Puissance: Chapter Nineteen

[arthurmerlin]

Title: Puissance: Chapter Nineteen

Author:  ArthurMerlin

Artist: blood_songs90

Pairings/characters: Arthur/Merlin (minor: OC/OC, Gwen/Lancelot)

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 30,798

Warnings: None

Summary:The turbulent times of Prime Minister Arthur Pendragon, in which war looms, betrayal waits in the wings, and unexpected love blossoms.

Disclaimer: Neither

Comments

[zairaalbereo]

This was a very interesting and unique story, though it was at times a bit confusing how you changed a lot of modern history, like eradicating the whole founding of the German republic and demolishing of the monarchy. I suppose in your version of events World War II did not happen either? Since NATO existed, though, it was a bit strange that the allies didn't declare war as soon as Turkey was occupied.

Merlin and Arthur's relationship developed a bit out of the blue for me, but then was quite sweet. As was the relationship of the monarchs (and, wow, guess the church went through a different reality as well! ;)

Anyway, thanks for this story!

Last, allow me to nitpick your German and feel free to ignore. ;)

"Ah, gut, Sie werden die Delegierten sicherlich beeindrucken, wenn Sie sich mit Ihnen in Ihrer Muttersprache unterhalten können ... Es ist schon schwierig mit meinem Mann, der es immer noch nicht meistern kann!”

"Eine Reihe von ihnen kann ganz dreist über Menschen sprechen Englisch." - No idea what you mean with that, it does not make any sense to me unfortunately...?

[arthurmerlin]

Winston Churchill said that WW2 could have been avoided if the Hohenzollerns, Wittelsbachs, and Habsburgs had been allowed to retain their thrones… that idea has always fascinated me, probably because I’m a monarchist, but also because it makes a lot of sense to me! NATO would still exist, I think, because of the Russian east.

I actually based Merlin and Arthur’s quick development into relationship on my parents; after my mother left my father, my father fell in love again out of the blue and, probably, much deeper than he had been with my mother. It felt different to me at the time, but now I think it’s a powerful story. Often love hits you (hence, I suppose, the age-old image of being struck by Cupid’s arrow), and you have no inkling that it’s coming. It certainly did for me :-)

I relied on a friend of mine who studied German at school (even though that was almost 10 years ago), because I can’t speak a word of it! I’ll try to look up what it was I asked him to translate for me, but you still got the desired effect… Merlin was baffled by the language!

Apologies for the error! Actually, if you speak German, do you know any Bavarian? I think I’m right in saying they have their own distinct language? I’d love to have that in there instead of German itself, but I don’t know anybody who can translate into that language :-)

Thanks for commenting, I’m glad you liked it overall. I had to write it during some very trying times this year, when I couldn’t really give it the attention I wanted. Maybe later this year I’ll revisit it and give it a few major tweaks :-)

[kcrd]

Loved your changed Europe history - that was quite unique! Thank you for sharing!

I answered on this comment because of your question about Bavarian. Bavarian is just a dialect and - gah, this is hard to explain - nowadays more common in villages. If you have a certain education it's pretty much given that you speak High German (also normal in cities because i.e. there are also more people who moved there from other German places who don't speak Bavarian - it's easier to use High German so they understand everything). When Johan is talking German to Merlin he would certainly use High German because Bavarian would have be totally incomprehensible for someone with little German skills.
It's a pretty complex thing with all the German dialects because we have High German. High German is pretty much the "standard" (especially in the working area). Exceptions are the villages, there you can find a much higher rate of active dialect-speakers.

(Bavarian is kind of hard to write down, I'll try one sentence but beware I just grew up hearing Bavarian but not speaking it and there are regional differences in the Bavarian dialect:
" 'S scho schwierig mit meim Mo, der hods immer no net glernt." For: Es ist schon schwierig mit meinem Mann, der es immer noch nicht meistern kann.
Sorry for the long comment.