*Round Robin ‘Riting Sans Magic And Space-Time Travel
Just in time for the post-NaNo season, a brand new RRR. Suggested by Prarilius Canix, who pointed out “that the two sci-fi RRRs we had both had space travel, and the innumerable fantasy RRRs all had magic. I think it’s time to pull a Monty Python and say ‘And now for something completely different.’ I think that the writers on the blog (including me) might enjoy a challenge.”
Before we do anything else, we should settle on a vague plan. Alternate history has been suggested, but there are other genres that would work. Comments?
1- hmm.
Prarilius Canix (1) – I think alternate history will work really well, and it might be fun if we told it throught the lives of two or three different families living in the time period.
*wants to join this*
I personally like the alternate history idea, but about what time period would we be writing in(if we do AH)?
I like the idea of alternate history….maybe we lose WWII…if people are up for a challenge….there’s a lot of tough ideas there.
I’ve always wanted to join in an RRR, but I find it either moves really fast or homework gets in the way….
*hopes this will be different*
How about an AH RRR where some huge invention was never invented? Like the car, for example, or the TV. Something like that.
5-Maybe we could do something where it was past the time when WWII was supposed to have ended, but the bombs were never dropped. That might be interesting.
WWII AH is very common. Here are some suggestions that already came up:
World War One
Other branches of humanity (Neanderthals, erectus, floresiensis) survived instead of dying out
Ogedei Khan does not die in 1241, and the Mongols continue expanding into Europe
I have always wanted to write an alternate history novel…I vote for that!
can we do the thing that PC sudgested about if the monguls invaded Europe?
O.k., so it is going to be AH.
rember, this takes place after the change, but we will have a prolague to talk about the change.
11- We don’t have to have a prologue, I think it would just be a convenient way for everybody to have a say in how events proceeded after the point of divergence.
Let’s decide on the POD before beginning to write. We’ve got two votes for Mongols invading Europe. Any other ideas?
voting ends tommarrow at 1.
13- Blog time, I presume.
I vote for both. Because they both sound really good, and I am extremely indecisive.
Does anyone like the family idea? I think it might work really well.
15- Several different families living in different parts of the world, so that we get a global perspective. And their lives eventually converge/collide.
ooh. I love AH. No preferance.
Yes, alternate history sound good, and so does the mongols invading Europe, but I think we can do better…such as…well, I’m not sure (I’m taking a History class at OCC, hence, my brain is still sifting through info.), but I’d like something a little more close to home, and civilized…I’d say American Revolution being lost by the Americans, but that’s a little too common an idea, I think…
18- How about we lose the War of 1812? I don’t think that’s as common as the Revolution. *goes and gets American History textbook*
19-or we win vietnam?
‘K, how about this. Instead of going on to Baltimore, the British hold Washington DC. They eventually defeat the Americans; Andrew Jackson is killed; Francis Scott Key writes a tragic poem, the most famous lines of which are “No more shall the star spangled banner e’er wave/O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” However, the war is long and bitter, and while the British concentrate on fighting the US, Napoleon spreads his empire through Europe nearly unchecked.
This sounds fun! I really like the 1812 idea, although anything would be good, in my opinion. We’d need to do some historical research and stuff. And I like the family idea, too.
So it seems to be a tossup between 1812 and Mongol expansion. Votes?
I’m voting for 1812!
23-mongol! kublai kahn!
I think I’ll vote for 1812. I couldn’t resist the idea of Francis Scott Key writing “No More Shall the Star-Spangled Banner E’er Wave.”
monguls: 2
1812: 1
which are you voting for, Pc?
26-if the poem was really like the morbid idea that it is, would he even refrence to it like that? Hmmm…methinks he would eventually get executed…
opps! your post was just moderated.
28- You’re right. We probably shouldn’t paraphrase our timeline’s poem too closely. I just thought it might lend the story some bitter irony.
Good idea! He’d be executed for sedition and support of Britain’s enemies.
What about if the South won the Civil War, and slavery was still legal in this modern age? Or would that be too offensive/difficult to write about? If so, put my vote for 1812, please.
30-he could write the poem before his death! It would end something like…and so liberty falls before tyranny, or something.
31-I dunno, I’m starting to like this 1812 war thing.
I like the 1812 idea, particularly since we’re studying American History in my History class.
32-Ooh, I hadn’t seen your post. That’s a sweet idea. Like, instead of waking up one morning to see the banner waving, he wakes up to see the British flag in its place and the American flag on fire. And then the poem could later (after his death) become a British song insulting the Americans (sort of like what they did to Yankee Doodle)
I’m so happy! Sort of. I’m happy I have wireless in my own home, afraid that any moment it’s going to run out, and terribly, terribly, sad that I don’t know any history. But I like the idea of writing something in the early 19th century, so I’ll go with 1812. Now to research it.
18- way too common
20- ooh cool.
I really like vietnam, but of the more popular ones, War of 1812 sounds good
*does research*
31- no. it is like world war 2. it so plain.
36-well, the topic of vietnam…it was sort of a war that people wouldn’t want to write about, i guess…but…
at one blogtime or at post #50, we will end voting.
alright. We pretty much figured out that it’s going to be 1812, but we should wait for the end of the day to tally up the votes, and that brings me to the next topic. How will these be written? In form of RRR?
40- I do not now what you mean by “in the form of RRR?”
40- Well, certainly in the form of RRR. We’re not just writing an alternate history textbook, we’re writing a story in which history has gone differently.
All right, here’s how I thought it should be:
Prologue: Describes history after the turning point up to the beginning of the story.
Story: Anything (action, adventure, intrigue, mystery) that works, set in this alternate world.
At what time in the alternate world? Immediately after the turning point? Or “today,” 195 years later? Or..?
Any time after the turning point. That’s something that will probably be decided by the first writer.
43- Intrigue!
Now, one of the biggest stumbling blocks in AH is two words:
CHARACTER DIALOGUE.
Before we put ANY idioms or popular expressions into their speech, we have to make SURE that the expression was invented BEFORE the turning point. Of course, we can invent expressions as long as they’re plausible.
I can help a bit with keeping the language authentic. It’s something I’ve paid attention to over the years. But I wouldn’t let it hog-tie you by making you too self-conscious. You can always go back and edit it later.
48- PB&J would probably be a big help also, although his specialty is admittedly centuries before this.
So, shall we start?
Oh, and one more thing: (sorry about double post)
I volunteer to be Keeper. I’ll open a WP document and get started as soon as somebody starts writing.
Ergh. Somebody else will have to start, because I’m only dimly aware of what the War of 1812 even is.
Is it that there’s no moderation, or has nobody been on for the past hour?
Anyhow, I have an idea how to start the prologue off, but I’ll let someone else do it.
I’m going to look really silly if this post gets moderated after thirty well-crafted historical developments.
I’ll start, then.
Andrew Jackson made his final, bitter stand in a barricaded Philadelphia townhouse, a musket in either hand, leading the remnant of the Continental Army to the defense of James Madison. He took five bullets before he fell, and the fourth and last President of the United States was led away in chains. And so America perished in the very city that gave her birth, perhaps the cruelest jest ever made by Fortune in her long and perverse history.
Continue as ye please.
Now that I reread that, it seems a bit implausible. Would the British have taken over America had they won the War of 1812? Did they still consider them “rebels?”
This RRR is being ignored.
Let’s just stick with this beginning for the prologue, for now. Especially since no-one else has written one….
Does anyone want to continue?
Please?
Pfft. American history is boring. I’d totally vote Mongols if there was still a vote, which there isn’t.
54 (PC)- I sort of doubt they could have taken over the country at the end of that one war. At the end of the Revolution, Britain was forced by the Treaty of Paris to officially recognize American independence, so they would not still have been considered rebels. From what I remember of the war, it was being fought over Britain still interfering in American affairs, as well as the ridiculously hawkish actions of a few individuals. It was one in a very long series of completely pointless wars; it had two main purposes as far as history is concerned: Francis Scott Key wrote an unsingable song about it, and it proved that America was able to hold its own in another fight against the mother country. It also established our reputation as senseless warmongers, but that does not sound particularly glorious so we shall ignore it.
If America had lost the war, I doubt very much that we would have lost our independence, but we would certainly have become more unstable politically, and Britain would have continued to poke into what Americans considered their own business. None of this flashy leading of presidents away in chains, though.
Besides, I like James Madison. He was short, he wrote the Bill of Rights, and he occasionally had intelligent thoughts.
55 (PC again)- One post of story per day is a pretty good rate for an RRR. Don’t complain.
Agh. This sounds really good, but I am horrible at history. Curse my inability to pay attention during Social Studies!
Oy, well, it looks like I’m late, but my vote was going for the War of 1812…I’ll do some research, too.
Fine, I’ll write, if nobody else will.
—
That night, once-rebels around the country were held in a sway of sorrow for their warriors, their soldiers, their leaders, and even themselves. Noone would be spared by the British, from the youngest soldier to the oldest, unless they swore their loyalty away from the stars and stripes, the banner they had served for the duration of the war.
50-WP=What?
I think we should have it in a Google Doc, so that it can be updated regularly and published to the web, and then linked to in the first post of this thread.
(Sorry for the double post, by the way)
Cat’s Meow (61): I think that’s a really good idea! I’m not sure how they work, but they seem to be great for the NaNovels, and it would make it easier to edit and such.
My beginning was quite unrealistic. Shall we begin again?
This is the tough part of AH… all the research
Grrrrrrrrr. I wrote a post and it vanished. *shakes fist at unreliable internet*
Anyhow, it basically said that I was to busy reading NaNos to research it.
As far as I can tell, the Americans were fighting the Canadians as well as the British, the British were fighting the French as well as the Americans, and the French may have been allied with Canada. But it’s probably all just nonsense cobbled together out of what I could grasp from two minutes looking at Wiki.
YES! a Google doc! one step from a wiki!
Another attempt.
James Madison sighed. “It’s no use trying to put it differently. The war was one of the greatest disasters our nation has ever suffered- and I brought it about.”
