Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

ferdi254

Banned
If he „just“ starts to go out with her more often and she falls in love with him it will only be worse. The pressure here is on the completely wrong side.
 
Louis has a perfect point. If Kiki and all the other women in royal circles are free to make their choices it is definitely not fair that he shall be forced to have a relationship (whatever kind) he does not want.

If every woman I had a pleasant evening with in my life suddenly would have claims on me… oh my Sultan Mehmed would have had less women than me.

So yes Kiki is just doing what gave her mother a black eye. Exactly the same thing. That the woman in case may be more amiable than the men does not matter at all. Kiki‘s justification is just plain wrong.

So yes, this woman now has a heart problem but blaming this on Louis and demanding he does something about it is simply gross.

Have to say, I agree. I see the pressure Margareta is under: I missed the part where this is Louis’ problem.

There is a bigger game going on, the real thing is that LF Jr. is just pawn in the Romania Game of Thrones where the threat of a Hohenzollern Consort may be enough to change the rules of succession and allow for Margareta to ascend to the throne on her own.

If the threat of cadet Hohenzollerns taking over when Michael dies isn’t enough to do that then I dunno if LF Jr would do the trick.

Also, I don’t see why she’s under pressure to marry. If the succession laws are that strict she wouldn’t be able to inherit even with a husband.

Honestly, this little circle should instead be talking to Margareta to help her stiffen her spine to just walk away from it all.
 
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ferdi254

Banned
Plus this is the 70s. Pacemakers are standard at that time. The whole thing in itself is blown totally out of proportion to start with.

Summoning Louis to such a tribunal and actually blaming him, I am sorry I did not have a high opinion of Kiki making rational choices when emotionally involved but Suga and Elizabeth being part of such a thing?

The only correct thing for Louis would be to quote Goethe and leave the room if it would not be for the diplomatic consequences. And that makes this kabal massively worse than what happened to Kiki. It is blackmail of the worst kind, in a totally unnecessary matter and on the wrong person.

Anything more this ladies could have done wrong?
 
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Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Fifty-Eight

13th October 1973

Hungary has almost gone to war with them a dozen times over the last fifty years.
Why would a Hungary that owns Transylvania and the strategic passes through the Carpathians instigate a war with Romania? At the time of the armistice ITTL, half of Romania was under central powers occupation and the Russians had just abandoned them due to the Communist takeover. The Hungarian army of this 1919 is not the disorganized mob of Bela Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic and the Romanians are not the proxies of France and Britain in the fight against red revolution. I can't imagine any scenario that would result in Hungarian territorial loss to either Romania or Serbia who were both on the "losing side" of this timeline's armistice.

Harta_administrativa_Romania_1918_05_07.png
 
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Plus this is the 70s. Pacemakers are standard at that time. The whole thing in itself is blown totally out of proportion to start with.
Indeed.

The Romanian government should just put it to the people. A popular referendum, with the options being:
  • Change succession laws to allow Margareta to inherit;
  • Allow the cadet Hohenzollerns to take the throne;
  • Republic.
No need for anyone else's inclusion, least of all the monarchs of other nations.
Summoning Louis to such a tribunal and actually blaming him, I am sorry I did not have a high opinion of Kiki making rational choices when emotionally involved but Suga and Elizabeth being part of such a thing?

The only correct thing for Louis would be to quote Goethe and leave the room if it would not be for the diplomatic consequences. And that makes this kabal massively worse than what happened to Kiki. It is blackmail of the worst kind, in a totally unnecessary matter and on the wrong person.
I had to think hard on which Goethe quote you meant - I was like 'Kennst du daß Land doesn't seem appropriate, Margareta doesn't seem about to die so not Der Erlkönig... OHHHHHH, that quote' XD

But yeah, I agree. Especially as...again, it shouldn't make any difference if Margareta is married or not. Generally speaking, a country that a woman is barred from inheriting the throne for would also be one where inheritance in the female line is banned, so... Married or unmarried, unless the law was changed Margareta would be out in the cold. The scenario doesn't really make sense from that POV.
 
Quite honestly, LF jr, should simply say to Kiki, you massive hypocrite to her when he leaves and walk away. Completely unacceptable to blame him for that lassie having a heart problem brought on by stress from her own family.

This is the issue with Kat having her own problems now. If she were there, she'd probably have a couple of cutting remarks for a few in that room.
 
