Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III
- Thread starter Peabody-Martini
- Start date
ferdi254
Banned
Depression is a deadly illness. As a matter of fact it is vastly underestimated.
No „good advice“ will help. Ironically no one would try to cure somebody with cancer but a lot of people think they can help somebody with depression. Bad idea.
Cancer and depression both can only by treated by professionals.
And a serious effect of the thinking that „have a holiday“ is a good way to treat depression is that if the depression ends terminally many people feel guilty because they think they could have done better. THEY COULD NOT.
No „good advice“ will help. Ironically no one would try to cure somebody with cancer but a lot of people think they can help somebody with depression. Bad idea.
Cancer and depression both can only by treated by professionals.
And a serious effect of the thinking that „have a holiday“ is a good way to treat depression is that if the depression ends terminally many people feel guilty because they think they could have done better. THEY COULD NOT.
It may be time for Kat to check herself in to a private clinic to deal with her depression because this is the first time in over twenty-five years that she has put herself in a situation that could have lead to her death.
While she was not actively committing suicide she was putting herself in a position that would have resulted in her death even through she had resources to stop it from happening with just one phone call.
We must also find out if FJS had a role in what was going on because as was corrupt IOTL he could even be more so ITTL and did things to help facilitate the attack.
As for the attackers themselves they probably all have criminal records to some extent and many of them could be on probation or parole and when their probation and parole officers note that they are not checking in may start an investigation in to it and the families of the attackers may be going to the police with missing persons reports.
While she was not actively committing suicide she was putting herself in a position that would have resulted in her death even through she had resources to stop it from happening with just one phone call.
We must also find out if FJS had a role in what was going on because as was corrupt IOTL he could even be more so ITTL and did things to help facilitate the attack.
As for the attackers themselves they probably all have criminal records to some extent and many of them could be on probation or parole and when their probation and parole officers note that they are not checking in may start an investigation in to it and the families of the attackers may be going to the police with missing persons reports.
Part 131, Chapter 2240
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Forty
20th August 1973
Mitte, Berlin
When you strike at a King, you must kill him.
Franz Josef Strauss was reminded of that quote by Emerson when he had returned from lunch to find a message left on his desk.
I no longer like the terms of our deal. It is time to renegotiate things because you have got just as much to lose now seeing as to how your little plan seems to have gone sideways. I am sure that you are not interested in concluding business.
Strauss had found that note have been dropped on his desk in his office. Of course, nobody had seen who had left it, but that was the nature of who he was dealing with. They had people everywhere and that poisoned this entire wretched city.
Matters had not gone according to plan. Strauss had thought that he finally had a chance to kill two birds with one stone. Get rid of Katherine von Mischner permanently and leave the head of the shadowy so-called GS, the Society of Silence exposed. It hadn’t been difficult; the GS was very aware that Katherine von Mischner was the daughter of the former head of their organization and had maintained a special relationship with the Jarl Gunnarsson, the immediate predecessor of the current head. There were rumors that Katherine knew the whereabouts of the lost fortune of Otto Mischner and Strauss had leaked documents that implied that after decades of investigation it had been discovered that there was some truth in that, and that the money was long gone. That was far more than enough for the GS to write off the loss and to balance the ledger somewhat by making an example of someone. Usually that came in the form of a pool of blood and viscera left to be found to let people know that someone was very dead and would never been seen again.
The previous Thursday, something had happened. Rumors had been flying all over that the house where the Tigress lived had been attacked. Then nothing more. Across the city, the police were reporting that certain known criminals had vanished, enough to create a power vacuum, and there was some debate about what exactly to do. Strauss had been told that the city sewers and storm drains would be checked, but the Tigress was well known to have a deep understanding of the undercity like few others. If she wanted somebody, or in this case a lot of somebodies, to vanish then it was likely that they never would be found.
The scary part was that the Tigress herself, Katherine von Mischner zu Berlin, the Prefect of Berlin, had been seen at the Alexanderplatz Marketplace serenely talking to the people who indirectly rented the stalls within marketplace from her. With it getting into late summer the busiest time of the year was coming for such an establishment, first with the harvest and then the Christmas Market that would spring up there. It was only natural that Katherine would take a personal interest.
That she was still alive then that meant that it was exactly like how the head of the GS had said in the note, the plan had gone sideways. His use of the words “little plan” also suggested that he knew that the whole thing had been contrived.