“Surely, Mr. President, it isn’t as bad as you say?”
He laughed bitterly. “Not as bad! My party and I are ruined, and our nation is scarcely better. I gambled on this war and lost. The people’s faith in their militia, their government, their country- it has all come to naught in their eyes. And the cursed Federalists in Connecticut are seriously considering secession. We have a hard, long path ahead of us, and I am unsure that I will ever see the end of it, or if I want to.”
I heart Google docs. But you have to have a Google account to edit one, so we’d have to do all our writing on the thread still–was that what you meant? (I ought to set up a Google doc for the reference text of .1, speaking of which.)
Canada was a British colony at that time. Officially, it still is, but no one really believes that. From what I remember, the French were occupied with pounding the British in Europe than on helping America.
Okay, total explanation of Google Docs:
Google docs is something you can get with any Gmail account-we could make a new one to store all the RRRs, if we wanted. Basically it has online versions of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel-we would use Excel. We would keep posting on the blog, like we usually do, except the difference would be that instead of copying it into Word, the Keeper would copy the posts into a Google Doc. And then you could publish it to the Internet, like the NaNos were published, for example.
We could either make it so that there’s one keeper for all the RRRs, one keeper for each RRR (if other RRRs wanted to be on it too), or several people that go it and edit and stuff.
It would make editing a lot easier, too, might I add.
I am very fond of the Google docs idea, although I think CM meant to say that we’d use Word. I think it’s best to keep some aspects of planning and such on the blog, though, so we can attract newcomers and keep our beloved RRRs on the main page. One combined account would be useful, I think, so that all bloggers could edit the stories as they willed. However, I think we should still have people who compile the story separately (apparently they are called Keepers these days?), who would have their own copy of the doc with its edits to safeguard against vandalism. Sort of like a revert function on a wiki, ja?
A wiki, coincidentally, might work out very well for RRRs, especially the big ones with lots of worldbuilding. Mina’s helpful articles for the original could have their own pages, as could, say, histories of the RRRs themselves. Or even a general Museblog wiki, with subcategories for RRRs or whatever.
It mostly depends on what sorts of outside links the OEADs allow and how technological we want to get. I’d be willing to go any of the three routes (keep it on the blog, Google docs, and wiki), really. Let’s ask the OEADs before we try an extrablogular solution, though, since we know how leary they are of Musbloggers contacting each other outside the blog. Opinions desired, especially from OEADs.
Never mind…I’m not even gonna try to keep up, here…but maybe I’ll jump in once my History class gets to this period. That should be in, like, February or March.
See ya’ll then!!!
from post 66
“why, giving in to Britain, letting people go back to the way things were, thou we could get some people into parliament…”
“sir, you do not mean…”
“yes, (name of J.M.’s VP here), take off the flag and put up that union jack we have in storage.”
(name of J.M.’s VP here) walks slomly out of the room.
” in such a sort time, this great experiment in freedom has failed.”
***
france
I will leave it there…
71- He didn’t have a VP during the war. That’s why I didn’t say who he was talking to.
I don’t think that Madison was the sort to give up so easily, tho. He had an uphill struggle to get the Bill of Rights in, but he managed it.
I’m really sorry about shooting this post down, especially as you’re contributing to a tough story, but AH is hard to write right. *bad pun*
72- at least it you are being nicer than darth yoda was at the start of 2007.1.
OK, has the story actually started yet? Or have the posts that were written as part of the story so far been considered not needed?
*brain not working*
Coincidentally, I’ll be learning about the war of 1812 very soon in AP US History.
74- The only one that is considered “canon” so far is post 66.
73- Thanks, TMFA. It’s often hard to be tactful on RRRs. I think you were right that we should put in some part about France, though. With the British fighting longer and harder in America, I think that the French might have had a greater advantage in Europe, and possibly held onto their empire.
if were going to 1812, I got dibs on Jean Lafitte the pirate.
How does an RRR work? I would be interested in helping with this one if I can figure out how this works.
If we are doing the family idea, maybe we should map out the families and such.
76- Good idea. I’m off to research.
77- One person writes one part of a story, another writes the next, and so on.
78- First we figure out the history up to the point where the families are. Then we start mapping the families. Good idea, that.
Lafitte defended the city of New Orleans against British attack, earning himself a pardon. What shall we do with him in this timeline?
81 – Not to be morbid, but it does seem appropriate that he would have died in the battle.
82- All right, then.
Did he have any children? Perhaps if we’re setting the main story a couple generations after the War of 1812, one of the families could be descendants of Jean Lafitte…
*googles*
Lafitte’s background is obscure at best. He could very well have had children.
Argh. Curse unreliable internet/laziness/ignorance of American history. I’ll just sort of trail along being useless until I get the hang of this.
Why couldn’t we have done something I know about? Like, Lewis and Clark….
(The Lewis & Clark expedition is sadly the only piece of history I have any rough knowledge of.)
83-That sounds like a good idea. It might be harder that way, but it would kind of lend a sense of accuracy/making us seem well-informed to the whole thing. Not that we aren’t well-informed, but… I don’t know…
wow. 87 post. all that has been writen was by me and PC.
75- your right. I was very untactful on the school RRR.
87- Cat’s Meow also contributed, but she was continuing off my first beginning, which was shot down.
~
Across the Atlantic Ocean, in an opulent room somewhere in Paris, another, far more optimistic discussion was taking place.
“On the whole, it is a good thing for us that the English were drawn out into a long and bitter war in America.”
“Really? And how, my friend, do you understand that?”
“Their victory cost them many troops and supplies, and the British Crown could not send the full weight of its army against us. If it had, we could very well have lost the Peninsular War, and never recovered from the invasion of Russia.”
“Careful! That talk is fit only for defeatists- and you know l’Empereur’s opinion of them. ”
The speaker laughed. “It would be defeatist if it had come several years ago, but we have nothing to fear now.”
How many families should we have? I think more than three or four would be too confusing, but we can work with that number. For example, one member goes off to war or something, so we can cover two areas with one family.
How about four? One in America, one in England, one in France and one in the seceded New England states (Northern Confederacy.)
Also, we could do it from four first-person perspectives, one in each family. We’d have to keep the perspective switches from coming too abruptly and often, though. Maybe a minimum of three substantial posts before a change.
Could we also have some general description chapters in third person, which would be describing the general progress?
since it is about familys, who about it looks something like this:
month, date, year
today has been unadentful
yeah mom, right
(name of son)! sotp writing in the book
shes right! do not right in the book
mom, she’s doing it too!
stop! I will write!
DAD!
of corse, a lot less funney.
also, the war of 1812 was start do to the fact that the “war hawks” wanted to invade canada, but then the birtish stoped them.
oh, and PP’s idea.
91- Certainly.
92- I don’t know if we want to do it in “diary” format. We could, but so far it doesn’t seem to be like that.
Since we’ve seen two of the major historical changes (war of 1812 lost, Napoleon’s Empire still in place, though depleted) and hinted at another (secession of Northern Confederacy), shall we begin the actual story? I won’t, because I’ve written a lot so far, but if anyone else cares to…
what family aould we start with? is this first person? if you answer these, I will write.
Let’s start with the one in America (New Orleans, Lafitte’s relatives?). And it is first person, from the perspective of one of the family members.
Vague (possible) plot: The French, seeing the Northern Confederacy of America (NCA) as a new, and thus relatively fragile, nation (and also resenting its close alliance with Britain) are planning to attack it and thus gain a foothold in North America. Epic events ensue, sweeping characters up into them.
Once we get a little more detail on this world, I might make a map.
here, I’ll world build:
the nac is the land that is new york, new england, new foundland, and nova scotia. it is some time, by non-NACers, refered to as new land, because of all of it’s state have New in them. it’s president is jefferson ?(last name, please!)
America is a only as far as the the Louisiana purchase took them, but that area is strongly gaurded, due to thearts of take back by the french. it is ruled by ? ? (name)
france is a dictaorship, under the control of, who else, Napoleon the X. it rules all of the continent, russia, africa, most of the middle east, and most of the far east.
britain (or, more officially, the kingdom the republic of the great empire of the isle of britian) rules the british isle, canada, india, all of the south pacific islands, japan, south Africa, and washington/oragon.
alska, along with California and Nevada, are the union of free states.
the middle states (the places that we just took over, in this world) all belong ot the natives still.
this will look better mapped out.
99- Mmm. I assume that’s in the present time in this timeline? I was kind of thinking that it would only be a few generations after the divergence point.
69-Yeah, I did mean Word.
And there’s a way on Google Docs that you can revert vandalism and such. It keeps track of all the revisions, and you could revert to any of them automatically.
On a related note, the e-mail address musebloggers@gmail.com hasn’t been taken yet if we wanted to use that to store our RRRs.
97-I like that idea.
I feel like writing. Is there a post yet that has actually been accepted that I can continue off of, or will I have to start?
Posts 66 and 88. I’ll continue off your post if you write.
Hey, wait…I thought France helped the Americans in the Revolutionary war. Oh well. xD
I kind of want to start mapping out the people…
And we really need to decide what year this is in and stuff. Is it 3 years after The Devergence, or 10 years, or 50, or 200? =/
103- By the War of 1812, Napoleon had taken over, and he was far less sympathetic to America.
I’d say a little more than a decade afterward, in 1825. Then we wouldn’t have to do so much worldbuilding before starting to write.
So far, the major changes are as follows:
Napoleon’s empire consists of France, Spain, and Portugal
America is split into the original United States and the Northern Confederacy (all the New England states, with New York), after losing the War of 1812 (Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte are dead)
Let’s start mapping out the families. Which one first? I thought we should have one in the Northern Confederacy, one in the US, one in France and one in England.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812
This is the war we’re doing, right?
I vote that we have this story take place around 1900.
105- Well, we’d have to work out all the history up until 1900. I think that would be tough.
