Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

Kiki needs to think like a detective not as a doctor. instead of looking at the symptoms the various patients have, she should look at what they have in common.
She will see a lot of them are IV drug users, sex workers and their customers, a common vector is going to be those who travel to different places and are engaging in risky behaviors such as unprotected sex with multiple partners and sharing hypodermic needles.
 
Kiki needs to think like a detective not as a doctor. instead of looking at the symptoms the various patients have, she should look at what they have in common.
She will see a lot of them are IV drug users, sex workers and their customers, a common vector is going to be those who travel to different places and are engaging in risky behaviors such as unprotected sex with multiple partners and sharing hypodermic needles.
And people who receive blood transfusions or other blood products.
 
Part 141, Chapter 2445
Chapter Two Thousand Four Hundred Forty-Five



13th March 1976

Window Rock, Arizona

The house was traditional construction, meaning logs and rammed earth. That was common enough around here as was the woodburning stove that had been purchased from Sears-Roebuck decades earlier which worked much like the one in her grandmother’s kitchen back in Fossoy. Maintaining the correct temperatures was a complicated process that she learned at her grandmother’s side, doing that was among her earliest memories.

Beans which had been left soaking overnight, rice, salt, onions, and finally a pair of rabbits that a cousin had supplied were the only ingredients on hand. There were some dried peppers, but Monique had swiftly learned that they were best kept in their jar where they were nice to look at. She could work with the rest though.

They had spent the first week at Window Rock with the promise that they were going to travel further north next week. As spectacular as the stone arch that overlooked what would have been a small village if it were not the seat of the Tribal Government was, Monique had been told that there were even more sights elsewhere. The others joked about how Monument Valley was worth seeing, but anyone who had ever seen one of dozens of Westerns or Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons knew about the place. Monique had never been interested in Westerns, but the Warner Brothers cartoons had been a staple of television everywhere she had lived.

The other observation was that nearly everyone Monique encountered was a distant relative of some sort. Throughout her childhood it had just been her and her grandmother. Now she was discovering that she had dozens of cousins and the shocking detail that her great grandmother, her grandfather’s mother, was still alive at nearly a century in age. When she had met Monique, she had given her a toothless grin and said that it was a tragedy that she had been born with Piers’ nose. That was whose house they were staying in.

Another odd detail was that everyone she encountered thought that it was funny that she knew far more Diné than English. “Our little niece from Europe hasn’t been colonized, what a kick to the head” was what she had been told. She had mentioned that she spoke French and German, but somehow that was different. Not many “Settlers” from those places, or at least not directly. It was a reminder of just how little she knew about these people who were strangely hers.

“Who taught you to cook Moni?” Monique was asked as Nina was looking in the pan.

“My grandmother” Monique replied. No one here called her by her proper name. It was either Moni, if she was lucky, or Doli if she wasn’t. Her grandfather’s pet name had stuck. According to her aunts, people who saw those grey-blue eyes of hers understood perfectly why she was called that. She had pointed out that should have marked her out as a true outsider and was told that hardly made her unique.

“You never showed much interest in cooking at home” Nina said.

“Tilde doesn’t want me to touch her gas range” Monique replied, “She seems to think that I will blow up the house.”

“That sounds like Tilde” Nina said amusedly.



Montreal, Canada

The smell of chlorine and damp towels filled Marie Alexandra’s nose as she stared at the Art Deco tiled ceiling high above. As she floated in the indoor pool, it occurred to her just how beautiful the building was. The water was warm, not bathtub warm, but warm enough so that you weren’t shocked when you jumped in. Bright sunlight streamed in through the bay windows providing extra warmth to the room, even if it was freezing cold outside regardless of what the calendar said.

Marie had no idea why, but her anxiety was back worse than ever. Before it had been how meeting new people had left her tongue tied and unable to get a word out. Now it was different, just unfocused dread. She knew that it was completely irrational but found herself focused constantly on the world around her looking for threats that were lurking just out of view. The Lady’s Athletic Club and her grandparents’ house happened to be the only places she felt completely safe. Marie could understand the latter. Her grandfather had been an important man and in his retirement the Canadian Government took his personal security extremely seriously.