If the head of the GS thought that Strauss had orchestrated this outcome… It was a chilling thought.
Schwielochsee, Spreewald National Park
It was Marie’s contention that boys their age were a major disappointment. It felt like everything that Sophie learned about Sepp Deisler fell into that category. First, there had been the incident on the lake the year before when he had been banging on her canoe with a bargepole to get her attention. Then this year he had snuck into the Girl’s Camp to speak with Sophie only to have no idea what he was going to say once he found her. Still, that was nothing compared to Sophie’s annoyance with herself because even after all of that she had agreed to go to the hedge. Standing there in the hot sunlight, she was feeling very stupid as she could feel sweat soaking through her clothes. She had wondered why none of the adults seemed to care about these meetings during the day, this answered that question. If she stayed here for too long, then she was asking for heatstroke.
“Are you there, Zoe?” Sophie heard a voice ask and she saw that Sepp was standing on something so that he was visible over the fence.
“Yes” Sophie replied.
“What?” Sepp asked, “You need to speak up.”
“Yes, I am here!” Sophie said, practically yelling. “Do you want everyone to know our business?”
Looking over her shoulder, Sophie knew that everyone would be talking about her doing this in a matter of minutes.
“Who cares?” Sepp replied with a shrug.
“I care” Sophie said.
“But you still came.”
And Sophie felt like an idiot for having done so.
“What was so pressing that you got yourself into trouble to talk to me?” Sophie asked.
“I don’t know” Sepp replied, “I just wanted to meet you is all and I didn’t get into too much trouble. Herr Fabel called my father and they told me that I wasn’t to do anything like that ever again. Then Poppa wanted to know if you were pretty, I told him you were.”
There had been few times that Sophie had been presented with such a clear injustice. If she had crossed over to the other side of the fence and had gotten caught, Kat would come and collect her. She would then spend the rest of the Summer Holiday locked in her room if she were lucky.
“What the fuck!” Sophie yelled, “There is no way in Hell that…”
Sepp was clearly taken aback by Sophie’s swearing. Whatever image he had of her in his mind that was not a part of it. He didn’t get a chance to reply because Sophie heard what sounded like splintering wood as whatever he was standing on broke under his weight. Sepp had a surprised look on his face as he fell into the thorn bushes.
20th August 1973
Mitte, Berlin
When you strike at a King, you must kill him.
Franz Josef Strauss was reminded of that quote by Emerson when he had returned from lunch to find a message left on his desk.
I no longer like the terms of our deal. It is time to renegotiate things because you have got just as much to lose now seeing as to how your little plan seems to have gone sideways. I am sure that you are not interested in concluding business.
Strauss had found that note have been dropped on his desk in his office. Of course, nobody had seen who had left it, but that was the nature of who he was dealing with. They had people everywhere and that poisoned this entire wretched city.
Matters had not gone according to plan. Strauss had thought that he finally had a chance to kill two birds with one stone. Get rid of Katherine von Mischner permanently and leave the head of the shadowy so-called GS, the Society of Silence exposed. It hadn’t been difficult; the GS was very aware that Katherine von Mischner was the daughter of the former head of their organization and had maintained a special relationship with the Jarl Gunnarsson, the immediate predecessor of the current head. There were rumors that Katherine knew the whereabouts of the lost fortune of Otto Mischner and Strauss had leaked documents that implied that after decades of investigation it had been discovered that there was some truth in that, and that the money was long gone. That was far more than enough for the GS to write off the loss and to balance the ledger somewhat by making an example of someone. Usually that came in the form of a pool of blood and viscera left to be found to let people know that someone was very dead and would never been seen again.
The previous Thursday, something had happened. Rumors had been flying all over that the house where the Tigress lived had been attacked. Then nothing more. Across the city, the police were reporting that certain known criminals had vanished, enough to create a power vacuum, and there was some debate about what exactly to do. Strauss had been told that the city sewers and storm drains would be checked, but the Tigress was well known to have a deep understanding of the undercity like few others. If she wanted somebody, or in this case a lot of somebodies, to vanish then it was likely that they never would be found.
The scary part was that the Tigress herself, Katherine von Mischner zu Berlin, the Prefect of Berlin, had been seen at the Alexanderplatz Marketplace serenely talking to the people who indirectly rented the stalls within marketplace from her. With it getting into late summer the busiest time of the year was coming for such an establishment, first with the harvest and then the Christmas Market that would spring up there. It was only natural that Katherine would take a personal interest.
