Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

Wow I never heard of When the Wind Blows until this discussion, and I just looked it up on Wikipedia, pure nightmare fuel of a movie.

Nightmare fuel and misery rolled into one...

Also we must remember that the early Disney animated movies had very dark and scary moments too at a time when there was no such thing as "kiddie movies".

Heck, not just Disney. My grandfather told me when he was a kid in the late 40s/early 50s, most of the live-action pictures that got shown to families wouldn’t have been considered suitable for kids now - plenty of violence of various kinds.

Of course, kids being kids, he said that himself and his friends had liked it that way :p

But yeah... IIRC, theatres didn’t really take age ratings etc. seriously until Night of the Living Dead.
 
Part 112, Chapter 1848
Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Forty-Eight



25th May 1968

Lindau

When Kiki arrived at the hotel where the Royal entourage was taking an extended holiday on the island that was situated near Austrian border, she found Anna in the hotel lounge having an animated conversation with Princess Alberta “Birdie” Charlotte of England. At the same time, Vicky may have been present physically but she looked like she was barely able to stay awake.

The British Princess was studying Environmental Science at the Royal University of Breslau. She had accepted Vicky’s invitation to visit her here a couple weeks earlier, which was before Vicky’s latest crisis. It was the same crisis that had prompted Kiki to travel by train overnight, with an extended layover in Munich, to get here this morning. Birdie had always been a dear friend of Vicky’s and she had been hoping to get some advice on how to win over Vicky and Kiki’s brother Michael, who she had been crushing on for years. Kiki understood what the problem was. Michael still saw Birdie as the nine-year-old girl he had first met years earlier as opposed to the young woman she had grown into, albeit a somewhat socially awkward young woman who wasn’t exactly conventionally attractive. It was something that Birdie more than made up for with her intelligence and wit, though she remained rather naïve about the real nature of Vicky and Anna’s relationship. There was also the aspect of the people of Bohemia loving her when she came to visit that further complicated matters.

“Not adding much to the conversation, Sleepy?” Kiki asked Vicky as she sat down on the couch beside her younger sister.

Vicky turned her head and stared at Kiki for a few seconds before hugging her. “You came?” She asked, whispering into Kiki’s ear.

“Why wouldn’t I” Kiki said, “I agreed to help you.”

Weeks earlier, Kiki had an in-depth conversation with the expert that Franz and Vicky had been seeing and he had explained the entire process to her. After a series of examinations, he had determined just how receptive Vicky would be and the best technique to use. While Kiki had no interest in that particular specialty, she had observed as the Doctor had shown her the process in the lab where sperm from Franz were processed in preparation for later when they were injected into Vicky’s uterus. It was all experimental, having only been attempted on humans a handful of times. The Doctor had said that the hormone injections that had been given to Vicky would make her body particularly receptive while she was ovulating. Now, a few weeks later upon Vicky realizing that she was likely pregnant and had called Kiki for help, though exactly what she expected Kiki to do wasn’t exactly clear.

“Where is Franz?” Kiki asked, “He probably ought to know, even if confirmation won’t be until we can arrange it.”

“He went with some friends to go to Konstanz, something about a casino they wanted to see” Vicky replied, “He won’t be back until tomorrow.”

Despite the need to keep up appearances, Franz and Vicky led separate lives. That complicated moments like these.

“What’s going on?” Birdie asked.

“Vicky thinks she might be pregnant” Kiki replied.

The look on Birdie’s face instantly became one of pure joy. “You and Franz will be the most wonderful parents, filling your child’s life with art and music” She said, “Not like Franz’s stuffy father, he might as well have grown up in the Army.”

Considering just how sheltered she was, there were times when Birdie was amazingly perceptive. Even if she failed to reach the right conclusions most of the time.



Warsaw, Poland

At least it was now springtime.

Bogdan Gajos figured it would probably be a nice day if he were in a position to enjoy it. Instead, he was standing sentry next to a railroad track on the edge of Warsaw as the Government endlessly debated their next course of action. Rumor had it that the Emperor had told them to fix this mess or else he would, and they would not like how that played out.