If we do, though, I have an idea. Each person works on developing the history of a certain region (Far East, Russia, Europe, America, British Empire) and how it changed after the point of divergence, researching along the way to keep it realistic. Then we post all of our “findings” here, and we’ve got our world.
104-Okay, ignore the 1900 bit. I just realized that’s way too long for a war to be going for, at least for our story. (Too much world building) I like your idea, it wasn’t up when I posted 105.
Who’s participating in what war right now against who?
Let’s do the US one first.
I think it should have a son who’s fighting in the war, a younger daughter, and maybe a small (6 or so) son as well. (One of the overseas ones)
And then maybe another one could have a single mother and a bunch of kids. (One of the US ones)
And then maybe another (NC or US, probably) where the father’s a soldier, and the women and kids help out with the housekeeping and stuff. (This could help the rest of the family get involved in the war)
And the last one could be maybe either one boy or two brothers whose mother died somehow and whose father died fighting in one of the wars, so they want revenge against the Americans/NCers and fight for that.
Your imput, please.
107- According to the prologue, the war is over by the time the story starts.
108-Really? But isn’t France attacking/planning to attack the NC?
109- Oh! I thought you meant the actual War of 1812. Yes, that sounds good. But if they’re all involved in the France/NCA war, we probably shouldn’t have one from Britain, as they aren’t involved. How about this.
Son in the war, 6-year-old son, and daughter: French. It’s written from the perspective of the daughter.
Single mother and lot of kids: US (New Orleans?) Written from perspective of one of the kids.
Father a soldier: NCA. Again, perspective of a kid.
110-Have Britain be just trying to harass everybody involved, maybe? I dunno. Those sound good, though. Would the French daughter’s perspective be expressed just through worrying about her brother/writing him letters and stuff? How would all three of the families end up meeting?
111- First question: Britain harassing everybody involved? No. I don’t think we should have a British family at all, as they’re not involved.
Second question: French daughter. Who knows? Maybe she gets caught up in the action somehow, too. But at first, that might work.
Third question: How would they meet? We’ll find out!
*is quivering with excitement to write something*
And remember, we don’t want to have a couple sentences, then switch perspective, like what happened on the Sea Roc. Three posts minimum before changing POVs.
112-Okay
Okay
Okay
I have to go read your NaNo (I just finished Chapter 2, and its really good) so I can’t write anything tonight. I’ll help tomorrow, though.
I just thought of a way that the French girl could be related to everything else. Maybe in addition to her brother serving in the war her father is an advisor to Napoleon back in France.
Good ideas all. Thank you for the compliment on my NaNo. I’ll wait till tomorrow.
so, this is in 1825? O.K.
note: if this is not in 1825, this post is null and void
clipty-clopity
I looked out my window. my father was going to his work. I opened the window.
“good moring Father!” I yelled
” good moring Mary!” Father called back up. he then said “hey!” and the hourse started off to the palace of Napoleon.
I opened the loft’s door and climbed down the dining room. I walked up to my mother and asked if we had any the letters from my brother.
” happly, we have gone one. here, i’ll read it to you.
dear family,
as you know, I am curently located in Texas, controling the french empires colony. we have received news, tho, that we will soon, possable setting out as early as today, to start the attack on the NEC in northern america.
I am happy to hear that father has gotten that job as the secretary for Napoleon. He has the job of transcribing napoleons autobiography, right? does he know anthing about this attack on the NEC?
how is david doing in school? I hope that he is continuing in the footsteps of his father and I, getting good grade and planning on going to collage? yes, sure, he is only six, but you need to think about these things.
mary, thank you for the cookies. they were the talk of the encampment for weeks.
sent with love,
john battenbrook.
there, isn’t that good?
mother started to compose a letter back to john. I looked over her sholder as she wrote:
Dear john:
thank you for the letter. it is always nice to hear from you.
no, your father has not said anything about what napoleon is telling him. he has been sworn to secrecy* about what he writes.
David is doing good in school, and mary is becoming rather, well, she does not think a womans place is in the home. this is becoming a thing of her and her friends, and father and I are worried. as for me, I am in good health and good sprits and am happy for you,
yours truly,
your mother
after she had writen this, and given us our food, david asked “what is the NEC?”
“you marie antionette, ever one knews what the NEC is!”
116- Perhaps change the names to something a little more… French, otherwise I like it.
I sighed. “David, the NCA is the Northern Confederacy of America. They were once part of the United States, you know, but they seceded after the War of 1812 because the Federalist Party in New England thought that the war should never have happened in the first place. You see… ”
“How on earth do you know all of this, Marie?” Mother interrupted.
I rolled my eyes. Oh, no. “I’ve been reading about the War of 1812. After all, we owe our victory in the Peninsular War to the Americans- indirectly, of course.”
“Marie, when are you ever going to need to know this?”
“And to think you struggle to get David interested in politics!” We’d been through this argument several hundred times if we had once, but it never became any less exasperating.
“Well, that’s a different matter. He’ll- ”
“Be a man one day? Mother, I’m not going to be content to sit back and waste the prime of my life on embroidery while you find a suitably rich and toothless merchant to marry me off to!”
“Now, dear- ”
It continued predictably, and came to an end when I left the table to get some fresh air in the garden.
It was only then, sitting on the stone bench by the wall and staring into the waving greenery, that I remembered what Jean had written.
War with the Northern Confederacy? Has Bonaparte gone completely mad?
(116-118) A literal translation of Battenbrook might be Latte-Ruisseau. Unless “batten” is derived from “baden” (bathing) — which makes more sense — then it could be Bain-Ruisseau or Bainruisseau.
119- GAPA to the rescue once again. I think Bainruisseau sounds best.
119-120- cool. I just like the sound of the name. I know no french.
oh, and that * in 117 was supot to have a footnote:
* sub-polt alert!
we can have a sub-plot with marie trying to find out more about her father’s job.
shall we continue with the bainruisseaus story? or shall we go to the next family? that line was great to end this chapter, PC!
Next family. We’re just introducing all of them right now- we’ll go into more depth in each later.
123- got it. any idea for which?
It’s either the one in the Northern Confederacy or in New Orleans.
I think we shouldn’t have the war starting right away- it would seem too hurried. Let’s build up to it.
And now that I’ve had time to think, let’s start with the family in the NCA.
I think they should be moderately well-to-do, and live somewhere in the country, as the Bainruisseaus’ house is in the heart of Paris.
I’m back. And I think I sort of understand now.
125- Gutengurger.
I’d write, but I don’t want to seem to take over this theard (like I did with the school rrr)
127-I don’t care. I think the rest of us need inspiration.
127- Do write, please.
Don’t worry. He won’t take over. I won’t let him
Okay, but If I get over obesive with this, tell me.
***
america (new Orleans)
there.
Where?
132- what does that mean?
133- What didst thou write?
131- You’re not getting obsessive. Will write later.
134- were the next place with be.
I laid back in the tall grass and watched the lazy, boat-speckled curve of the Mississippi.
(No more. Uninspired at the moment.)
The sun shone hot on my back, and behind me I could hear Mam instructing my sisters and younger brothers in spring cleaning.
((That’s all for now.))
“No- NO! Prudence, you drop that right now, you hear me? Anne! Come back here, there’s still laundry to do!”
I smiled. I wouldn’t have to suffer through the hours of tiresome, hot work that Mam always put us through. I was perfectly hidden, basking behind the grassy knoll and gazing at the patterns that the April sun traced on the river.
“Abigail Hope Sanderson, I know you’re there somewhere!”
On second thought, maybe it was time to find a new hiding place. I sprinted off.
“Abigail…” But my mother’s words were (mercifully) cut off as I tore farther and farther away from the sound of her voice. It wasn’t as though I didn’t want to help my family… I leapt over a fallen branch, just barely avoiding scraping my ankle.
I bit my tongue to stop the words I felt like saying from slipping out of my mouth. I wasn’t going to give Mam yet another reason to scold me this evening, as she had many a night recently. I slipped over the rickety wooden bridge that spanned the creek’s width and found myself at a small, wooden cabin. A thin whisp of smoke trickled from the chimney, painting patterns in the sky. I sighed, pleased with myself. Here, I would be safe.
142- I hope the “creek” you’re talking about is different from the river referred to in the other posts.
Then I stopped, puzzled. Nobody lived here usually- it was a deserted old shack. Why would there be smoke coming out of the chimney?
143-Yes, it is. It’s a small creek running off of the Mississippi (or whatever the other river is), not the river itself
—
It took me half a second to make a decision. There was no way Mam would let me be for long, and she would be sending George or Will out to get me any time now, and then I’d get punished, the same as always.
I cautiously made my way to the cabin. I heard voices inside, but they were hushed as I knocked on the door. I was about to turn away and get away from that cabin and whoever was in it when the door opened and a boy maybe a little younger than me stood there with a fierce, dirt-smeared face sticking out from under his tangled hair.
I have an idea to involve Abigail’s family in the war, as follows.
Napoleon is planning to blockade the city of New Orleans, which is where all of the goods from American farmers in the Louisiana Territory are loaded onto ships and brought to the east coast. The Emperor of France will only let these cargo ships pass by as long as America remains neutral in France’s war with the NCA. In other words, he wants to use New Orleans as a bargaining chip. He knows that America, despite her defeat in the War of 1812, is still a force to be reckoned with..
“who you?” he asked, quizically.
145-And then we need to figure something to do with the boy that I mentioned in my last writing.
147-Does anybody have any ideas?
By the way, PC, I like that idea
What’s America’s relationship to the NCA? Are they mad at each other, or allies, or what?
Well, they sort of resent each other, but in the event of a war, the USA would be on the side of the NCA because they know about Napoleon’s ambitions of empire and don’t want France to gain a foothold in North America.
Here’s my idea:
A few French soldiers were sent to reconaissance the city of New Orleans, to find out about anything that might pose a threat to the blockade. One of them was injured somehow (broke a leg or something?) and was found by a down-on-their-luck family, who are currently sheltering in the shack. They’re debating whether to take care of him or just leave him where they found him when Abigail knocks on the door. The French soldier later turns out to be (surprise, surprise!) Jean Bainruisseau.