That she was still alive then that meant that it was exactly like how the head of the GS had said in the note, the plan had gone sideways. His use of the words “little plan” also suggested that he knew that the whole thing had been contrived.
If the head of the GS thought that Strauss had orchestrated this outcome… It was a chilling thought.
Schwielochsee, Spreewald National Park
It was Marie’s contention that boys their age were a major disappointment. It felt like everything that Sophie learned about Sepp Deisler fell into that category. First, there had been the incident on the lake the year before when he had been banging on her canoe with a bargepole to get her attention. Then this year he had snuck into the Girl’s Camp to speak with Sophie only to have no idea what he was going to say once he found her. Still, that was nothing compared to Sophie’s annoyance with herself because even after all of that she had agreed to go to the hedge. Standing there in the hot sunlight, she was feeling very stupid as she could feel sweat soaking through her clothes. She had wondered why none of the adults seemed to care about these meetings during the day, this answered that question. If she stayed here for too long, then she was asking for heatstroke.
“Are you there, Zoe?” Sophie heard a voice ask and she saw that Sepp was standing on something so that he was visible over the fence.
“Yes” Sophie replied.
“What?” Sepp asked, “You need to speak up.”
“Yes, I am here!” Sophie said, practically yelling. “Do you want everyone to know our business?”
Looking over her shoulder, Sophie knew that everyone would be talking about her doing this in a matter of minutes.
“Who cares?” Sepp replied with a shrug.
“I care” Sophie said.
“But you still came.”
And Sophie felt like an idiot for having done so.
“What was so pressing that you got yourself into trouble to talk to me?” Sophie asked.
“I don’t know” Sepp replied, “I just wanted to meet you is all and I didn’t get into too much trouble. Herr Fabel called my father and they told me that I wasn’t to do anything like that ever again. Then Poppa wanted to know if you were pretty, I told him you were.”
There had been few times that Sophie had been presented with such a clear injustice. If she had crossed over to the other side of the fence and had gotten caught, Kat would come and collect her. She would then spend the rest of the Summer Holiday locked in her room if she were lucky.
“What the fuck!” Sophie yelled, “There is no way in Hell that…”
Sepp was clearly taken aback by Sophie’s swearing. Whatever image he had of her in his mind that was not a part of it. He didn’t get a chance to reply because Sophie heard what sounded like splintering wood as whatever he was standing on broke under his weight. Sepp had a surprised look on his face as he fell into the thorn bushes.
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FJS is going to learn the meaning of the acronym FUBAR in the not too distant future. If he is lucky, he'll get in a genuine accident before that happens.
This quote from Babylon 5's G'kar's fits well here:
"That's your flight. I suggest you board quickly. With luck, they may never find you, but if they do, you will know pain..."
"And you will know fear..."
"And then you will die. Have a pleasant flight!"
"That's your flight. I suggest you board quickly. With luck, they may never find you, but if they do, you will know pain..."
"And you will know fear..."
"And then you will die. Have a pleasant flight!"
The contrast with Sophie's growth and trouble with reconciling teenage boys with the men in her life, versus a man now thinking he's going to end up with concrete shoes is why I love this story. It's great.
I do believe that Franz Josef Strauss needs to be checking who works in his office. I can see the head of the "Organization" trying to have someone there but also Kat would have someone around there also. There would be more people who would be looking for a way to take him down a peg or two if not rightly have him in jail just because of the person he is.
That little old Babushkas that work as both day and night in supporting roles, janitor or more, is member of the Russian Ladies Mutual Aid Society. Then again that night janitors substitute might just be Kat herself.
Those are the nightmares that being the Mother of German Special Forces generates in others.
Part 131, Chapter 2241
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Forty-One
21st August 1973
Schwielochsee, Spreewald National Park
Frau Fabel’s demeanor tended to remind one of a neurotic toy poodle. This wasn’t helped by the fact that her hair had gone prematurely white and that she was Nurse in a Summer Camp that had a couple hundred boys between the ages of five and eighteen. Normally, she was a Nurse in a hospital in the city, but every summer she came with her husband who was the Camp Director as a sort of self-funded Summer Holiday, but from Sepp’s perspective it didn’t seem like much of a holiday.