The Lady’s Athletic Club was different though and it had taken Marie some time to figure out why. Finally it occurred to her that it felt safe because the members, mostly older women, wanted it to be a safe place without judgement. That was the same reason why they had so readily accepted Henriette, her being a single mother was just one more area where they refused to pass judgement. It had been rather plainly spelled out in the club’s charter which Marie had agreed to follow when she had joined.

Having to face reality again, Marie reluctantly climbed out of the pool. As she was toweling off and preparing to go to the showers, she was approached by a woman who she knew was one of the founders of the club. A former Olympic Track and Field star back in the 30’s, her medals occupied a place of honor in a glass case in the lobby.

“Hello Marie” The woman said in serious tone that suggested that she was about to ask for something. “I am sure that you already know about this city hosting the Olympics this summer. We are curious about the role that any of our members might play in them.”

“I am planning on going home for the summer” Marie replied.

“Really?” The woman asked, “What does your grandmother think?”

Something about how the woman asked the question suggested that it was about the same as finding live rattlesnakes somewhere unexpected. It was hardly a surprise that Marie’s grandmother probably wouldn’t be particularly welcome in this club.

“I don’t know, I haven’t told her” Marie replied.

That resulted in a surprised look on the woman’s face.

“She expects that I will make introductions to certain prestigious individuals who I know personally and is being nice for now to get what she wants” Marie explained, “I don’t want any part of that.”

“Like how prestigious?”

“Queen Elizabeth and Kaiserin Suga” Marie replied, “Who I know because of the whole Prinzessin von Berlin thing, which is absurd.”

For Marie it was like she was standing a few meters away listening to someone else talk as she spoke nothing but the whole truth. All the frustrations and anxieties of the previous months had propelled it out. It seemed like hardly a day passed without an encounter with someone who her grandmother had wronged at some point. Reality came crashing down on her head when the woman’s expression was one of horror.

“Please don’t tell anyone I said that” Marie blurted out, all too aware of how her grandmother might react if any of that got to her.

Instead, the woman suddenly burst out laughing. “My lips are sealed” She said when she regained her composure, “I just wish I could be there and see the look on her face when Margot figures that out.”

“Well… uhm, thank you” Marie said awkwardly before retreating into the showers.
 
Marie had no idea why, but her anxiety was back worse than ever. Before it had been how meeting new people had left her tongue tied and unable to get a word out. Now it was different, just unfocused dread. She knew that it was completely irrational but found herself focused constantly on the world around her looking for threats that were lurking just out of view. The Lady’s Athletic Club and her grandparents’ house happened to be the only places she felt completely safe.
Marie's spidey-senses are tingling that something wicked this way comes. I'd have said that it's mostly down to Margot's current expectations, but for the fact that Marie feels safe in that house, so that rules Margot out as the main cause. Marie is thinking her fears as being irrational, and yet in her case they aren't. She has been abducted, threatened with death, rescued/escaped as a child, and then years later, an American agent tried to assault her in public, in the very city in which she now lives. Sounds like a perfectly rational reaction to me. Similar things happened to her mother, and Kat has both the anxiety and heightened situational awareness that Marie is experiencing.
“She expects that I will make introductions to certain prestigious individuals who I know personally and is being nice for now to get what she wants” Marie explained, “I don’t want any part of that.”

“Like how prestigious?”

“Queen Elizabeth and Kaiserin Suga” Marie replied, “Who I know because of the whole Prinzessin von Berlin thing, which is absurd.”