Another idea: Monsieur Bainruisseau’s secret project is to develop a practical ocean steamship for the war against the NCA.
149- I like.
look, I’ll write once we get to the NCA.
“Who are you?” I retorted.
“Samuel,” he replied.
‘What are you doing here?” I tried to ignore the hostility in my voice. I could not think how it had got there, or why.
He looked down, rubbing his foot against the dirty floorboards. “Living,” he muttered.
I did not open my mouth to let out what I very much wanted to say. I did like the cabin, but I liked people better, and Mam had taught me to be charitable. If they wanted to live there, I might as well make friends with them. “Oh” was the politest thing I could think to say. So I said it.
He couldn’t seem to think of anything to say either, so we stood there, saying nothing, until I heard a faint voice calling my name. “Abigail! Abigail!”
“Oh dear,” I said. “That’s my brother.”
“Ah.”
“He’s coming to get me.”
“Ah.”
“I have to do the spring cleaning, see.”
“Ah.”
Inside I was practically screaming with frustration. Couldn’t the boy just let me in? I knew I wasn’t supposed to impose on a person’s hospitality, but really, what choice did I have? It was that or go back, where Mam would give me a strong talking-to, and, if I was lucky, set me to work scrubbing laundry or some other such unpleasant task.
So I said, “I usually hide here,” and looked pointedly at the open doorway.
“Ah,” said the boy, and this time there was a challenging tone.
“Yes,” I said firmly.
“Sam,” said a woman’s voice from inside. “Who on earth is it and will you come back inside?”
“Coming, Mother,” he said, and turned.
“Samuel whatever-your-surname-is,” I said fiercely. “Let me in or tell me a hiding place, now!”
“Abigail!” called my brother, decidedly closer now.
The boy hesitated.
“Now.”
“Fine,” he muttered. “Come in.” he held the door open for me.
“Thank you,” I said icily, and swept in. He followed me and closed the door again.
The interior of my dear hiding place had changed. It was no longer cheerfully dusty, with hints of neglect, but primarily empty. Instead, it was cluttered with people, and their various belongings. It was wrong… this was a place of peace, for me. It wasn’t supposed to be filled with…
I turned about, and gasped.
“What did you do to that poor man?” I pointed (Though I knew it was impolite) at a shivering figure upon the floor, his leg twisted in a way that should have been impossible.
“We didn’t do anythin’,” said what I had previously taken to be a heap of dirty clothes, but now was revealed to be a large woman wearing several layers of stained fabric. “We were out lookin’ for food when Sam spotted ‘im at the bottom of the ravine. Broke ‘is leg, so we brought him in.”
“I told you, Anna, we can barely find enough food for ourselves. We ain’t beholden t’ this man.” This was a slightly filthier person squatting in another corner, his face blackened with soot and pipe-smoke.
“Well, we can’t just leave ‘m to his fate, can we? Look, ‘e’s barely more than a boy… ”
I bent down to examine the patient. He was quite handsome, his lank blond hair spilling over his eyes. His skin was pale and clammy. The clothes he wore were not unusual, but upon closer inspection, I spotted a watch-chain protruding from his pocket.
“Now, who are ye?” the woman said, and I tore my gaze from the man.
“Abigail Hope Sanderson,” I recited instantly. “And who are you?”
“Anna,” Samuel retorted softly. “And as I said, I’m Samuel.”
“What about your surname?” I said, suspiciously.
“Ain’t got one,” the dirty man said, taking a long look at me. “None of us do.”
Post, someone? Please? xD
I would, but I exhausted my inspiration with the last post. It takes more effort for me to write realistic fiction.
Oh, okay.
Who else is writing between us two?
Purplefinch and Alice.
and me, once we get to NCA.
K, cool. Tmfa, why are you only writing for the NCA?
162- fench and NCA, and maybe America later. this is unispirering so far in America.
163- You’re right. But we have written quite a bit for Abigail. We can move to NCA now.
But I think we should work out what the NCA’s like first. Government, capital, president, any land gained since secession, etc.
164-the capital is Boston; the goverment is a odd democracy, with it working like this:
people vote
each county tallies the vote
the county get’s a vote for the most popular candidate
the state get’s a vote for the most popular candidate in the counties
the candidate with the most votes from the states get the presidency
no land has been gained since secession
I’ll start:
***
NCA
I walked down the lane, trying to find the wall. it was in need of repare. it was a small brick wall, which divided our land from the public land we border. we had to repare it, even tho they made us build it. why could they not build and maintan it? after I repared it (a brick was loose) I started back to the house. I grabed an egg, cracked it, and start to cook it. my mother came down and said ” mark, you have finshed the wall, right?”
“yes mother.” I said
“Good. if it was left one more day we have been fined.”
“why do we have to fix it, mother? they made us build it. why don’t they fix it?”
so here is ages, as I see it:
marie: 14 or 15
abigal: 15 or 16
mark: 13 or 14
11 post a day! on average.
165- I’m off to research the Northern Confederacy. (You didn’t know that they actually tried to secede once, did you? But the victory in the war lost the Federalists a lot of support for the idea, and it fizzled.) More detail later.
167- I know new york city tried to before the civil war. change facts as needed.
Abigail seems a little too old to be running away from spring cleaning. Let’s make her 11 or 12. Marie should be the oldest of the group, I think.
169- o.k.
170 posts in less then 15 days? Wow.
I would have pressed her, but I heard the voice of my younger brother drifting down the hill.
When I turned around, he was already in sight, waving a large envelope and nearly toppling over in excitement. At that rate, the sun would go down before he reached the house. With a snort of impatience, I ran to meet him.
169-Yeah, I agree.
—
“Aubry, get a hold of yourself!” I said, frusturated.
Aubry panted, his face red, his breath ragged and fleeting, yet a twinkling of excitement in his eyes.
“You’ll never believe it, Mark!” he squealed.
“I’m sure I won’t,” I said impatiently. “Now, what have you got in that envelope?”
He drew himself up to his full height, which wasn’t very much, and his voice rose a full octave in agitation. I was suddenly reminded of the flock of bats I had disturbed when exploring a cave near the house.
“Father sent us a letter!” he shrieked.
I snatched the envelope from his chubby fingers and ripped it open, ignoring his protests.
Dear Clara, Aubry, Mark and Millicent-
I hope this letter finds you in good health. I am still
“Read it out loud!” Aubry gasped, interrupting me. I sighed in exasperation and started at the beginning.
I am still stationed at Fort Niagara. Many of the men are sick and feverish, but I have escaped thus far. Life here is relentlessly tedious. I have come almost to the point of wishing that the British or the Indians would attack us, if only to relieve the boredom.
Clara-
I broke off here, not wishing to read the portion of the letter that Father had dedicated to Mother. It would seem like an intrusion upon their privacy. Aubry, unluckily, had no such qualms. “Keep reading!” he exclaimed. I skipped down a few lines, and was struck by an awful, wonderful idea.
“I hope that Aubry is studying hard,” I said, inventing wildly. “I know that he can’t fit much learning into his tiny brain, but perhaps through constant excersise he can raise his intellect from abject stupidity to mere dullness. He- ”
“You liar!” Aubry yelled, and attacked. Laughing, I ran down the hill, easily outdistancing him.
Finally, Aubry gave up and I circled back to join him. “Things are really boring around here, aren’t they?” he said wishfully, gazing up at the blank, blue sky.
“Whaddya mean?” I responded. Things were peaceful, surely, but I likely wouldn’t call them boring. Quiet was good, and it was much better than war.
“Even Father says it,” Aubry continued. “It might be worth having something happen around here, just because it would give everybody somethin’ to do. ‘Idle hands are the devil’s playthings’, Mother always says.”
“Since when do you ever listen to Mother?” I said, laughing and ruffling Aubry’s brown hair. “Nothing’s ever going to happen around here. You’re just going to have to create your own excitement, won’t you?”
Oops. That last sentence doesn’t make any sense, does it? Change it to “You’ll just have to create your own excitement, won’t you?”
173- You plagiarized! “had a awful,wonderful Idea is from the grinch!
176- It is? Oops.
177- yes, when he gets the idea for being santa and stealing Christmas.
at 200 post, I will make a back up draft, due to the fat that when ever we need a draft, it is gone. see trerraformed and etheerre.
179-I’m still voting for a Google Document, as well as a standard backup. That way it’ll be saved in at least 2 places. But you’re right, that is a good idea.
181- thanks. we can have PC send it to the GAPAs, have them put it on google, and I’ll have one two.
180- I’m Keeping.
181- We know that. I am just making a back up, in case of fire and/or your computer failing.
Guten.
Now we’ve got 3 substantial posts- shall we go back to Marie? Or Abigail?
184-Which one did we do first? Marie?
I’m going to go ahead and create a Google account to host the doc on, if that’s okay with everybody. I think last time I checked the username “Musebloggers” was still open.
Marie was first.
As nobody responded to my idea before, I shall repeat it.
Monsieur Bainruisseau is working to design a steam-powered warship for Napoleon, who hopes that the dreadnought will give him a decisive victory against the NCA.
186- Okay.
(185) We’ll be happy to set up a Google document that we can change when the Keeper sends us updates. But we will not post links to what amounts to someone’s personal web page. Sorry.
186-Okay. Let’s continue with Marie, then. And your idea sounds pretty good.
188-Even if it’s just for RRRs? -sigh- Okay, sounds good. ^_^
Anybody?
Estoy aqui, pero yo no puedo escribir ahora.
is it set up?
i’ll write:
***
I come back in from the outside,about the time that david come back from school.
192-Who are you writing for?
193- Probably Marie.
Wait, hold on. If David was present at lunch (he asked what the NCA was), how could he come back from school later on? What were school hours in nineteenth-century Paris?
194- LUNCH? that was Breakfast!
194- They probably went to boarding school or something.