“There is always something” Frau Fabel said as she was using iodine to clean the puncture wounds and scratches on Sepp’s arms and chest from when he had landed in the thorn bushes the day before. At least she wasn’t digging thorns out of his skin like she had the day before. That didn’t stop the iodine from stinging as Frau Fabel painted it on though. “Please hold still Josef, you don’t want these to get infected. I swear, the things that you boys get up to.”
“I had good reasons” Sepp replied defensively.
“Talking to a girl while standing on a rickety chair that you took from your cabin” Frau Fabel said, “What happened next was very predictable.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Sepp said, before he hissed in pain due to what Frau Fabel was doing.
“You barely know this girl” Frau Fabel said, “She probably just wants to get on with her holiday and you are a complication.”
“But I want to” Sepp said, “Get to know her that is.”
Frau Fabel just gave Sepp a look. “Yeah, I bet you do” She said, “Fortunately for everyone, it will no longer be an issue next week.”
That gave Sepp a moment of pause.
He was going back to his life along with everyone else next week. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but it felt like everything here was brightly lit and in full color while home might as well have been in black and white.
“Try to stay out of trouble until you go home” Frau Fabel said as she handed Sepp his shirt. “I know that will be a big lift for you.”
“I don’t cause that much trouble” Sepp said and got a snort in reply as Frau Fabel tried not to laugh.
Putting his shirt back on as he walked towards the door. The thought of going home kept rattling around in his head and what would greet him when he got there. His parents being absent much of the time because they had to work, him having to take care of his younger brothers, and the cramped house they lived in. Small wonder that he had only ever met Sophie here. It was said that she was one of the Gymnasia girls, already assured a place at a University. Back home they lived in entirely different worlds though separated by only a few kilometers.
Near Bad Reichenhall
It was snowing as Malcolm made his way from the lecture hall to the cabin which he shared with five other men. These weren’t the fluffy snowflakes of the wintertime in the lowlands. It was coming down as hard pellets of ice. Today’s lecture had been about the development of industrial lubricants that worked at temperatures far below freezing. How during the Soviet War that had been a matter of critical importance and that in the post-war period had proven invaluable in exploration.
This high atop the mountains, the temperatures seldom were above freezing. The weather was also extremely unpredictable, with storms brewing up from the valleys and howling winds. The complex of buildings that made up the Arctic Training School clung to the side of the mountain like the lichen that was one of the only things that grew here. Because Malcolm was still an Officer Aspirant, he was regarded as Enlisted, and his accommodations were reflected in that. He had a couple hours until supper, and he knew from experience that getting a bit of extra sleep was almost always a wise choice considering where he presently was.
To Malcolm’s personal disappointment, his time at the School was coming to an end. In a few days he would be returning to his home unit and a note would be added to his personnel file saying that he had completed the training course. He would then go on the list of potential volunteers for upcoming Artic and Antarctic expeditions. There was the upcoming joint expedition to Baffin Bay, but he wasn’t expecting to hear about that for weeks. He would be going back to watching his section, particularly Micha “Rook” Oberst and Michael “Stitch” Stein, misuse government equipment. At the rate that the two of them were going, when Malcolm finally went to Greenland those two would probably be on the same flight as a punishment assignment.
The odd part was that others saw his assignment as being rather choice. He was living rent free on the edge of a big city. Sure, he spent much of his time just trying to stay awake and battling boredom in a bunker complex that seemed designed to trigger any innate claustrophobia that one might have. The trouble was that the city in question was one which he had lived in his entire life, so it had few surprises for him.
21st August 1973
Schwielochsee, Spreewald National Park
Frau Fabel’s demeanor tended to remind one of a neurotic toy poodle. This wasn’t helped by the fact that her hair had gone prematurely white and that she was Nurse in a Summer Camp that had a couple hundred boys between the ages of five and eighteen. Normally, she was a Nurse in a hospital in the city, but every summer she came with her husband who was the Camp Director as a sort of self-funded Summer Holiday, but from Sepp’s perspective it didn’t seem like much of a holiday.
“There is always something” Frau Fabel said as she was using iodine to clean the puncture wounds and scratches on Sepp’s arms and chest from when he had landed in the thorn bushes the day before. At least she wasn’t digging thorns out of his skin like she had the day before. That didn’t stop the iodine from stinging as Frau Fabel painted it on though. “Please hold still Josef, you don’t want these to get infected. I swear, the things that you boys get up to.”
