more clueless regarding the status of their own relationship are Zella & Louis Jr.
 
First thing; that is a damn fine wedding present Rea gave Vicky and Anne. (Also called it on the scandal sheets.)

Agreed. She's a good sister, even if she'd strenuously deny it :p

And yeah - with how people are initially going to be focusing on Rea, and then how the scandal papers are going to be shown up as woefully inaccurate leading to them going 'Let's...not ever be hasty in publishing stories about the royals without actual fact-checking'...the only way the average German in general and Bavarian in particular would guess about Anne and Vicky would be a literal photograph of them doing the deed, and even then it'd be debatable XD

Lets' face it, despite what the law, the people of Bavaria and society in general think, that is exactly how Vicky and Anne truly see it; as THEIR wedding. The other couple involved see it exactly the same way; their wedding. They just did what they had to in order to achieve their goal.

That's a great way of looking at it. It's not perfect, and they shouldn't have to settle for it, but...they have the potential for a happy life, at least. And then, when they're older, greyer and Vicky's kid is on the throne...candid autobiography time!

EDIT: I wonder... Gia was plotting to in her old age write a candid autobiography including her romance with Asia...

...could they time these for a double-barrel...

Second; Rea & Japik will, unfortunately, suffer some splashback over her gift to her sister. That arsehole prosecutor, who is from Bavaria remember, will certainly step up his harassment of Berlin's LGBTQA+ community out of a politically calculated sense of moral outrage to the 'insult' Rea offered to his homeland, his church and his ego. While he won't openly target Rea specifically, he sure as hell would go after her friends and if some of them get hurt in the process... well, omelettes & eggs you know? And he wouldn't be too sad (privately, at least) if Rea was caught up, or even hurt herself, in one of his harassment raids, after all it's not his fault if the bully boys he sent in didn't recognise the Princess and why was she in a den of deviant perverts anyway?

This is possible, alas. As you say, Rea being a Princess (plus a woman - being a suspected or actual lesbian isn't in and of itself illegal unlike being a male homosexual/bisexual, because archaic laws gonna archaic :p ) would shield her from direct nastiness, but he might well try catching her in the splashier. Buuuut...

He does that and he will get another visit from Kat

Oh no. No, if Rea got hurt, Kat wouldn't have any direct involvement, and she'd be seen dining with respectable burghers when it happened. No. Said prosecutor would find himself waylaid by some rather large gentlemen, persuaded to try a pair of nice new shoes - cement, you know, very fashionable - then be invited to test their waterproof nature in the Havel.

Third; the Moondogs are about to go down in history as the Fathers of Punk & Heavy Metal, and as the spiritual force behind the protest movements that are going to explode around the world. ITTL, I'd say the punk rockers will definitely have flowers in their hair.

Oh, the 70s are gonna be fun...

Fourth; Kiki is probably the only person in the entire world who doesn't realise that she IS Ben's intended and vice versa. The only people who are perhaps more clueless regarding the status of their own relationship are Zella & Louis Jr.

Yeah, pretty much... These two are even more oblivious at times than Supergirl and Lena Luthor XD
 
Oh no. No, if Rea got hurt, Kat wouldn't have any direct involvement, and she'd be seen dining with respectable burghers when it happened. No. Said prosecutor would find himself waylaid by some rather large gentlemen, persuaded to try a pair of nice new shoes - cement, you know, very fashionable - then be invited to test their waterproof nature in the Havel.

Don't forget the custom-made chicken wire suit (including hood), vitally important to allow the wearer the full aquatic experience without losing any 'personal items' that the wearer might be closely attached too.
 
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He does that and he will get another visit from Kat
Only of Kat can show he acted outside of the law.
If so, his next appointment will be with the unemployment office.
Given the nature of bullies like this, there are two possible outcomes: 1) he gets high on his sense of invulnerability, (protection of his, from the law), and goes too far, landing him in hot water, or 2) It turns out he's standing next to Aslan.
Then there's option 3 - options 1 & 2 combined.
 
FJS will sooner or later get caught with his hands in the cookie jar and unlike IOTL that will be found out and punished, of course Kat &Co. could put temptation in his way if they want to speed things along.