For Marie it was like she was standing a few meters away listening to someone else talk as she spoke nothing but the whole truth. All the frustrations and anxieties of the previous months had propelled it out. It seemed like hardly a day passed without an encounter with someone who her grandmother had wronged at some point. Reality came crashing down on her head when the woman’s expression was one of horror.
I love that the older woman (Hilda Strike?) is absolutely horrified at the thought of Margot meeting both the Queen and the Kaiserin. The potential for Margot to commit yet another faux pas on the international stage is immense. Margot sees the Olympics as a chance to finally seal and preserve her position at the top of Montreal's social strata, even though she is aware that her reign of terror is coming to an end. People don't fear her wrath anymore, an introduction to royalty would help shore up her position. It is also painfully obvious that Margot has no idea that royalty loves to gossip, and thus both Queen Elisabeth and Kaisarin Suga will be fully aware of Margot's previous indiscretions re: Kat in Berlin. You don't get a public slap down on that scale and NOT suffer the consequences socially. There will be other women of note from Montreal & the rest of Canada who will be introduced to the monarchs at the same time as Margot would, assuming that the invite to the Blackwoods is extended and that it includes her. They would almost certainly notice the difference with how Margot will be treated compared to themselves. Questions would be asked; answers may be given.
 
Part 141, Chapter 2446
Chapter Two Thousand Four Hundred Forty-Six



19th March 1976

Near Tusayan, Arizona

The sun had not come up yet, the eastern sky was growing lighter. It was cold and the sky was filled with stars showing just how far from anything they were. Monique was starting to get annoyed with all of this. They had a long ride ahead of them back to Albuquerque and that was merely the start of the long trip home. Now this?

Monique had been woken up with it still pitch black outside and told that they needed to leave. Then she had learned that they had been going in the wrong direction just had John had parked the van in the middle of nowhere.

“We got a bit of a walk ahead of us” John said with a smile. “It is not far though, only half a mile or so.”

Monique was too incensed to speak as she looked at the rocky trail visible in the light of John’s flashlight. They were expecting her to risk that sort of hike?

“It is not a hard walk” Monique’s grandfather said to her, “Otherwise we would stay with the van.”

“Is this some sort of joke?” Monique asked.

“Hardly” Tilde said as she followed John up the trail followed by the others. Monique reluctantly followed not wanting to be left alone out here.

At least she wasn’t stumbling through the dark for long. The grey of predawn grew brighter as she caught up with the others who were standing next to a steel lattice tower of some kind. They were talking among themselves and just standing there talking about people they had known in the distant past when they had been children in this same region. Nina and Elisabeth were sitting on a blanket that they had brought. Monique noticed that the ground sloped steeply downward into darkness ahead of them. There was other Mesas off in the distance that she could see in the dim predawn light. In the short time Monique had been on the Navajo Reservation she had learned that the vertical always needed to be a consideration. John said that they didn’t want to walk any further in that direction and she wasn’t inclined to argue.

It was more of the same of what they had been doing since they had left Window Rock. Sure, there had been a lot of places that were beautiful and the people she had met were wonderful. Monique had seen where her grandfather and aunts had been born, where her great grandmother had met her great grandfather, and so many other places. Still, she couldn’t help but notice that even in what was springtime everywhere she looked was a thousand shades of brown. She had the feeling that it would probably drive her nuts if she had to live here. Then there was what she had heard about what it was like the rest of the year… Monique couldn’t get back to a place with a more civilized climate fast enough.

“Why are we out here?” Monique asked.

“We could tell you” Tilde said, “But that would ruin the surprise.”

Surprise?

Standing in the cold, on the edge of what Monique assumed was the edge of a cliff, was a surprise? All sorts of words in various languages came to mind describing this sort of situation. None of them were the sort that should be repeated in mixed company and none of the Aunt’s, particularly Tilde, would approve of her using words like that. Her grandfather would just chuckle leaving Monique feeling foolish, in some ways that was worse. It was moments like that which reminded her that over the course of his life he had seen or heard quite literally everything. Shocking him, or even merely surprising him was nearly impossible.

Sitting down on a rock, Monique thought about the weird twists and turns that her life had taken. She also thought about the constant contrivances of her aunts. They were convinced that she was one of them in the process of becoming, it was inevitable. It was entirely because of who was and even if she rejected that idea it just meant that she would be doing that in a way that worked for her. Arguing with them was like trying to grab ahold of smoke.

“If you are sulking you are going to miss the show” Monique’s grandfather said.

“What show?” Monique asked.

“I like to call it creation” Sjostedt replied, “It doesn’t matter what you believe personally, in a place like this you can see what the first moment must have been like. Bringing you to the Four Corners without coming here before you left.”