196-Ooh, that might be tough. Maybe these kids get special homeschooling or something because they’re the high-ranking officials or something, so they basically make their own hours and get the run of the palace or whatever building they live in.
HELLO?
Hi!
Hello.
TMFA said that was breakfast. I don’t think that she’d have stayed out in the garden until after lunch (when David comes back). Let’s make it a little bit earlier.
Actually, I think maybe I’ll take this opportunity for some exposition about the world.
I sighed. Jean would get in trouble for writing to us as openly as that. Napoleon’s army would never sanction a letter that contained information about their next campaign. That had always been Jean’s biggest fault. He didn’t think, he just did things. Whether they went against his orders or not.
But then I paused as what he had written really sunk in. War? Truly? It was true, I knew, the Confederacy was weak. They were just a bunch of hotheads, in my opinion, not worth a second glance. But perhaps we could win back land, and gain a foothold on the new continent. But would it be worth a war? And who would Britain side with? The colonies hate them, as do we, but surely they would see some vauge opportunity for themselves within the chaos.
What was England’s attitude towards the Northern Confederacy? I tried to remember what I’d read in La Politique Moderne. The Federalists who seceded had favored an alliance with Britain, so the Crown might look favorably upon them. And, of course, the United States were still a force to be reckoned with. They would probably side with the NCA if it came to war, as they wanted to keep us off their continent. I shuddered. The Confederacy alone wouldn’t be hard to conquer, but… our victory in the last war with England had been a closer shave than Bonaparte’s Propaganda Ministry would have us believe. And with the USA backing them up…
But Napoleon was no fool. He must have considered this- he was the greatest military strategist France had ever seen. Perhaps he had a plan.
I’ll get the back up soon.
I’m kind of behind on Keeping, but I’ll catch up soon.
Do we have enough of Marie to move onto Abagail again?
220055– WWhhyy nnoott??
Here’s what we have so far, since I got tired of reading through 200+ posts to find what we had so far.
—
clipty-clopity
I looked out my window. my father was going to his work. I opened the window.
“good moring Father!” I yelled
” good moring Mary!” Father called back up. he then said “hey!” and the hourse started off to the palace of Napoleon.
I opened the loft’s door and climbed down the dining room. I walked up to my mother and asked if we had any the letters from my brother.
” happly, we have gone one. here, i’ll read it to you.
dear family,
as you know, I am curently located in Texas, controling the french empires colony. we have received news, tho, that we will soon, possable setting out as early as today, to start the attack on the NEC in northern america.
I am happy to hear that father has gotten that job as the secretary for Napoleon. He has the job of transcribing napoleons autobiography, right? does he know anthing about this attack on the NEC?
how is david doing in school? I hope that he is continuing in the footsteps of his father and I, getting good grade and planning on going to collage? yes, sure, he is only six, but you need to think about these things.
mary, thank you for the cookies. they were the talk of the encampment for weeks.
sent with love,
john battenbrook.
mother started to compose a letter back to john. I looked over her sholder as she wrote:
Dear john:
thank you for the letter. it is always nice to hear from you.
no, your father has not said anything about what napoleon is telling him. he has been sworn to secrecy* about what he writes.
David is doing good in school, and mary is becoming rather, well, she does not think a womans place is in the home. this is becoming a thing of her and her friends, and father and I are worried. as for me, I am in good health and good sprits and am happy for you,
yours truly,
your mother
after she had writen this, and given us our food, david asked “what is the NEC?”
“you marie antionette, ever one knews what the NEC is!”
I sighed. “David, the NCA is the Northern Confederacy of America. They were once part of the United States, you know, but they seceded after the War of 1812 because the Federalist Party in New England thought that the war should never have happened in the first place. You see… ”
“How on earth do you know all of this, Marie?” Mother interrupted.
I rolled my eyes. Oh, no. “I’ve been reading about the War of 1812. After all, we owe our victory in the Peninsular War to the Americans- indirectly, of course.”
“Marie, when are you ever going to need to know this?”
“And to think you struggle to get David interested in politics!” We’d been through this argument several hundred times if we had once, but it never became any less exasperating.
“Well, that’s a different matter. He’ll- ”
“Be a man one day? Mother, I’m not going to be content to sit back and waste the prime of my life on embroidery while you find a suitably rich and toothless merchant to marry me off to!”
“Now, dear- ”
It continued predictably, and came to an end when I left the table to get some fresh air in the garden.
It was only then, sitting on the stone bench by the wall and staring into the waving greenery, that I remembered what Jean had written.
War with the Northern Confederacy? Has Bonaparte gone completely mad?
***
I laid back in the tall grass and watched the lazy, boat-speckled curve of the Mississippi. The sun shone hot on my back, and behind me I could hear Mam instructing my sisters and younger brothers in spring cleaning.
“No- NO! Prudence, you drop that right now, you hear me? Anne! Come back here, there’s still laundry to do!”
I smiled. I wouldn’t have to suffer through the hours of tiresome, hot work that Mam always put us through. I was perfectly hidden, basking behind the grassy knoll and gazing at the patterns that the April sun traced on the river.
“Abigail Hope Sanderson, I know you’re there somewhere!”
On second thought, maybe it was time to find a new hiding place. I sprinted off.
“Abigail…”
But my mother’s words were (mercifully) cut off as I tore farther and farther away from the sound of her voice. It wasn’t as though I didn’t want to help my family… I leapt over a fallen branch, just barely avoiding scraping my ankle.
I bit my tongue to stop the words I felt like saying from slipping out of my mouth. I wasn’t going to give Mam yet another reason to scold me this evening, as she had many a night recently. I slipped over the rickety wooden bridge that spanned the creek’s width and found myself at a small, wooden cabin. A thin whisp of smoke trickled from the chimney, painting patterns in the sky. I sighed, pleased with myself. Here, I would be safe.
Then I stopped, puzzled. Nobody lived here usually- it was a deserted old shack. Why would there be smoke coming out of the chimney?
It took me half a second to make a decision. There was no way Mam would let me be for long, and she would be sending George or Will out to get me any time now, and then I’d get punished, the same as always.
I cautiously made my way to the cabin. I heard voices inside, but they were hushed as I knocked on the door. I was about to turn away and get away from that cabin and whoever was in it when the door opened and a boy maybe a little younger than me stood there with a fierce, dirt-smeared face sticking out from under his tangled hair.
“Who you?” he asked, quizzically.
“Who are you?” I retorted.
“Samuel,” he replied.
‘What are you doing here?” I tried to ignore the hostility in my voice. I could not think how it had got there, or why.
He looked down, rubbing his foot against the dirty floorboards. “Living,” he muttered.
I did not open my mouth to let out what I very much wanted to say. I did like the cabin, but I liked people better, and Mam had taught me to be charitable. If they wanted to live there, I might as well make friends with them. “Oh” was the politest thing I could think to say. So I said it.
He couldn’t seem to think of anything to say either, so we stood there, saying nothing, until I heard a faint voice calling my name. “Abigail! Abigail!”
“Oh dear,” I said. “That’s my brother.”
“Ah.”
“He’s coming to get me.”
“Ah.”
“I have to do the spring cleaning, see.”
“Ah.”
Inside I was practically screaming with frustration. Couldn’t the boy just let me in? I knew I wasn’t supposed to impose on a person’s hospitality, but really, what choice did I have? It was that or go back, where Mam would give me a strong talking-to, and, if I was lucky, set me to work scrubbing laundry or some other such unpleasant task.
So I said, “I usually hide here,” and looked pointedly at the open doorway.
“Ah,” said the boy, and this time there was a challenging tone.
“Yes,” I said firmly.
“Sam,” said a woman’s voice from inside. “Who on earth is it and will you come back inside?”
“Coming, Mother,” he said, and turned.
“Samuel whatever-your-surname-is,” I said fiercely. “Let me in or tell me a hiding place, now!”
“Abigail!” called my brother, decidedly closer now.
The boy hesitated.
“Now.”
“Fine,” he muttered. “Come in.” he held the door open for me.
“Thank you,” I said icily, and swept in. He followed me and closed the door again.
The interior of my dear hiding place had changed. It was no longer cheerfully dusty, with hints of neglect, but primarily empty. Instead, it was cluttered with people, and their various belongings. It was wrong… this was a place of peace, for me. It wasn’t supposed to be filled with…
I turned about, and gasped.
“What did you do to that poor man?” I pointed (Though I knew it was impolite) at a shivering figure upon the floor, his leg twisted in a way that should have been impossible.
“We didn’t do anythin’,” said what I had previously taken to be a heap of dirty clothes, but now was revealed to be a large woman wearing several layers of stained fabric. “We were out lookin’ for food when Sam spotted ‘im at the bottom of the ravine. Broke ‘is leg, so we brought him in.”
“I told you, Anna, we can barely find enough food for ourselves. We ain’t beholden t’ this man.” This was a slightly filthier person squatting in another corner, his face blackened with soot and pipe-smoke.
“Well, we can’t just leave ‘m to his fate, can we? Look, ‘e’s barely more than a boy… ”
I bent down to examine the patient. He was quite handsome, his lank blond hair spilling over his eyes. His skin was pale and clammy. The clothes he wore were not unusual, but upon closer inspection, I spotted a watch-chain protruding from his pocket.
“Now, who are ye?” the woman said, and I tore my gaze from the man.
“Abigail Hope Sanderson,” I recited instantly. “And who are you?”
“Anna,” Samuel retorted softly. “And as I said, I’m Samuel.”
“What about your surname?” I said, suspiciously.
“Ain’t got one,” the dirty man said, taking a long look at me. “None of us do.”
***
I walked down the lane, trying to find the wall. it was in need of repare. it was a small brick wall, which divided our land from the public land we border. we had to repare it, even tho they made us build it. why could they not build and maintan it? after I repared it (a brick was loose) I started back to the house. I grabed an egg, cracked it, and start to cook it. my mother came down and said ” mark, you have finshed the wall, right?”
“yes mother.” I said
“Good. if it was left one more day we have been fined.”