Kira if she was still alive would have been ecstatic over the marriage of Franz and Victoria especially if she knew about their “Unnatural Desires” as she was more interested in the political ramifications of the potential mates for her daughters then the actual happiness of the marriages themselves after all are not daughters just necessarily to bare heirs to the throne.
 
FJS will sooner or later get caught with his hands in the cookie jar and unlike IOTL that will be found out and punished, of course Kat &Co. could put temptation in his way if they want to speed things along.

Always a good tactic, as long as there's plausible deniability :p

Kira if she was still alive would have been ecstatic over the marriage of Franz and Victoria especially if she knew about their “Unnatural Desires” as she was more interested in the political ramifications of the potential mates for her daughters then the actual happiness of the marriages themselves after all are not daughters just necessarily to bare heirs to the throne.

I dunno...on the one hand, she'd have been happy re the marriage's political ramifications, but on the other hand the fact that both Franz and Victoria intend to continue indulging their 'Unnatural Desires' as much and often as possible with the people they're genuinely in relationships with would probably be something she couldn't bear.
 

ferdi254

Banned
Not that I am a fan of FJS but ITTL he is not that important. So most likely has not grown the ego he developed OTL. Remember, no CSU there will still be the Zentrum around. Also yes, bribing him might help some people but he does not decide about billions of DM to be spend on Starfallers ehem fighters.
 
I'd have thought Zentrum becoming the CSU was a given in time?

Basically as sectarian ground gave way in the face of policy support?
 

ferdi254

Banned
The Zentrum was the Party of the Catholics, the very devout ones. The CDU/CSU was an answer to the political fragmentation of the right wing in Weimar to get if not all but the most voters of the middle and the slightly right to unite and create stable democratic governments. (Volkspartei which forced the SPD to change from the working class party to one as well)

Without a Weimar and without a Hitler no need for any such parties and so the Zentrum might easily have stayed.
 
Not that I am a fan of FJS but ITTL he is not that important. So most likely has not grown the ego he developed OTL. Remember, no CSU there will still be the Zentrum around. Also yes, bribing him might help some people but he does not decide about billions of DM to be spend on Starfallers ehem fighters.
Peabody-Martini has stated for the most part that the real life people will act in a way that is consistent ITTL with the way that they did IOTL but in a different manner or place,
So for Franz Josef Strauss being corrupt ITTL is very much likely but on a much smaller scale then IOTL, plus we who follow this timeline has shown quite a bit of enthusiasm for Schadenfreude much to the chagrin of the Author.
 
Part 112, Chapter 1845
Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Forty-Five



3rd May 1968

Munich, Bavaria

“I don’t care what excuses you have. I will shoot anyone without a legitimate excuse to be in here if they are not out of my sight in one minute” Kiki said flatly.

Anyone who knew Kiki understood that she wasn’t bluffing this time, and just how likely it was that she had a gun. Which resulted in a mass exodus for the door. Only King Albrecht stood there for a few seconds before giving her a tight smile.

“Your loyalty to your sister is admirable but I think that you are painting yourself into a corner Kristina” Albrecht said, “You might want to familiarize yourself with the legacy of Anton Chekhov.”

With that Albrecht left the room and Vicky let out a breath that she didn’t realize she was holding. This was all a personal matter that entirely too many people knew about and in a horrifying twist, were curious. The last two weeks had been awful and once again wished she could be half as assertive as her older sisters. She had been subjected to extensive medical testing and a series of injections that would facilitate the process. She had been on an emotional rollercoaster as a result. The pretense that they had put out for public consumption was that their presence in the clinic was due to the lingering effects of a wound that Franz had sustained in Korea causing them difficulties. That wasn’t entirely untrue, Franz had led a Bavarian Army Company in Korea and he had been wounded in action. That was enough to keep anyone from asking too many questions.

She had asked three people to stay in the room for this. Kiki, because she understood the medical terminology and could be trusted to always look out for Vicky’s personal interests. Anna was present as Vicky’s Courtly appointed friend and companion, what she jokingly called their Boston marriage in private. Franz was here of course, because of the role that he was in fact playing and more importantly to keep up appearances. He had been there holding her hand through the entire process and being a wonderful, supportive friend. The Doctor who was conducting this procedure was one of the foremost experts in the field. If he knew something was up, he was keeping quiet about it and regardless of that, he was being paid very handsomely for his discretion.