Bogdan’s father had once said that Government was something that you had to pay attention to, otherwise it would happen to you. That had been during one of his more sober moments. For years, Bogdan’s father had been working towards the somewhat dubious distinction of going from Hetman to Village Drunk. He had been well on his way there when Bogdan had run off to join the Army. Bogdan had not been home in the two years since then, mostly because there wasn’t much to go back to in a flyspeck farming village near the border with Lithuania.

The reason why Bogdan was presently guarding a stretch of railroad track was because of rumors that the rebels in Lesser Poland were going to come north and sabotage the railway infrastructure. It was sort of absurd because the rebels seemed to have no interest in operating outside their own turf and they were just as dependent on the railway as the Polish Army. The real problem as Bogdan saw was that the High Command lacked imagination. Why sabotage the tracks when you could use them? And why build a bomb when what was loaded in boxcars and especially in tanker cars would be more than adequate.

Highjack the train, set the throttles, and jump off. It would be in the heart of Warsaw before it jumped the track, and no one could stop it. So far, no one had thought of that except Bogdan. He didn’t know if he should be disappointed or relieved.
 
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The look on Birdie’s face instantly became one of pure joy. “You and Franz will be the most wonderful parents, filling your child’s life with art and music” She said, “Not like Franz’s stuffy father, he might as well have grown up in the Army.”

Considering just how sheltered she was, there were times when Birdie was amazingly perceptive. Even if she failed to reach the right conclusions most of the time.

XD XD XD

She’s not wrong though - I can see them being fairly awesome parents.
 

Monitor

Donor
Highjack the train, set the throttles, and jump off. It would be in the heart of Warsaw before it jumped the track, and no one could stop it. So far, no one had thought of that except Bogdan. He didn’t if he should be disappointed or relieved.
This sounds suspiciously like foreshadowing. Let’s see for what... (it might be for use in the other direction (I.e. an attempt at discrediting the rebels))
 
Somehow I think that if Vicky asked Franz to be there for her he would have dropped what he was doing and go to her, after all it is his child too.

We just need to think of a way for Michael to see Birdie as the young women she is instead of the nine year old girl that she was.

I don't think that with Ollie in command of the Galician Liberation Army that he would go for an attack on non military targets or any targets that that may result in an inordinate number of civilian casualties.
 
I agree that Ollie isn't likely to use a rolling bomb such as packing a freight train full of ANFO. (Which would help with the subterfuge, as it can easily be disguised as a simple load of fertilizer).

On the other hand putting machine guns, mortars and howitzers on flat stock together with some sheet metal and sandbags to create an improvised armoured train is something they just might do.
 
I like Birdie and I can definitely understand her wanting to study Environmental Science considering that air pollution shortened her grandfather's life. She might even be more effective in promoting environmental causes than her OTL counterpart. As for Michael, when it comes to intimate personal relationships, he is almost as bad as Kiki used be. He does recognize that Birdie has feelings for him; he just has no idea how to deal with them or even if he reciprocates them. He does like her after all. (Un)fortunately for Michael, she has set her sights on him and his entire kingdom has collectively decided to back Birdie in her campaign to woo him.

As for Vicky, I suspect the hardest part will be keeping Albrecht & his Court at arms length during and afterwards. Both Vicky and Anne will make fantastic parents with Franz & (?) being the doting co-parents, even if the rest of the world thinks Anne & (?) are just godparents.

As for Bogdan Gajos, I like him, he has the same twisted thought processes as myself; the sort where it just runs down all sorts of possible scenarios, both good and bad.
 
As for Bogdan Gajos, I like him, he has the same twisted thought processes as myself; the sort where it just runs down all sorts of possible scenarios, both good and bad.

Given this thought process, he could go one of three ways:
1) Criminal or terrorist - out thinking the authorities isn't that difficult.
2) Detective/Investigator type - out thinking the authorities isn't that difficult, neither is out thinking criminals.
3) Writer - the problem with an over active mind is that you come up with all these ideas then somehow have to work them into a plot, which Bogdan seems capable of.