“why do we have to fix it, mother? they made us build it. why don’t they fix it?”
I would have pressed her, but I heard the voice of my younger brother drifting down the hill.
When I turned around, he was already in sight, waving a large envelope and nearly toppling over in excitement. At that rate, the sun would go down before he reached the house. With a snort of impatience, I ran to meet him.
“Aubry, get a hold of yourself!” I said, frusturated.
Aubry panted, his face red, his breath ragged and fleeting, yet a twinkling of excitement in his eyes.
“You’ll never believe it, Mark!” he squealed.
“I’m sure I won’t,” I said impatiently. “Now, what have you got in that envelope?”
He drew himself up to his full height, which wasn’t very much, and his voice rose a full octave in agitation. I was suddenly reminded of the flock of bats I had disturbed when exploring a cave near the house.
“Father sent us a letter!” he shrieked.
I snatched the envelope from his chubby fingers and ripped it open, ignoring his protests.
Dear Clara, Aubry, Mark and Millicent-
I hope this letter finds you in good health. I am still
“Read it out loud!” Aubry gasped, interrupting me. I sighed in exasperation and started at the beginning.
I am still stationed at Fort Niagara. Many of the men are sick and feverish, but I have escaped thus far. Life here is relentlessly tedious. I have come almost to the point of wishing that the British or the Indians would attack us, if only to relieve the boredom.
Clara-
I broke off here, not wishing to read the portion of the letter that Father had dedicated to Mother. It would seem like an intrusion upon their privacy. Aubry, unluckily, had no such qualms. “Keep reading!” he exclaimed. I skipped down a few lines, and was struck by an awful, wonderful idea.
“I hope that Aubry is studying hard,” I said, inventing wildly. “I know that he can’t fit much learning into his tiny brain, but perhaps through constant excersise he can raise his intellect from abject stupidity to mere dullness. He- ”
“You liar!” Aubry yelled, and attacked. Laughing, I ran down the hill, easily outdistancing him.
Finally, Aubry gave up and I circled back to join him. “Things are really boring around here, aren’t they?” he said wishfully, gazing up at the blank, blue sky.
“Whaddya mean?” I responded. Things were peaceful, surely, but I likely wouldn’t call them boring. Quiet was good, and it was much better than war.
“Even Father says it,” Aubry continued. “It might be worth having something happen around here, just because it would give everybody somethin’ to do. ‘Idle hands are the devil’s playthings’, Mother always says.”
“Since when do you ever listen to Mother?” I said, laughing and ruffling Aubry’s brown hair. “Nothing’s ever going to happen around here. You’ll just have to have to create your own excitement, won’t you?”
***
I come back in from the outside,about the time that david come back from school. I sighed. Jean would get in trouble for writing to us as openly as that. Napoleon’s army would never sanction a letter that contained information about their next campaign. That had always been Jean’s biggest fault. He didn’t think, he just did things. Whether they went against his orders or not.
But then I paused as what he had written really sunk in. War? Truly? It was true, I knew, the Confederacy was weak. They were just a bunch of hotheads, in my opinion, not worth a second glance. But perhaps we could win back land, and gain a foothold on the new continent. But would it be worth a war? And who would Britain side with? The colonies hate them, as do we, but surely they would see some vauge opportunity for themselves within the chaos.
What was England’s attitude towards the Northern Confederacy? I tried to remember what I’d read in La Politique Moderne. The Federalists who seceded had favored an alliance with Britain, so the Crown might look favorably upon them. And, of course, the United States were still a force to be reckoned with. They would probably side with the NCA if it came to war, as they wanted to keep us off their continent. I shuddered. The Confederacy alone wouldn’t be hard to conquer, but… our victory in the last war with England had been a closer shave than Bonaparte’s Propaganda Ministry would have us believe. And with the USA backing them up…
But Napoleon was no fool. He must have considered this- he was the greatest military strategist France had ever seen. Perhaps he had a plan.
Back to Abigail:
—
There was a long, akward pause, as I stood in the doorway. “So,” I finally said. “Whatcha doin’ here?”
“What do you think?” snapped a girl from one of the dim corners, who looked a couple years older than me. She might have been rather pretty if her clothes were nicer and her black hair wasn’t tangled as badly as my knitting when Mam had tried to teach me last winter. “We’re here on vacation, ain’t we? After all, what other reason could there be to have 8 people plus this injured man here in a cabin that’s likely the size of your outhouse? Look, rich girl – go back to your spring cleaning. At least you got a house to clean and at least you got a Ma to take care of ye and a brother who cares enough to come after ye when ye run away. Some of us ain’t as lucky.”
Is anybody else going to write? I feel very lonely.
I’m sorry. I’m lurking here but can’t write right now.
All right.
=/
I’m here too. I haven’t abandoned you.
Yay! ^_^
The last time anybody besides me wrote was a week and a half ago…I hope this RRR doesn’t die.
see you soon.
What do you mean?
Is anybody going to write? Please?
I was stunned for a second, then came up with an idea- an idea worthy of Fulton or Franklin or one of Mam’s deluxe heavenward stares and exclamations of “Abigail Hope Sanderson!” In other words, an idea which was either brilliant or stupid.
I smiled confidently. “If you let me hide here, my family’ll take this man in. You won’t have to care for him.”
Later. Honest. Right now, I have to go put earrings in.
Really cruddy, I know, but I’m just trying to reawaken this thread.
The family stared at me for a second, and then the dirty man that had spoken earlier laughed out loud.
“And how do you propose you get this man to your family without them seein’ you an’ makin’ you come home?” he said, chuckling.
“Oh…” I said, blushing as he pointed out the obvious flaw in my plan. “Well, I was thinking he could just walk, but…” I gestured the man’s leg.
“Brilliant,” said the girl in the corner, sighing. “Just brilliant.” She stood up slowly, and brushed herself off, a useless gesture since the dust and grime had practically become part of the cloth she was wearing. She carefully picked her way through the mass of people until she stood before me.
“I’m Julienne,” she said wearily, extending a hand. “Since you won’t go away, welcome.”
I’m thinking of writing another AH story, in which the Second Seminole War was much shorter and more in favor of the Seminoles. America recognized them as an independent nation, and they eventually expanded over the southern tip of Florida and became extremely prosperous through Caribbean-Atlantic trade.
223-That would be pretty cool. Would that be on your own or through an RRR?
224- Probably on my own.
A few other things about Seminole Florida; Since it was founded by Native Americans and escaped African slaves, who understood what oppression was like, it would probably be more tolerant than most nations at the time. So through much of history, it has become a sort of haven for refugees. As it controls the main route into the Caribbean, it has grown wealthy through trade, but it has also been the target of many European empires who want to get hold of the Florida Straits.
Its capital may or may not be Pensacola.
225-That sounds like a really neat idea!
Yeah, I’ve been thinking recently about how minorities (read: pretty much anyone other than white landowning men) always got the short end of the stick in early American history and considering the above fact most unfair. I’d also been thinking a lot about alternate history, and when I read about the Seminole War, it just sort of clicked.
Any ideas on how this would influence history up to the present day?
227-It would probably have a HUGE impact on the civil war. So…maybe since most of the minorities moved to Florida there would be still a ton of racism and maybe even slaves in the main United States.
“now what?” I ask.
229-Now we write more.
The latest posts are in 219 and 222.
230- You’re Cat’s Meow.
231-Yeah…I was hoping nobody would see that. x_X
That’s the exact same way I messed up last time.
-blows up a wall that has Writer’s Block written on it-
Can we write now? D=
I don’t know. Was TMFA’s post a piece of the story or just something he said written in story format?
um, part of the story.
234-I’m not sure. 222 is the last post I’m sure of, and his post doesn’t seem to fit in with it too much.
235-Sorry, late post.
236- Hmm. In that case, I’ll put something in between TMFA’s post and POSOC’s to make it fit better.
I took her hand and shook it. “I’m Abigail,” I said. “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” said Julienne without feeling.
“Not really,” someone muttered. I ignored it.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Now we go and carry this man out into the woods and wait for one of your brothers to find him.”
“Oh.” I was startled by the quickness with which the girl had come up with her plan and by the total blankness she said it with. If I came up with a plan like that, I tended to brag about it and it seemed strange that other people did not. “But what if he – my brother, I mean – doesn’t find him?”
“Then you find him.”
I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
“Where’ll your brother look for you?”
“He won’t go further than the rotten stump by the creek. He never does.”
“Alright then, we’ll take him past the stump. But you’ll have to show us where it is.”
“Oh. Alright.”
Julienne seemed to sense my worry. “Don’t worry ’bout the soldier. He’s delirious. He won’t tell your family ’bout your precious hiding spot. He won’t even remember it by the time he wakes up.” She cast him a glance over her shoulder. “If he does wake up.”
I shuddered at the awful thought.
Okay, that’s enough for now. Thanks for blowing up the wall, Meow!
238-Hey, whatever works!
—
Wordlessly, Samuel picked up the man’s legs, and gestured to some of the other people to help. The dirty man helped support the middle, and Julienne was holding him around the shoulders.
“Are you going to help?” Julienne said, as though she dared me to say no.
Gently, with my stomache rolling inside, I helped support the head, and we backed out of the little cabin.
I trembled uncontrollably all the way to the stump. I had never been so revolted, and I couldn’t do a thing about it. Spring cleaning seemed almost desirable now. I resolved to find a new hiding spot as soon I possibly could, far from these dirty, sullen people and the injured man.
Onto Mark again?
—
A few hours later, Aubry and I tramped back into the house, covered with dirt and grinning widely. “Hey, Aubry, did you ever give that letter to Mother?” I said suddenly.
“Oops! No, I forgot!” Aubry said, scrabbling around in his pockets and finally coming up with the letter, which was nearly as dirty as he was. “Mother!” he said, running to the kitchen, waving the piece of paper. “We got a letter from Father!”
“thank you!” she said.
I’m going to add onto that sentence a little.