With a bit of trepidation Vicky got on the table and was staring at the ceiling as she tried to ignore just what was happening. She could hear Kiki and the Doctor talking in purely technical terms and couldn’t understand much of it. Kiki mentioned being present a month earlier for the birth of their niece, Alexandrine Nagako, Freddy and Suga’s newest daughter. It occurred to Vicky that how she was going about this was coldly clinical and impersonal, absurdly different from how her brother and sister-in-law went about things.

“You might feel a bit of discomfort but try to hold still, Ma’am” The Doctor said, and Vicky tried not think too much about how that was inevitably an understatement. She felt something cold…

“Try not to think too much about it” Franz said, he and Anna were smiling at her as she tried to focus on them as opposed to what was going on.

“That is all” The Doctor said after a few minutes, much to Vicky’s relief. “We will know more in a few weeks, won’t we.”

That was when the full implications of what was ahead hit Vicky.



4th May 1968

Tempelhof, Berlin

The scratching noise from the window of her bedroom scared Sophie when she had woken up to it. Then she saw movement in the darkness, followed by more noise and two glowing amber eyes. Fear left her paralyzed for an extremely long time, what felt like an eternity. Then it passed when Sophie realized that whatever was sitting outside the window wasn’t making any aggressive moves. Looking closer the silhouette of a familiar figure resolved itself, she saw two pointy ears perk up and additional scratching. Getting out of her bed, Sophie opened the window and the room filled with cool night air that smelled of spring, damp earth, blossoms, and growing things. It was still incredibly early, and the sleeping neighborhood was totally silent. Cheshire, Marie Alexandra’s tabby cat dropped through the window into the bedroom. Sophie had no idea how he had gotten so high up the side of the house to reach her window, or why he had picked her window. She was about to open the door to let him into the house when Cheshire jumped up on her bed and mewed at her.

“You aren’t supposed to be in here” Sophie said to the cat as she sat down on her bed. “You are supposed to be with Marie.”

Cheshire didn’t care, he started rubbing his face on Sophie’s hand and purring loudly. Doug had told Sophie that the cat had seldom been put down by Marie or Tatiana since he had been a kitten and tended to enjoy the company of his people. Serhiy, the Cook, had made a comment about how losing his balls had left Cheshire with little else to focus on. Sophie had asked Doug what that meant, and he had shot the Cook a dirty look.

Sophie gave in and scratched Cheshire behind the ear like she knew he enjoyed. Eventually, she fell asleep with the cat in her arms.
 
Poor Vicky - not a pleasant experience at all. At least she's got support from her sister, the woman she loves and a guy who's become a supportive friend.

Here's hoping it takes first time - if that's the case then that's it. 'Heir and spare' isn't necessary anymore given there isn't a literal attrition rate among infants. And if she's infertile, then...well, they tried, too bad Albrecht.

Nice to see Sophie settling in.
 
The remark of Rea reminds me of a movie where a white guy blackfaces himself to get money to get a grant to take on study loans and of course gets detected. Anybody familiar with the name?

It happened in 1959 - a White dude colored his skin, lived as Black man for 6 weeks, wrote first a series of articles then a book about it. "Black Like Me."
"Griffin was a native of Mansfield, Texas, who had his skin temporarily darkened to pass as a black man. He traveled for six weeks throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia to explore life from the other side of the color line. Sepia Magazine financed the project in exchange for the right to print the account first as a series of articles. " - From Wikipedia

One of the first books I read on racial equality (or rather inequality) and I found it deeply impacatful. It is almost certainly still worth reading now - it really exposes what is now called "White Priveledge," but back then "it just was." The movie OTSN came out in '64.

<<Blurb>>

“One of the deepest, most penetrating documents yet set down on the racial question.”—Atlanta Journal & Constitution

In the Deep South of the 1950’s, a color line was etched in blood across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Journalist John Howard Griffin decided to cross that line. Using medication that darkened his skin to deep brown, he exchanged his privileged life as a Southern white man for the disenfranchised world of an unemployed black man.

What happened to John Howard Griffin—from the outside and within himself—as he made his way through the segregated Deep South is recorded in this searing work of nonfiction. His audacious, still chillingly relevant eyewitness history is a work about race and humanity every American must read.

<</Blurb>>

 
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