IOTL the question of succession never came up in a real life situation because of the ouster of King Michael by the Communists in 1947 and after the 1989 Revolution that got rid of the Ceausescu regime Michael was banned for a few years afterwards from going back to Romania until 1992.
The Romanian Constitution of 1923 which was in effect at the time of Michael's forced abdication stated that only males in the direct line of the Monarch could inherent the throne and if the King didn't have any sons the the throne goes to the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.
So assuming those rules are still in effect at this point ITTL only the Romanian legislature the Chamber of Deputies (Lower House) and the Senate ( Upper House) can change the Constitution with approval of the voters in a referendum.
Any change that would allow a female to become the Monarch could be opposed by conservative elements of the legislature and by the Romanian Orthodox Church that is preventing any vote to happen.
That is the crux of the problem is that the constitution is only changed to allow Margareta to inherit if she has the "Proper Consort" LF Jr. but without that change there is no reason for LF Jr. to tie himself to Margareta so LF Jr. has to make a show of "Being Serious" about his " intentions " to Margareta in order to spur any changes.
Remember the Ladies of the Rainbows, Sunshine, and Lollipops Club are not saying that LF Jr. has to marry Margareta but just make a show of being around her.
 
The Romanian Constitution of 1923 which was in effect at the time of Michael's forced abdication stated that only males in the direct line of the Monarch could inherent the throne and if the King didn't have any sons the the throne goes to the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.
Actually in that case, why are they all so keen on Margareta getting the law changed? Better for Germany if the Hohenzollern cadets took over surely.

…and better for Margareta too. Far less pressure, she could just be a regular Romanian. Well, to a point…
 
Cause all those women are coming from a position of personal bias not knowing all details.

We are analysing from a step removed, the characters are not. Not to say I agree with them, just I understand it
 
Cause all those women are coming from a position of personal bias not knowing all details.

We are analysing from a step removed, the characters are not. Not to say I agree with them, just I understand it
The issue is at least one of them, Kiki, knows she's messed up, especially with her body language at the end of the part there.
 
The issue is at least one of them, Kiki, knows she's messed up, especially with her body language at the end of the part there.
I get the impression that Kiki didn't know what was planned until she got to London and had this solution dropped on her about 30 minutes before Louis did. She certainly didn't sound too happy to be there, or to be discussing a patient's case without said patient being there. Although it's fairly obvious that Margareta had shared that detail with the others, along with her displeasure that Louis Jr. has been avoiding her, I'm guessing Kiki was herself summoned to confirm the diagnosis.
 
Part 132, Chapter 2259
Chapter Two Thousand Two Hundred Fifty-Nine



14th October 1973

North Sea

It was a rare sunny day for this time of year in these waters. The SMS Grindwal was cruising along the Belgian Coast in relatively calm seas and the two British Destroyers that had been shadowing them had finally peeled off after they had passed Dunkirk. As if Louis would order the Grindwal to shell an English coastal city just for old-times sake after they had given him a medal that went right after his Pour le Mérite in order of precedence.

Looking down from the bridge, Louis saw that the Gun Crew had opened all the hatches of the 12.8-centimeter gun and were working on maintenance. In General Quarters, only the Gunner and the Gunner’s Assistant were in the turret itself, the remainder of the gun crew was below deck operating the machinery that fed the big gun. Other members of the crew who must have made the mistake slacking off while Borchardt was around, were hanging laundry on a clothesline that had been strung between the superstructure and the turret. Like if they would be doing any of that if they were looking to start a war. A pair of speedboats from the Belgian Navy had fallen into formation with the Grindwal and Louis had no doubt that they probably had more Intelligence Officers aboard than regular crew.

Louis was still fuming about how he had been ambushed the day before. According to Kiki the meeting with its bevy of disgruntled harridans had been planned for months and that she had inadvertently served him up as the main course. She didn’t blame him for Margareta’s health problems. That blame landed on Margareta’s father far more than anyone else, but Louis’ name had come up for exactly the reason that he had been singled out. He had the misfortune of being available while Michael of Romania wasn’t about to come anywhere near the United Kingdom where he would inevitably get upbraided by his daughter’s Godmother, Queen Elizabeth II of England, who was who Margareta had called for help when Kiki told her that her stressful situation was making her sick.

What was shocking to Louis was that apparently Margareta had set out to seduce a foreign Prince so that her father could have the standing to tell the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen branch of his family to pound sand. When he had mentioned that to Kiki, she had just given him that annoyed look of hers. If it were the other way around it would be perceived very differently, was Kiki’s reply. Exactly what was that supposed to mean?