—
“Thank you!” she said, taking the paper from Aubry. Quickly her eyes scanned over the faded paper. She smiled when she read the part addressed to her, and when she was finished she folded it into a tiny square and tucked it into her dress.
“Well,” she said, smiling at Aubry and I. “Your father clearly won’t be coming home very soon, by his letter, so I suppose we’ll have to find some way to live without him. Thank God we’ve got a long time before winter!”
Anybody here?
I’ll take that as a no.
Actually I’m here, but Mark doesn’t inspire me at all.
246-Actually, you’re right. He’s kind of a boring character right now, now that I think about it.
Let’s make him the least rebellious of the group.
248-Definitely. Marie and Abigail have already been established as very rebellious. But we need to do SOMETHING to make Mark more interesting. Right now he’s just boring.
249- You’re right. Let’s make him patriotic almost to the point of nutjobism, and then violently disillusion him at some time in the story.
250- Ooooooooh. I love doing that.
250 – Yeah, that’s perfect! Is he in the NC or the USA? I forget. And I’m too lazy to check back up again.
He’s in the NCA.
253 – That’s perfect.
How much time did we decide had passed between the NCA’s formation and the present time in the story?
They formed in 1815 (since the war of 1812 went on longer in this timeline). It is now 1825.
And I came up with a great title for this story….
The Havoc of War. It’s a reference to the not-so-famous stanza of The Star-Spangled Banner: And where is that band who so vauntingly swore/That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion/A home and a country should leave us no more? It’s also fitting because the characters are going to be swept up in the war between the Northern Confederacy and the French Empire, “the havoc of war” changing their lives.
Well, it seemed a good idea at the time. What do you think?
255 – Ooh. That means that these kids were alive (if very young) during the war. I can see where they get their rebellious/patriotic sides.
Havoc of War sounds like a good temporary title, at the least. We can always change it later.
Hey…I think Alice, PC and I are all on at one time. It’s a miracle!
255- I think it sounds good right now, but we should probably wait and see what happens before naming it officially. Think of “The Freebooters of Sphaere”.
-_-
257 – Is that really what we named the Sea Roc one?
258- No. That was the first working title, but we changed it.
259 – PHEW! That title may have fit the very start, but the story is so different now.
What is the current title?
260- The Sea Roc.
261 – Wait. I knew that.
If there is a GAPA on, would you check your email and see if you got any messages from me? I think they went through, but Gmail was being all weird, and I’m not sure.
If they did, please put the attachment (it’s the same on all three- yeah, I tried three times) on this thread. Thanks!
POSOC, Microsoft Paint extraordinaire, signing off.
263 – Now you’re making me freak out in anticipation of whatever you e-mailed to the GAPAs. Geez. Thanks.
“Hey Mother,” I said, trying to act as though I wasn’t excited. “Do you think when I get old enough I can join the Northern Confederacy Army?
Ah! It finally worked!
Try to guess what I sent.
265- A map?
265 – Hmm…probably a map. I’m not sure what else you would be able to make in Paint that fits this story.
Both of you are right. I won’t give any more away, but I think it will please you.
Both of you are correct. I think it turned out well.
“Well, of course, Mark, but –” She broke off, looking troubled. “That won’t be for a long while. I don’t like to think of you in the army. It’s dangerous.”
“But Father’s in the army!”
“Yes, and when you’re your Father’s age, then so shall you be. But right now you’re too young, and I don’t want my sons to be running off early.”
“No, Mother,” I said. This was not the first time we had this conversation, and my opinion had not changed. I was nearly fourteen, and I didn’t want to wait till I was father’s age. Other boys my age were already joining the army.
That’s not making him too rebellious, is it?
268 – I can’t wait to see!
271- No, it can be interpreted as starry-eyed infatuation with his patriotic ideals.
Who wants to design the Northern Confederacy flag?
271 – No, it’s perfect! He’s sort of like Marie, actually.
“Fine, Mother,” I said hesitantly, knowing I was getting nowhere on the subject. “But someday I’ll be grown and you won’t be able to stop me.”
“Mark,” she said sternly. “I know I can’t make your decisions for you in the future, but until you are of age – and that means 18 – you will not be joining the army.”
“Fine,” I said, dropping the subject completely. “Until then.”
273 – Ooh, I’d like to!
Just for reference, how many states are there in the NCA?
New York, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire. It would be a seven-star flag, if it follows the general format.
A visual aid from Monsieur ΡÖŞÎĈ:
Click on the map to see a larger version.
Awesome! Lady Bunniful, thanks for tweaking it a bit so that it fit properly.
That’s beautiful!
277 – That’s awesome! Okay, I’ll get to work on the flag now.
(278) You’re welcome. Moving the caption allowed the map itself to be posted at a larger size, which I figured would be a plus.
Okay, I just e-mailed the flag to the GAPA e-mail. I hope you guys like it!
The NCA flag as designed by Cat’s Meow:
Lovely.
Okay, here’s the explanation:
The 7 rings and 7 stars represent the 7 states. That’s obvious enough. The red represents blood, war, and courage, and is encircling (protecting) the white, which represents purity and innocence. The blue represents perseverence and justice, and the stars are gold. I haven’t figured out what the gold means quite yet.
Anyways, I have to get off for tonight. Talk to you soon, guys!
cool.
I was thinking that maybe, due to the war, the NC annexes the green area of Canada on canix’s map?
283- Awesome flag, CM!
286- The Dominion of Canada? Well, that would get the British mad at them. What would their motive be?
287- it’s british? I thought it was french. oh well.
288- Indirectly British. Technically under British control, but self-governing.
289- ah.
That night in bed, I tossed and turned. Eighteen! That was four years from now! How could I wait four years to serve my country? Especially when so many others were leaving. I buried by face in my pillow and tried to sleep, but I couldn’t. I sat up and shook Aubry.
“Mmm?” he said sleepily.
“Aubry,” I asked, feeling bad for waking him but needing to talk to someone, “do you want to go into the army when you grow up?”
He blinked at me. “I guess so. I don’t care. I want to go back to sleep, Mark!” His voice rose to a whine.
“All right,” I said, disappointed. “Go back to sleep.”
He turned over and a second later, I heard him begin to snore. I had found no answers in Aubry. I didn’t even know what the questions were.
I lay awake for hours.
What was going on? Was someone shining a flashlight in my eyes? I blinked them open and shielded my eyes against the bright sun pouring through the window. Apparently I had fallen asleep sometime during the night, although I couldn’t be sure exactly when.
I tiptoed past Aubry, who was still snoring gently, and stole onto the doorstep of the house, my fingers just barely clutching the metal doorknob, my last attachment to the house. The sunrise was brilliant, the colors every shade of gold, red, and pink immaginable, lighting up the sky like someone had taken a set of watercolors and spilled them all out until it was all you could see.
I sighed, taking the beauty in. This was my country, the land my father and others had fought to win from the United States of America. I wanted to serve it, almost needed to – it was an instinct that had rooted itself in the blood that coursed through my veins. All this freedom and liberty – what good was it if I couldn’t defend it, if I stayed at home and helped my mother for the rest of my life?
392- FLASHLIGHT!?! It’s 1825! But otherwise it really helps to characterize Mark.
292- They probably don’t have flashlights yet. But that piece of writing is gorgeous. I love sunrises.
293 – Oh yeah, sorry.
Um…we can think of some period appropriate thing to change that to. Candle? I dunno.
295- Lantern. Brighter than a candle.
The gold stars on the Northern Confederacy flag represent prosperity.
OK, shall we return to Marie? Let me check where she was before….
Ah.
~~
Father was employed as l’Empereur’s secretary, wasn’t he? Perhaps he knew something. Of course, he’d been sworn to secrecy- but there must be something he could tell me without breaking his oath. I’d have to ask him when he came home.
When I mentioned my plan to David, I got a rather disappointing answer. “Maman says you’re too curious for your own good.”
“But she never discourages you from asking questions, does she? Ridiculous.”
((OK, here’s the characterization so far. Mark=patriot, Marie=radical, Abigail=troublemaker. This is going to get interesting.))
Phew. *wipes brow* This story is the most disorganized RRR I have ever worked with. Well, maybe not. But it’s still a pretty big job, and I have to change all those typos on my own, because I don’t have word. Ah well.
299- Yeah, editing it will be an enormous job. But right now, we need to write.
300th post?
Yeah, I’m not even beginning to edit it.
I don’t know what to write.
David just shrugged. I sighed and propped my chin on my hands.
297 – Perfect!
—
“That’s because I’m a boy,” David said, acting as though that meant the world was to be handed to him on a silver platter.
“So what?” I said, grumbling. “We all know you don’t like war or strategy or anything like that, and meanwhile I’m going to be stuck at home being a mother for the rest of my life.”
“That’s your job!” David said, looking at me oddly. “You’re a girl, Marie – you can’t change that.”
—
I just realized that this is a near replica of Mark’s conversation with Aubry.
303- It is? I don’t see it.
” So? You get to be a soldier or Doctor or Teacher, and get paid, while I stay home with children and not get paid! Just because od how I was born?”
We may have to edit some of this out. We don’t want the plot to take second fiddle to Marie’s feminism. But it’s a good character trait nonetheless, so we’ll leave the important parts in.
306- Yeah, plus the beginning of Mark’s story makes him seem a bit un-patriotic, actually.
307- You’re right.
I am somewhat behind. Fortunately, TMFA’s compilation will help me catch up on Keeping.
Oh well. We can always edit later, I suppose. And this RRR is extremely unorginized already…
Actually, maybe we should just go back and edit the start now that we have a little more direction on the characters’ personalities so we don’t get confused later. And I think we should decide where we want the plot to go next, too.
I agree. We need to figure out how to involve all three characters in the war.
Well, I think that Mark might join the army. Marie’s obviously going to get in very deep trouble or else find something out that will involve her. Abigail has already just burdened her family with Marie’s brother, so….