There is a fourth option - nothing, the world carries on around Bogdan regardless, but what sort of feind would write that into a plot? x'D
 
Given this thought process, he could go one of three ways:
1) Criminal or terrorist - out thinking the authorities isn't that difficult.
2) Detective/Investigator type - out thinking the authorities isn't that difficult, neither is out thinking criminals.
3) Writer - the problem with an over active mind is that you come up with all these ideas then somehow have to work them into a plot, which Bogdan seems capable of.

There is a fourth option - nothing, the world carries on around Bogdan regardless, but what sort of feind would write that into a plot? x'D
He's in the military, with how his mind works something like opposition planning would be right up his alley. He has the "What would I do, and what is the worst I could do, if I was the enemy?" way of thinking.
 
Given this thought process, he could go one of three ways:
What ever he turns out to be this definitely won’t be the last we hear of him, as it definitely felt like as introduction of a new character.

Speaking of new characters Kiki is in her what late twenties now if we follow the established pattern Emil - Kat - Kiki we should be getting a new major POV soon for the new generation.
 
With all the trouble in Poland I am amazed that Karol Wojtyla has not turned up in a chapter yet.

He‘s been and gone. As I recall, he served with Hans v. Mischner, Jost Schulz and the rest of the squad into the advance/retreat through Poland to Russia and back again. One of those men who seemed to get the best of every deal as I recall and squirrelled away the money for safe keeping with his wife, Glinka.
 
He‘s been and gone. As I recall, he served with Hans v. Mischner, Jost Schulz and the rest of the squad into the advance/retreat through Poland to Russia and back again. One of those men who seemed to get the best of every deal as I recall and squirrelled away the money for safe keeping with his wife, Glinka.
With all the trouble in Poland I am amazed that Karol Wojtyla has not turned up in a chapter yet.
No I remember that. Hell I commented on that a long time ago.

Fact of the matter is though he had some black-marketeering stuff going on an a bit of backdoor information networking going on, so I figure he should appear again.
 
For the Polish Nationalists they don’t realize that they have already lost and the only way they can get anything out of this mess is to settle it peacefully.
Right now the Galician separatists are content to go in a defensive posture and they are most likely training new members for the GLA, the civilian leadership of the Galician separatists should be reaching out to other members of the German Empire like Bohemia, Slovakia, and the Baltic States to put pressure on the German government to intervene on their side of this situation.
 
And then Rea hooks up with a boyfriend (or two), DOESN'T get married, and has triplets. Conservative minds get stuck in the dissonance feedback loop of:

"But she's gay, but she's got kids and a boyfriend, but she's gay, but she's got kids and a boyfriend, but she's..."
Oh gods yes, please please please show some of this.
We just need to think of a way for Michael to see Birdie as the young women she is instead of the nine year old girl that she was.
Would anyone in-story be okay with some kind of basic seduction moves? Nothing that would go the whole way, just enough to arouse his interest, so to speak.
I don't think that with Ollie in command of the Galician Liberation Army that he would go for an attack on non military targets or any targets that that may result in an inordinate number of civilian casualties.
Having a competent ex-Panzer driver in command instead of some unknown blowhards should at least keep tensions within an acceptable range.

Marc A
 
Part 112, Chapter 1849
Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Forty-Nine



3rd June 1968

Tempelhof, Berlin

Kat was supposed to be working, instead she was fretting over the latest wrinkle with Sophie after she had met with her Teacher earlier that afternoon.

Getting called in to meet with one of her children’s teachers was not a new experience for Kat. Normally, it was because of a childish prank, speaking out of turn, or one of a thousand other things that children do. There had been some issues with Tatiana being the “popular girl” or Marie Alexandra getting teased at times for her wild flights of fancy and odd way she had dressed until she had started attending a school that enforced a dress code. Now, Kat was having to contend with Sophie, whose problems were of an entirely different nature.

“Sophie is a good student” The Teacher had said, “The problem is that she keeps having these emotional episodes.”

That was it in a nutshell. While Sophie wasn’t intending to disrupt the class, whenever something upset her, she would huddle behind her desk and silently weep. Not only was the Teacher at a complete loss, but some of the other students had made sport of making Sophie cry because they thought it was funny. Kat had not needed the Teacher to tell her how that was a dangerous game. While Sophie tended to direct things inward, she could lash out in rage if she were pushed a little too far. It was something that Kat understood all too well.

