cahn | Frederick the Great discussion post 12

Meanwhile in Vienna:

FS: ...the Archduke Joseph has been what?

MT: That entire family belongs in a prison. Clearly.

Isabella: *looks suspiciously undistressed*

Maria Christina: Mom, I think you need to be strong now. I mean, that's what you always say, right? Country before family?

FS: We're still not letting your brother rot in Berlin. I've been there. The beds alone are a trial. Besides, it's not like we could have kept the King of Prussia a prisoner for any length of time in any regard, and an exchange as the ending of this war...

MT: I'll remind you that an ancestor of mine kept Richard Coeur de Lion prisoner for two and a half years and got enough money out of it to finance the entire city wall around Vienna.

FS: But Mitz, you're not seriously intending to leave our boy with the Prussians?

MT: Of course not! I have a plan.

Maria Christina: *disappointed* You do?

MT: A very secret plan.

*refuses to say more, but beckons onen of her new ladies in waiting to her*

*later that night*

MT to the Chevalier d'Eon, famous transgender aventurer who currently is the secret go between between her, Elisaveta and Madame de Pompadour: I need you to rescue my son from the Prussians.

!!!!! omg I laughed so hard!
Also, hoooooow have I not heard about the Chevalier d'Eon before now?!

Isabella: *looks suspiciously undistressed*

Maria Christina: Mom, I think you need to be strong now. I mean, that's what you always say, right? Country before family?

LOLOLOLOL! Missing scene:

Isabella, woken from sleep: Whaa--?

Seydlitz: DAMMIT! Wrong bedroom, we thought Joseph was in here. Ugh, now she's going to call the guards and we're toast.

Isabella: No, wait! You're here to... kidnap Joseph?

Seydlitz: Well, that was the plan --

Isabella: His bedroom's over there. Let me draw you a map.

Also, hoooooow have I not heard about the Chevalier d'Eon before now?!

Because you haven't read the mob boss AU fic! I mean to say, that's where I know him/her/them from,

selenak probably has all sorts of serious business sources. *cough*

I have to run for a bit, but you can be sure one of us will give you a rundown in the near future. [ETA: Oh, I see she linked to Wikipedia. That works!]

Isabella: His bedroom's over there. Let me draw you a map.

*dies* This whole thing is too good.

Edited 2020-03-03 14:54 (UTC)

Isabella so would, and I love your missing scene!

This is awesome and I was delighted to see the Chevalier appear!

Isabella: *looks suspiciously undistressed*

Maria Christina: Mom, I think you need to be strong now. I mean, that's what you always say, right? Country before family?

This is great, and I love how we have the context to appreciate this, which I definitely did not before joining the earthly paradise of our salon!

FS: We're still not letting your brother rot in Berlin. I've been there. The beds alone are a trial.

HAHAHA. Too good.

I was delighted to see the Chevalier appear!

When I wondered which swashbuckling secret agent type figure MT could task with rescueing her son, the Chevalier immediately came to mind! (Especially since he/she/they definitely knew Elisaveta and Pompadour, and was on the allied against Fritz side of the 7 Years War.)

BTW, the Duc de Croy has an entry about the Chevalier - whom he met repeatedly over the years - in which he's certain d'Eon was a biological woman, which, as wiki tells me, later was disproved upon their death. But that was years later, when D'Eon was so well known that he couldn't have been a good secret agent/Joseph rescuer anymore.

Meanwhile, on the road:

Hussar: Boss, the kid is talking my ear off. Can you ride with him for a while?
Seydlitz: He's complaining this much?
Hussar: Nah, he wants to know all about the King, and I'm fresh out of non treasonous anecdotes.

*later*

Seydlitz: So, just in theory, your highness, if I asked you to give me your word not to try and escape before we reach the border, seeing as there's so much more you could still learn about us Prussians...