311 – Yes, Mark should join the army. That’s the obvious direction to take him right now. Marie…ooh! How about Marie poses as a boy and gets a job for her father/the king? And Abigail…I dunno what to do with Abigail.
305 – “Look, Marie, it’s not up to me to decide,” Daniel said, rolling his eyes in exasperation. “Go annoy Mother, or write a letter to Father or something if you’re desperate. I’m sure he’d care about this more than we would. Maybe if you’re lucky he’ll throw you in a dungeon to keep you from hurting yourself.”
“Daniel, you’re stupid,” I said in a low voice, trying to keep my cool. “There’s a good chance our country may go to war, and you’re just going to sit here and do nothing? I want to be in the action, not just waiting out the storm.”
Meh…
I haven’t been inspired to write much recently, due to the unfortunate fact that my imagination has been occupied with worldbuilding for my alternate-universe Muse fanfic (you know, the one where the last Muser alive inadvertently delivers every Muse ever published to Ben Franklin’s doorstep). It would help if I could start writing it, but I’ve promised myself I won’t until I finish my other Muse fanfic. So it’s just hanging around clogging up the pipes.
316 – Okay.
316- I haven’t been able to write much because my life is just too darn full. I don’t have any time where I get to look at the sky and just stop thinking about school, rehearsal, cooking, money and lack of it. During weekends I’m either doing my homework or . . . on MuseBlog.
I just had a revelation. There’s a solution. OH DRAT DRAT DRAT DRAT DRAT!!!!
*head hits keyboard with a thump*
I don’t think I can do it. Oh god.
Excuse me please.
318- Erk.
GORGONZOLA!!!!!!! (I just realized what a terrific word this is if you’re looking for something to holler at the top of your lungs (where does that come from anyway? “At the top of your lungs”?)) Especially if you put the stress on the “gon”, so instead of gorgonZOla, you have gorGONzola, which gives it a sort of dropping sensation on the “zola”.
I wish I could fly.
Oh, and by the way, that last post wasn’t supposed to be nearly as random as it came out. I was going to debate with myself the pros and cons of all possible solutions, but I got hung up on the beauty of the word Gorgonzola pronounced wrong.
318, 320 – Erk. I know how you feel. -hugs-
I’ll try it.
I actually like gorgonZOla better than gorGONzola.
323- Hmm.
I guess I can see that.
But it doesn’t have the nice falling feeling at the end.
People are starting to say “erk!” My signature expression of despair is catching on!
325-you started that? I was saying that before MB! it didn’t mean despair, it was annoyance…
325, 326- Erk is obviously one of those things that people have come up with independantly. More miraculous ones have happened, and that is just an impulse noise, like arg.
Hmm. Annoyance? I always used it for despair.
325 – Actually, in this particular case it was probably influenced by you saying it right above the comments box while I was typing.
And I tend to use it for sympathy/realization. Examples:
“Erk. That sounds bad.”
“Erk. I just realized that I have homework.”
Sort of like Eep.
I suggested this thread on the “Don’t Forget this Threads” thread to see if we can get people who were ohsoeager to help early on back to help.
Is this RRR even going anymore? It’s kind of a premature death, in my opinion. It was just getting started.
331- It´ś not dead yet!
332 – Practically…:(
Has anyone seen POSOC lately?
no.
Nope…it’s strange.
To paraphrase the Terminator: “I’ll be back.”
337- when? and why did you go?
*crashes into thread with truck*
Daniel puffed out his cheeks and sighed. “Whatever. Just don’t get me involved. I don’t want Father to be mad at me.”
I swept out of the room. Father would be back at about seven o’clock. Perhaps he’d drop some hints, and if not, I would simply have to make my own inquiries into the matter. Perhaps if I wrote back to Jean, he’d be more willing to inform me- if his superiors hadn’t already chastised him for sending such delicate information overseas, in a boat that could easily have fallen into British or American hands.
338- Now. Because I couldn’t think of anything.
340- Did your disappearence have to do anything with the plan?
341- Plan? MOI
-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!!!??342- He means the one that’s going to happen sometime this year and that you won’t tell us anything about.
343- Oh, that. *hands behind back* *looks at sky* *whistles*
344- *pies with pecan* *leaves in a huff*
344-
Fine. Be that way.
I’m trying to figure out a way to get Scandinavians to colonize California.
Because I live in California and have lots of Scandinavian ancestors.
So that when the world is really getting on my nerves, I can close my eyes and pretend that I’m in another possible timeline where things actually make sense.
Because I’m just weird that way.
Look, stop asking “why?”, OK?
I know that was off topic, but this was the only thread I could think of to post it on, considering that it’s about history going different ways.
And to make up for the off-topic post…
…and all the short paragraphs…
I will write something.
Abigail
~
Together, we managed to haul the man through the marshy woods. It wasn’t an easy job. Brambles tore at my ankles, branches flopped in my face, and once I sank up to my calves in a bog. I wasn’t alone in my troubles; Julienne kept up a steady stream of invective that would have made her father box her ears, had he not been doing some swearing of his own.
~
OK, that was completely rambling.
“Are we almost there?” I said quietly, and half to myself.
“Shouldn’t you be tellin’ us?” Samuel said, walking to my left. “How should we know where your house is?”
“Why don’t you carry help carry him?” I hissed angrily, almost dropping the leg I was carrying as I stepped over a log. Meanwhile, Samuel stepped over the log gracefully with his long, loping strides. Even though he was short, he had long legs – I had noticed that.
Mam always says I’m bad with details. She says I always move too fast to notice a thing, just like a summer wind whipping through laundry line after laundry line and always in a hurry to get to the next. But that’s not always true. I’m good at seeing the buds on the trees and George says I’m the best one in the family to take as a hunting companion, because I can spot game from miles away, or so he says.
Just then, I tripped over another log and fell flat on my face in a thornbush. The thorns raked my cheeks like millions of tiny claws. I’ll admit it, I started to cry.
“Get up,” someone said roughly, although I couldn’t tell who it was.
“Oh, leave her alone,” Julienne said, in her stuck up tone. “She’s just a little rich girl. Probably not used to thorns and blood.”
Others sounded like they were agreeing, and then I thought I heard Samuel speak up.
“Oh, leave her alone,” he said softly, almost gently. “She’s not used to it, but she’s at least got spirit to put up with us in the first place.”
348- RICH? Abigail’s family is kind of on the poor side.
347- I live in area that was colonized by Scandinavians. But I’m Scotch-Irish and Dutch and English and French-Canadian and possibly Jewish and I have one German ancestor that I know of and god knows what else because I don’t even know who my biological grandfather on my mother’s side was.
349- Sure, but she’s a lot richer than Julienne and the rest.
350- Truuuuuueeeeee… Still, one would think that she’d be a little more used to dashing around in the woods, considering how many times she’s evaded spring cleaning.
351 – It’s been a long day for her. Wouldn’t you be tired and a little irritated at every little thing?
Two major changes to the world of SMAS-TT which I suggest after having read straight through the New York Times historical atlas (which is, in my opinion, rather confusingly laid out, but still useful). First: New York was mostly Democratic-Republican at the time of the war. I think we need to add that to the United States and take it away from the Northern Confederacy. Yes, I know I put it in the NCA in my map: it was my mistake. Second: Spain was known as “The Ulcer of the Empire” in France, and they never managed to conquer Portugal. I think we should give Napoleon’s depleted empire some different areas: maybe Italy, Naples and the Rhine Confederation? My mistake again.
353- never say never, my young musebloger. Napolen has concerd all of Europe! [/french accent]
353- Fine by me. I’m slightly lost.
“I’m not rich, anyway,” I protested.
“Richer than us,” said Julienne, and glared at me. If looks could kill, I’d have been worse off than the soldier.
Samuel shook his head.
Not sure what else to say….
354- He did. But he couldn’t keep it. Invading Russia was the biggest mistake he ever made. In real life, it virtually destroyed his army, left him wide open for the Coalition to move in. In this timeline, Britain was concentrating more on the war in America, so he managed to fight off the European forces, but still lost a lot of his empire.
A bit of research into the leadership of the three nations that the RRR primarily describes (with a liberal helping of creativity), and results:
UNITED STATES: James Monroe managed to secure the same two presidential terms he served in reality, but only because there was no strong Federalist opposition or competition from other candidates in his own party. In 1824, things began to change a little. John Q. Adams, the winner of the election in our timeline, was unpopular for two reasons: he had a major hand in settling the Treaty of Ghent with Britain after the war, which didn’t resolve crucial issues, such as impressment, that had led to the War of 1812 in the first place; and his running mate, John C. Calhoun, had been a War Hawk. Andrew Jackson was dead, having perished in a very different Battle of New Orleans. William H. Crawford was elected instead and is serving his first term as the RRR begins.
NORTHERN CONFEDERACY: Harrison G. Otis, one of the leading figures of the Hartford Convention, was the first president.* He began his first term in 1815 and was re-elected for a second. Nathan Dane, his running mate, became his successor and is the president of the Confederacy as the RRR begins.
FRENCH EMPIRE: Duh.
*The government of the Northern Confederacy is similar to that of the United States, but more centralized.
*dies discreetly*
My death certificate will read:
Alice Charette W******
Date of Birth: August 21, 1993
Date of Death: March 6, 2008
Cause of death: Historical ignorance.
I wish I’d had some sort of education in this subject. everyone I know knows some history.
*goes and visits Cinnamoon, who also knows nothing about American history*
359- *resucitates* Sorry.
If it makes you feel better, I got most of 357 out of my American History textbook and Wikipedia.
Should the capital of the NCA be Boston? Or some new city in a federal district, like Washington DC to the United States?
361- Boston. I like Boston. OK, so the main reason I like Boston is that that’s where Captain Kidd’s Cat began, but it has Harvard and Cambridge so it can’t be all bad.
And it was the site of the first public school. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I can’t decide.
362- Boston it is.
On a different subject, as soon as the blog is back to normal, we need a new thread. We have over 350 posts.
(363) Why wait? Especially as you have some momentum at the moment.