“I had good reasons” Sepp replied defensively.
“Talking to a girl while standing on a rickety chair that you took from your cabin” Frau Fabel said, “What happened next was very predictable.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Sepp said, before he hissed in pain due to what Frau Fabel was doing.
“You barely know this girl” Frau Fabel said, “She probably just wants to get on with her holiday and you are a complication.”
“But I want to” Sepp said, “Get to know her that is.”
Frau Fabel just gave Sepp a look. “Yeah, I bet you do” She said, “Fortunately for everyone, it will no longer be an issue next week.”
That gave Sepp a moment of pause.
He was going back to his life along with everyone else next week. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but it felt like everything here was brightly lit and in full color while home might as well have been in black and white.
“Try to stay out of trouble until you go home” Frau Fabel said as she handed Sepp his shirt. “I know that will be a big lift for you.”
“I don’t cause that much trouble” Sepp said and got a snort in reply as Frau Fabel tried not to laugh.
Putting his shirt back on as he walked towards the door. The thought of going home kept rattling around in his head and what would greet him when he got there. His parents being absent much of the time because they had to work, him having to take care of his younger brothers, and the cramped house they lived in. Small wonder that he had only ever met Sophie here. It was said that she was one of the Gymnasia girls, already assured a place at a University. Back home they lived in entirely different worlds though separated by only a few kilometers.
Near Bad Reichenhall
It was snowing as Malcolm made his way from the lecture hall to the cabin which he shared with five other men. These weren’t the fluffy snowflakes of the wintertime in the lowlands. It was coming down as hard pellets of ice. Today’s lecture had been about the development of industrial lubricants that worked at temperatures far below freezing. How during the Soviet War that had been a matter of critical importance and that in the post-war period had proven invaluable in exploration.
This high atop the mountains, the temperatures seldom were above freezing. The weather was also extremely unpredictable, with storms brewing up from the valleys and howling winds. The complex of buildings that made up the Arctic Training School clung to the side of the mountain like the lichen that was one of the only things that grew here. Because Malcolm was still an Officer Aspirant, he was regarded as Enlisted, and his accommodations were reflected in that. He had a couple hours until supper, and he knew from experience that getting a bit of extra sleep was almost always a wise choice considering where he presently was.
To Malcolm’s personal disappointment, his time at the School was coming to an end. In a few days he would be returning to his home unit and a note would be added to his personnel file saying that he had completed the training course. He would then go on the list of potential volunteers for upcoming Artic and Antarctic expeditions. There was the upcoming joint expedition to Baffin Bay, but he wasn’t expecting to hear about that for weeks. He would be going back to watching his section, particularly Micha “Rook” Oberst and Michael “Stitch” Stein, misuse government equipment. At the rate that the two of them were going, when Malcolm finally went to Greenland those two would probably be on the same flight as a punishment assignment.
The odd part was that others saw his assignment as being rather choice. He was living rent free on the edge of a big city. Sure, he spent much of his time just trying to stay awake and battling boredom in a bunker complex that seemed designed to trigger any innate claustrophobia that one might have. The trouble was that the city in question was one which he had lived in his entire life, so it had few surprises for him.
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Hmm, Sepp is going to need a job, he's overseeing a bunch of younger brothers. I sense a recruit.
ferdi254
Banned
Well it is sort of funny to see a very US tradition like the summer camps being transferred to Germany. Summer holidays in Germany are only 6 weeks compared to 12 in the USA and parents had at that time most likely 20-25 days of holiday compared to 10 in the USA so there was never a high demand on getting your children to external care in the summer.
If done it was mostly by churches or the unions and mostly for poor children. And seriously shorter than in the USA.
If done it was mostly by churches or the unions and mostly for poor children. And seriously shorter than in the USA.
Same here in Ireland. Like, there'd be 'day camps' for doing sports and stuff like that, where the kids go for the day to do football or sailing or whatever, but the whole 'pack your kids off for days and nights' wouldn't be such a major thing outside of camping organisations like the Scouts. Not in my experience, anyway. And the activity camp things I describe would usually only last for a couple of weeks max.
It was always something that struck me as weird when I was a kid, reading about summer camps and things like that in American comics. Myself and most of the friends I had got left to our own devices over summers.