The difference was that where she had always fought back by whatever means she had. Sophie tended to just accept things though. Kat understood why Sophie was like this, her Mother had spent years beating the idea that she was absolutely worthless into her head and it was going to be extremely difficult to teach her otherwise. That was also why Kat was reluctant to tell Sophie that her mother was unwilling to do even the most basic things required to get her back. The last thing that Sophie needed was to learn that she had been completely abandoned by the one person who should have cared about her the most.

The situation with Sophie’s father was even worse. After his release from prison, he had been cashiered from the Heer and left mostly unemployable. It was unknown where he had gotten the money from to do it, but Kat’s Investigators had discovered that relocated to Wisconsin in the United States where no one would be able to easily find out about his past and was living under an assumed name. Kat could have changed all of that with a single phone call, letting the U.S. State Department and Immigration & Naturalization Service know exactly who he was. A man who had been convicted of numerous crimes, of which Assault and Gross Indecency against the Princess Royal of Germany were not even the worst. However, Kat didn’t do that because she figured that the best thing for Sophie would be Reiner Blum remaining on the far side of the Atlantic forever.

Still, Kat had arranged for Germany’s own Foreign Service to be notified that in the highly likely event that the Americans booted Blum out of their country, he was to be considered persona non grata German Empire. They were not to accept his repatriation without first gaining approval of the appropriate Government Ministries. The people in question tended to move at a glacial pace anyway, Kat figured that one look at Blum’s record would cause the entire process to grind to a halt. In the meantime, Blum would languish in whatever hole the Americans stuck him in.

Where did that leave Sophie though?

It was a question that had troubled Kat for months. She had realized that the situation was similar to what she had dealt with in the past, except she was on the other side of the equation this time. Kat was starting to understand some of the things that Aunt Marcella had said and done when she had been at her worst in her early teens. Anything to have gotten Kat out of the tight little bubble she had enclosed herself in. Who knew how long that would have persisted if she hadn’t met Helene by accident?

Like Kat had been, it was clear that Sophie was not completely hopeless by any means. Kat had noticed that she had bonded with Cheshire, one of the household pets. Originally the brown and black tabby had been inseparable from Marie, but as Kat’s daughter had gotten older her interests had started to shift. Beyond her past need to play at dressing up as her literary heroes, Marie had realized that the same talent could be used to make her appear how she wanted at any given moment. The results had been somewhat comical at times, but it was clear the direction she was headed in. Kat also was aware that Marie was becoming aware that boys existed other than the frivolous games she occasionally got her cousins to grudgingly play along with. The result was that she had been mostly ignoring Cheshire and the cat had decided that Sophie giving him loads of attention was far more to his liking.

Perhaps like Kat years earlier, Sophie needed a human friend to help pull her out of the protective space she had built around her.
 
Sophie's life experience's prior to being rescued do not exactly parallel Kat's. Kat always had a loving family around her and the most destructive episode happened when she was twelve. Sophie's destructive life episode started at birth (if not earlier) and continued up until social services finally swooped in and rescued her, primarily because extremely high level attention had been brought to bear. Kat would do well to remember how she rescued and gave purpose to the Sisterhood, as those girls, including her own sister, had childhoods far more like Sophie's.
 
Sophie's life experience's prior to being rescued do not exactly parallel Kat's. Kat always had a loving family around her and the most destructive episode happened when she was twelve. Sophie's destructive life episode started at birth (if not earlier) and continued up until social services finally swooped in and rescued her, primarily because extremely high level attention had been brought to bear. Kat would do well to remember how she rescued and gave purpose to the Sisterhood, as those girls, including her own sister, had childhoods far more like Sophie's.

Very true.
 
wow, I didn´t realize that Sophie´s father is the same man who abused his position as female officer trainer where Kristina trained and failed to get her. How long he´d been jailed for ? 5 year to 10 year, somehow i feel that the punishment is too light for a serial abuser and rapist.
 
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