The meeting of… Louis had no idea if it had a name yet beyond having the feel of a Pan-European version of the Order of Louise, had certainly come as a surprise to him. He was a bit troubled by how he was being strong-armed into spending time with a woman entirely for political purposes. The tabloids were expected to have a field day with that when it happened. It was also clear that despite Elizabeth saying that she wanted nothing more than that, he was reminded of the American jokes about Farmers, Farmer’s daughters, and shotguns at the Wedding. He had seen the reaction of the Ladies at the meeting when he had used the word choice. They found it incredibly amusing.

There was also Romania itself to consider. When the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell apart, Germany had grabbed Bohemia and Slovakia with somewhat mixed results. Romania, which had been in the process of losing the war up until that point, had been unable to believe their luck as what would become the nation of Hungary had quickly fallen into civil war over just who exactly could consider themselves Hungarian. They had grabbed everything they could before the Hungarians realized they had a common enemy and that had been the source of trouble ever since. To Louis, finding out that events that had happened in the chaotic days of 1918 just after the First World War had ended still were causing trouble was hardly a surprise. He could remember history lessons in school where it had been mentioned that during the Second World War Hungarian and Romanian Divisions had to be kept apart because it was felt that they would have turned their guns on each other, Soviets be damned.

Finally, there was something that Kiki had warned him about. At the meeting, she had observed that there were two cliques that were emerging within the organization. A traditionalist block led by Elizabeth II of England and Maria-José of Italy and a progressive block led by Suga of Germany, and Silvia of Sweden, who Louis knew little about beyond her marriage the previous summer having taken up more television time then was warranted in his opinion. To Louis, it was painfully obvious that despite the internal divisions, the new organization was aimed squarely at one of the oldest conflicts in the world, East vs. West. With the rising of a new Hellenic Empire that considered itself to be the inheritors of the Byzantine Empire and the reemergence of Russia as a World Power it was inevitable that such an organization would be established.

The only person beside Kiki who Louis had talked about this at length had been Borchardt. He had known the Oberdeckoffizier for years, since they had been aboard the SMS Windhund playing their unofficial role in the last Greco-Turkish War. Louis knew that Greg Borchardt was one of the few people he could trust.

The trouble was that Borchardt had been of little help this time, telling Louis that he was basically being conscripted and would play role in this thing, like it or not. His perspective regarding Margareta was actually worse than expected. Borchardt only had one question; Is she hot?

As if that was all Louis should care about.
 
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Wasn't it mentioned in one of the earlier threads that the Romania was asking Hunagry to give them Transylvania, but Hungary (predictably) told them to go pound sand? And that Romania actually didn't get Transylvania?
 
Wasn't it mentioned in one of the earlier threads that the Romania was asking Hunagry to give them Transylvania, but Hungary (predictably) told them to go pound sand? And that Romania actually didn't get Transylvania?
That was the original idea but then further research revealed what the demographics were and why that was unfeasible. The Hungarians wouldn't have been able to hang onto a province where they were a definite minority with a hostile nation comprised of the majority right next door.
 
LF Jr. is around 30 years old now and single and to some that just won't do.
Probably when he is in port he is being introduced to the daughters and granddaughters of his superior officers especially at every formal events that are held.
In the last timeline when Charlotte saw how he was with Nella and Nan thought that he should have a family of his own.
Another problem for LF Jr. is that he is basically the number one officer compared to his peers in the race for promotions and commands just based on his own record alone but add on to it his title and that gives him an even bigger leg up to his peers, the only b thing that is going to stop him from getting the top job is that the Reichstag may feel that an Imperial Prince shouldn't have that much real power and the Chancellor and Defense Minister are dropping hints right now to the OKM that LF Jr. career should be sidelined to another direction away from getting higher commands in the future.
But for right now for LF Jr. his life, his love, and his lady is the sea.
 
LF Jr. is around 30 years old now and single and to some that just won't do.
Probably when he is in port he is being introduced to the daughters and granddaughters of his superior officers especially at every formal events that are held.
In the last timeline when Charlotte saw how he was with Nella and Nan thought that he should have a family of his own.
Another problem for LF Jr. is that he is basically the number one officer compared to his peers in the race for promotions and commands just based on his own record alone but add on to it his title and that gives him an even bigger leg up to his peers, the only b thing that is going to stop him from getting the top job is that the Reichstag may feel that an Imperial Prince shouldn't have that much real power and the Chancellor and Defense Minister are dropping hints right now to the OKM that LF Jr. career should be sidelined to another direction away from getting higher commands in the future.
But for right now for LF Jr. his life, his love, and his lady is the sea.
I'm getting some Prince Charles vibes here. He married late and a lot of people weren't happy he was unmarried for so long.
 
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