Maria Theresia: So you want me to pretend to be against it so that that man and our Joseph can be for it? How old are you all, twelve?
Franz: I'll remind you that when the doctors told you explicitly to rest and do nothing during your first six pregnancies, you instead went dancing, stayed up till 11 pm and gambled.
MT: That was different. I knew better.
F: *eloquently says nothing*
MT: Fine. But what if it's all for nothing, and he sees through me? I'd be humiliated, Franzl! By that man!
F: Mitz, you're the best actress I've ever met. (*Footnote: He actually did say that. ) Just think of how you sang Agrippina. I couldn't imagine a woman more different from you, and yet when you embodied her, we all believed the truth of every note! Channel your inner Agrippina. I believe in you! You can do it.
*early in the morning, Fritz hasn't arrived at the summit salon yet; MT mutters to herself beneath her breath "Think Agrippina, think Agrippina" and hums a few Händel notes when Joseph arrives; her posture immediately changes to stiff disapproval*
MT *pitching her voice as a trained singer can so she will be overheard in the next room, just in case Fritz is either already near or has deployed lackeys*: Joseph, I don't want you to attend the summit today. Your very presence is a sabotage, because the King can see you're far too impressed by him.
J: But Mom! The entire summit was my idea! You can't do that!
MT: Yes, I can. In fact, I'll go further. When we get back home, I'm confiscating your copy of the Anti-Machiavel and the porcelain cup portrait you think I don't know about. Till we leave, you're staying away from the King, you don't talk to him, you don't as much as breathe his name! Are we clear!
J: *slams door on his way out (not the way Fritz will take when entering, the other door*
MT: *tries to calm herself herself; there was a bit too much truth in that performance; gets out her rosary, both as part of the calming effort and because it's a prepared prop; she knows, after all, that Fritz is always mocking her piety in public; she then gets out her supersecret weapon, a broche showing a miniature pastel portrait of... Wilhelmine, and pins it firmly on her dress where Fritz is bound to see it*
Fritz: *enters*
MT *smile pasted on*: You don't have to kneel, your grace. (*he wasn't about to, as well she knows, but it can't help reminding him he bloody well should, according to protocol*) In fact, it is I who owe you, I just remembered. Before he died, Prince Eugene told me you wanted to convert and marry me, and see, if you'd officially proposed my father probably would have said yes, what with Prussia so full of soldiers and money, and then where would we be! In misery, that's where. But you reconsidered, and so I owe you decades of happiness with the love of my life. THANK YOU!" *grabs him by his shoulders and kisses him on both cheeks*
Re: Crackfic
Maria Theresia: So you want me to pretend to be against it so that that man and our Joseph can be for it? How old are you all, twelve?
Franz: I'll remind you that when the doctors told you explicitly to rest and do nothing during your first six pregnancies, you instead went dancing, stayed up till 11 pm and gambled.
MT: That was different. I knew better.
F: *eloquently says nothing*
MT: Fine. But what if it's all for nothing, and he sees through me? I'd be humiliated, Franzl! By that man!
F: Mitz, you're the best actress I've ever met. (*Footnote: He actually did say that. ) Just think of how you sang Agrippina. I couldn't imagine a woman more different from you, and yet when you embodied her, we all believed the truth of every note! Channel your inner Agrippina. I believe in you! You can do it.
*early in the morning, Fritz hasn't arrived at the summit salon yet; MT mutters to herself beneath her breath "Think Agrippina, think Agrippina" and hums a few Händel notes when Joseph arrives; her posture immediately changes to stiff disapproval*
MT *pitching her voice as a trained singer can so she will be overheard in the next room, just in case Fritz is either already near or has deployed lackeys*: Joseph, I don't want you to attend the summit today. Your very presence is a sabotage, because the King can see you're far too impressed by him.
J: But Mom! The entire summit was my idea! You can't do that!
MT: Yes, I can. In fact, I'll go further. When we get back home, I'm confiscating your copy of the Anti-Machiavel and the porcelain cup portrait you think I don't know about. Till we leave, you're staying away from the King, you don't talk to him, you don't as much as breathe his name! Are we clear!
J: *slams door on his way out (not the way Fritz will take when entering, the other door*
MT: *tries to calm herself herself; there was a bit too much truth in that performance; gets out her rosary, both as part of the calming effort and because it's a prepared prop; she knows, after all, that Fritz is always mocking her piety in public; she then gets out her supersecret weapon, a broche showing a miniature pastel portrait of... Wilhelmine, and pins it firmly on her dress where Fritz is bound to see it*
Fritz: *enters*
MT *smile pasted on*: You don't have to kneel, your grace. (*he wasn't about to, as well she knows, but it can't help reminding him he bloody well should, according to protocol*) In fact, it is I who owe you, I just remembered. Before he died, Prince Eugene told me you wanted to convert and marry me, and see, if you'd officially proposed my father probably would have said yes, what with Prussia so full of soldiers and money, and then where would we be! In misery, that's where. But you reconsidered, and so I owe you decades of happiness with the love of my life. THANK YOU!" *grabs him by his shoulders and kisses him on both cheeks*