Joseph: Sorry, no can do. I mean, I think you're cool, and that your monarch rocks, but as long as I'm your prisoner, you're having leverage on my mother and my Empire. Honor and common sense demands I should try to escape the moment you're not looking. Tell you what, though: have you ever considered that I'm your future Emperor? If you changed sides and returned with me to Vienna, it wouldn't be treason, it would be obeying a higher loyalty, and also, we pay better. And have better food.

Seydlitz: And a chastity commission, or so I hear. Nope, sorry. I love the ladies too much. Also my King. I suppose.

Joseph: I get that, but you could love him from an Austrian distance. There's precedent, is all I'm saying.

Edited 2020-03-04 09:02 (UTC)

Seydlitz: And a chastity commission, or so I hear. Nope, sorry. I love the ladies too much. Also my King. I suppose.

LOLOL. Seydlitz, I'm sex-positive as they come, but since you don't seem to be practicing *safe* sex, you might want to take a break from the ladies. For your own health, and that of your partners.

Joseph: I get that, but you could love him from an Austrian distance. There's precedent, is all I'm saying.

Too good!

Chronology note for

cahn, Joseph is anywhere from 16 to 21, depending on when during the Seven Years' War this is set (presumably not during the first few months, otherwise he might be 15).

Did we tell

cahn about Seydlitz' syphilis yet? If we didn't, Cahn, Seydlitz really would have benefited from a break. He had contracted syphilis at a young age, and eventually died in the tertiary stage. There was a period of enstrangement from Fritz but also a reconciliation, and a very sad final meeting,. To quote Wiki: In August 1773, in his last illness, Frederick and Seydlitz met again at Seydlitz's home at Minkovsky near Ohlau (now Oława, Poland). The King sat beside his sickbed, horrified at Seydlitz's condition, and even persuaded him to take some of his medications, but Seydlitz would not look at him; the illness had already deformed his face.

I mentioned it once, but not in this much detail, and I'm sure it got lost in the flood of information. This fandom is like drinking from a firehose!

Seydlitz, btw, is the one who got wounded in battle, recovered from his wound, and right before he returned to active duty, wrote to Fritz asking if he could marry someone who could act as his nurse in the hypothetical event that he got injured again someday.

Fritz: Sure! I'm all about marrying for the distant prospect of future medical care. I know you would never get married because you *wanted* to...right?

Seydlitz: Nope, not a bit of it. I mean, what about my entire life history would make you think I'm attracted to women? I'm as pure a Potsdamite as you and your brother! Just like your chamberlain boyfriend, who also married a nurse.

Fritz: I find this argument totally convincing. Permission granted!

Seydlitz, sotto voce: Fritz will let you marry a prospective nurse, spread the word!

ETA: Seydlitz also the one about whom Fritz wrote to Heinrich that his death could have been avoided if only he had listened his doctors ~~like Fritz notoriously never does~~.

Edited 2020-03-04 17:12 (UTC)

And the one on the Obelisk ("this rare man, surviving all dangers, died in the arms of peace"). Lehndorff who socialized a bit with him when Seydlitz was recovering found him very dashing and attractive indeed.

Definitely not at the start. Fritz has to win some and lose some first! Also, if it's after Joseph has married Isabella, it's after October 1760. (Though crack fic of course allows for dates to be mixed and mingled. Given that it's an AU anyway and Fritz got captured.)

Incidentally, whom you don't ask to rescue anyone, or to go on any kind of secret mission: Trenck.

Definitely not at the start. Fritz has to win some and lose some first!

Agreed! The stakes have to be high.

(Though crack fic of course allows for dates to be mixed and mingled. Given that it's an AU anyway and Fritz got captured.)

Yeah, we might have to mix and mingle some dates here.

Incidentally, whom you don't ask to rescue anyone, or to go on any kind of secret mission: Trenck.

Or entrust with anything ever, including his own head (like you said, it's a wonder he didn't lose it sooner!).

Frederick the Great discussion post 12

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