“There’s talk of the Park Service extending the road to here” John said, “Make it easier for the tourists. I think that sort of ruins a bit of the experience, not having to get out your car.”

Where was here? Monique thought to herself.

With that, the sun broke over the horizon and Monique saw the bands of different colored rock lit up by the rising sun and the darkness vanishing before the advancing sunlight. It was as if the whole world was rising up into the new day, it was exactly as her grandfather had described. Monique knew this place having seen it in hundreds of photographs, none of them had anything on the reality of it though.
 
“There’s talk of the Park Service extending the road to here” John said, “Make it easier for the tourists. I think that sort of ruins a bit of the experience, not having to get out your car.”
I hate that.

When I was there I were badly surprised because there was paved roads almost to every place with a nice view. Of course if you don't mind to walk a bit you can go to even more beautiful places, but I don't understand that obsession for going every place in your car without enjoying the walk that is one more part of the experience.

Sadly this awful obsession of building roads to everywhere have been extending lately to my country.
 
I hate that.

When I was there I were badly surprised because there was paved roads almost to every place with a nice view. Of course if you don't mind to walk a bit you can go to even more beautiful places, but I don't understand that obsession for going every place in your car without enjoying the walk that is one more part of the experience.

Sadly this awful obsession of building roads to everywhere have been extending lately to my country.
Well, it's great for disabled people
 
Well, it's great for disabled people
Yup, best way for stuff like that is the roads being there, but closed off and only open for people with disabilities or are infirm with prior authorization.

Problem is the US park's are so big, that policing them is nearly impossible so it's easier to just put a road everywhere than the infrastructure and staff such a limited access would need.
 
Has the Coyote made an appearance again since sjosjdt got wounded in 1916? I mean, he dreamed of a coyote IIRC
Coyote has only appeared twice. The first time in 1917 when Sjostedt nearly died during the First World War and the second time when he had a heart attack in 1973.

Piers Sjostedt himself knows that Coyote is probably a figment of his imagination, or his own subconscious.
 
Part 141, Chapter 2447
Chapter Two Thousand Four Hundred Forty-Seven



27th March 1976

Tempelhof, Berlin

It was a good day for the first major event of the year for Sophie’s Cycling Club. The sky was filled with fluffy white clouds, it wasn’t raining, and it was cool enough for them to press themselves without needing to worry much about getting overheated. Sophie had other considerations though.

Was it poor sportsmanship to give someone the thumping that they so richly deserved off the course? Or did she make sure that they left a good deal of their skin on it along with a bit of blood? Those were the questions that Sophie had as she found herself in the final portion of a friendly sponsored by her club that had become decidedly less than that.

One of the other competitors, an American girl named Connie, who was touring European events gauging the competition ahead of the Olympics, had dared to insult Sophie’s red no-name bicycle. Sure, there were a few spots of rust, the leather seat was heavily worn though perfectly broken in, and the cotton tape on the drop handlebars needed a fresh coat of shellac. However, there was nothing wrong with it mechanically. The 4130-steel frame was the perfect balance between strength, stiffness, and weight. Sophie had competed in dozens of races while riding it and had won far more often than she had lost. As far as she was concerned it was perfect. Just because the red no-name didn’t have a fancy name painted on the down tube had caused Connie to turn her nose up at it after asking the question; “You aren’t seriously planning on taking that to Montreal, are you?” And Sophie had been understandably insulted.

In the end, Sophie decided that she didn’t want the headaches that would come if she thumped Connie but settled for beating her in the final sprint for the finish line on the very bicycle that she had so casually dismissed. It seemed that Connie wasn’t used to losing, even in the face of stiff competition at what was supposed to be a friendly race. Alida was delighted, telling Sophie that she had beaten her best time by a several seconds and that she needed to keep that up. Connie had shot Sophie a dirty look when she had overheard that.

