cahn

I wanted to comment on a particular comment here, because it delighted me so much:

January 1758? That's too early! And why is Glasow still around? What's the point of the Leuthen divergence? ....and then I arrived at the Alcmene pov scene and the penny dropped. ZOMG. Romulus and Remus indeed. (I also could see the point of the Leuthen divergence immediately. Aside from pushing Wilhelm even more, it gives Heinrich an additional reason to feel guilty and project on to Friedrich (not to mention a legitimate reason to hate on Fritz some more.

The whole AU aspect of this fic was very complicated. On top of that, the summary was the hardest and most successful one I've ever written. I decided to open with "January 1758" and Wilhelm's death, because I knew you would *immediately* pick up on it being too early, and that would tell you something about the way in which it was canon-divergent, beyond the tag just saying it was.

Then there was the Leuthen divergence.

Well, cahn can tell you, I did everything in my power to avoid this. I wanted the point of divergence to be "How dark is Heinrich?" such that the divergence is him being the kind of person who decides to kill Fritz.

But then, by wanting to make it a mystery, I added new constraints, namely: I wanted it disguised as suicide, and I wanted Wilhelmine to have long enough to live to travel to Berlin and play detective. I toyed with having her show up, charge Amalie with finding out what happened, and die. But I didn't like that, I wanted the sisters to team up.

But *you* try finding a point during the Seven Years' War in which Heinrich is motivated to kill Fritz, Wilhelmine still has at least several months to live and it's at least a little bit plausible that she traveled to Berlin, and the military situation is bad enough that Fritz's death can be passed off as suicide (because no one's going to believe it was *just* Wilhelm's death). Between AW's death and Wilhelmine's death are only 4 months, and the military situation is looking pretty up for Prussia.

I tried everything. And I eventually gave up and had to mess with the military situation.

And because I'm me and I dislike randomness, I incorporated it into the fic such that it puts extra pressure on Heinrich (he's still intentionally slightly OOC, but there's also more external motivation for him compared to canon) and is the result of a different single point of divergence: Glasow not getting locked up. So I'm glad that paid off for you in terms of added character motivation.

And *then*, when all was said and done, I had to figure out how to write a summary that would make it clear this was a mystery-and-drama (and thus appeal to mystery lovers) without letting on about Fritz's death! So I totally cheated, like those movie trailers that cut and splice things that don't go together. "Amalie and Wilhelmine team up to find out what really happened to their brother," lol. It's true but also a total lie of omission, and it makes me laugh every time. The whole summary is a LIE, although every word is true. :D

Also, this is hilarious and I can't resist sharing: I know how selenak is always tickled by Fritz writing nearly verbatim letters to different people, so I made good use of that in this fic. And when Wilhelmine realizes that the "suicide note" is almost verbatim the same as a portion of the "not my fault!" letter she got from Fritz, cahn wrote this in a comment on the draft:

Fritz's frugality! Being frugal is a good quality! ...I guess. If you're murdered.

This still makes me laugh.

I also found the textual aspects of this fic to be rewarding to write: not only are there a lot of letters bouncing around (Heinrich's letter to AW that leads him to start refusing food, Amalie's canonical letter to Fritz that she's worried pushed him over the edge, our favorite Fredersdorf letter--I couldn't resist--etc.), but Fritz writes two specific texts that are important to the plot. One, the very similar letters to Wilhelmine and Heinrich, the text of which gets used as a trigger for his murder, a faked suicide note, *and* the key to Wilhelmine realizing he was murdered. Two, that poem about wanting to be die for Wilhelmine, and failing that, to be buried with her, which leads Amalie to believe she understands why he committed suicide, misleads Wilhelmine into silently telling Fritz that he may have died for Heinrich instead (well, yes, but differently!), and leads to Fritz and Wilhelmine being buried together with the dogs. (Even in this darkest of fics, I couldn't resist fixing one thing. And yes, FW2 not calling the shots is key here-I don't think Heinrich can risk drawing attention to his resentment by burying Fritz anywhere other than where he'd made it really clear he intended to go.)

In summary, one text to make you understand why someone would want to murder Fritz, and another to make you realize he wasn't a complete monster.

And yes, cahn, this was always meant to be the trigger behind Heinrich's decision, and I did trust you to put it in (it would have been there by the time you saw it, if you hadn't been given such an early draft). Other self indeed. :)

The war not ending with the return of Silesia: yeah, this wasn't me thinking, "What would be the most logical outcome?", it was me thinking, "For plot and character reasons, the show war *must* go on--how can I make it happen?" And I lucked out that East Prussia was occupied in January 1758 (and of course, that the alliances, balance of power issues, and the war itself have gathered a momentum that transcends Fritz's misogynistic remarks).

Carel was likewise me wanting a named character with some kind of a backstory, and thanks to Selena's Fahlenkamp research, having one! He only needed a small rescue, and so I didn't have to tie it to the rest of the divergence. Hi, Carel, you get a fix-it in this bleak fic too!

Catt showing up a few months early was less my wanting a token decoy suspect (also that, but it was pretty obvious, as sub_divided said, that it wasn't him) and more me wanting a canonical source for Fritz talking about his poison, combined with my inability to resist taking a dig at Catt being self-important but not murderous. :P I'm still holding a grudge, okay!

The line about acting like he had as much right to consider himself the bereaved as Amalie was a cahn-supplied line, though, and a good one it is. :)

All in all, this was a doozy to write, and a great experience that I feel I grew as a writer from. It was also *awesome* collaborating with cahn and getting to watch selenak pick up on all the little things, as always. <333