In a few months I will do far worse to you in Montreal, Sophie thought to herself as she watched the American girl stomp off as she was putting on the coveralls that had become a team feature. The Luftwaffe had found out that the cycling team was using surplus grey insulated coveralls of the type that flight crews aboard airplanes used and had offered the team new coveralls as well as official sponsorship, something that Alida Baruch would never turn down. When they came, they had a different set of patches, the Imperial Eagle was still there in it’s expected place, but the unit patch on the left shoulder had been replaced with a tricolor roundel inside a sprocket. Sophie had no idea where they had come up with that design, but she liked it.

When Sophie had mentioned this to Doug, he had amusedly asked if she understood why the Luftwaffe High Command might be interested in sponsoring an Olympic team mostly comprised of young women in their teens and twenties? She understood what he was implying and wished that she didn’t. That was something that Alida had warned her about from when she had competed in Track & Field. People seemed to focus on whether or not they were pretty with athletics falling by the wayside thanks to television and print media. Alida had said that it was just a sad reality that they needed to learn to live with.



Wahlstatt, Silesia

There were few things more disturbing for Niko than seeing Bas with a stopwatch. The whole idea was that he needed to improve his times in running and in swimming. It was especially ironic because Bas wasn’t the fastest runner and while Bas knew how to swim, he had learned alongside Niko, he wasn’t about to do it competitively.

That was why Niko was out running the four-kilometer cross country in practice knowing that Bas was waiting at the finish line with that cursed watch. Still, he knew that he would run the rest of the course. Why? Because Niko had never been able to make himself only do anything halfway. Was that a personality flaw? He didn’t know. The only one who seemed to understand was Opa, but his inability to ever compromise was legendary. Of course, first as an Ace Pilot, then as a General, and finally on ever higher rungs of Silesian Nobility, he had never needed to compromise. Now, Opa was at the very top of the heap and there was nowhere else to go. Niko himself had seen what his grandfather did for entertainment. Gambling, sport, and political gamesmanship. Opa wasn’t able to go hunting like he had throughout his life, but the social aspect of it, mostly in the form of telling stories about a lifetime’s worth of adventures. Hunting in Africa and the Canadian Arctic, travels to the Far East and South America. Niko had seen how respected his grandfather was in Patagonia where he had become a major landowner. As his grandson, Niko had frequently found himself at the table when important decisions had been made when he had been in Argentina acting as his father and grandfather’s proxy.

Was all of that a taste of what the rest of his life would be like? When Niko had told Opa that he had made the National Team and would competing in the Modern Pentathlon in Montreal it had been the happiest he had ever been with him. It had been in that moment that Niko had realized that Opa would be right there with him and Bas if he were their age.

Rounding a corner, Niko caught sight of Bas sitting on the bench at what they had agreed was the finish line today. The louse had fallen asleep and had forgotten to start the watch at the start.
 
With Sophie, Niko, and Bas all making the German Olympic team going to Montreal, they are going to be amongst the youngest athletes there and I doubt that Kat, Ilse, and Nancy would want them to not have someone trusted to look after them at the Olympic Village...

IOTL some of the main storylines in Montreal are the breakout performance of Nadia Comaneci, the massive cost overruns building the venues and the overall spending on the games itself, and the rivalry between the U.S. Women's Olympic Swimming Team and the 'roided up East German Women's Swimming Team, I can see two out of the three being the same ITTL.

Marie is going to be in great demand this summer in Montreal and while she wants nothing to do with the Olympics, she may have no say in the matter.
Between the influx of Royals starting with Queen Elizabeth II needing or others needing her services as an interpreter, or others paying her big bucks for them, to Kat wanting her to keep an eye on her younger relatives, Marie may find her summer booked.

Douglas Blackwood, an international renowned photographer and a former longtime Montreal resident is going to be there and his father, Sir Malcolm even through retired, has extensive contacts to numerous law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world is sure to be at least a part time consultant with the security team for the games.
 
I could see Hans going in a "journalistic" (read as: Free Holiday for minimal reporting) capacity, especially as football is an Olympic sport. Can't remember if Manny is going for shooting or not (if he is, Hans is definitely going to support his son)

Honestly, would be hilarious if the German team does awfully and this accidentally leads to Hans winding up in Football management at the national level.
 
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