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H.Appleby

Part of the Problem
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Mar 20, 2011
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The American Experience 1912-1964

usa_fpolicy_750.jpg
Years​
Prologue
1912


About
So, I've finally gotten around to reviving my old AAR, the American Experience 1917-1964. This AAR will basically take after that AAR, with history book style storytelling, often drawing off of "primary documents", various assorted extracts of "books" detailing the events and even, on occasion a bit of narrative written by yours truly, the game will probably be modded to nth degrees, for various reasons, and those modifications will be available to whoever wants them. Furthermore, this will not be in any way economically paced. I have no gift for conciseness, and am constantly researching new angles from which to approach the narrative, so expect this to be drawn out. As a final disclaimer, as if it wasn't already obvious, this will be text heavy as all hell, so watch out for that. Anyway, away we go!

EDIT: Also, I am going to ruin JFK's life so horribly that Dallas will seem like a mildly bad day.
 
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Ice, Part One


night_T1996c_KM_sinking.jpg



North Atlantic
2:14 AM, April 15th, 1912​
Archibald Butt felt the great ship's bulk shift beneath him, as the glassy, greenish water which had already deeply enveloped the forecastle of the great liner finally reached the boat deck. The deck aft was completely filled with people, steerage passengers most likely and Butt knew that the last lifeboats had already been lowered away. Reluctantly he turned back towards the bow, which was already beginning to cant ever more steeply into the freezing ocean. Suddenly, he felt the deck rumble beneath him, and the Titanic simply seemed to slip into the ocean, as naturally as a diver might slip into a pool. As the wall of water rushed towards him, he froze and then, driven by some instinct too remote and ancient to name, he jumped.

Fourth Officer Joseph Groves Boxhall was worried, he had left the ship not thirty minutes earlier and there was still no sign of any rescue ship coming. The steamer on the horizon had still not responded to any of the distress signals that he had sent out by the time he had left the bridge and he was despairing over the chances that it would ever respond. He shivered at the cold and at the sounds echoing across the water from the foundering liner. The women in his boat were similarly anxious, and from what he had learned from Captain Smith, he could do nothing to remedy their anxiety.

Sixth Officer James Paul Moody fumbled with the lifeboat falls, struggling with the other men to get the Engelhardt boat launched. As he grappled with the falls, he felt the deck lurch beneath him, before a powerful wave swept him away from the boat. The icy water dragged him like a leaf caught in a powerful gale, dragging him away from the ship and the collapsable boat. His head broke through the surface and he gasped in the air, feeling the icy sharpness of the water for the first time. He heard a loud sound, a sort of metallic tearing, and then a second wave swept him away from the ship. He turned to face the blazing lights of the sinking ship and realized that he was going to die in the freezing water.

Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller felt the freezing water envelop him, the icy cold stabbing at him from half-a-hundred directions. His mind numbed by the cold, he saw the lone promontory of the Crow's Nest and struck out towards it, when he felt himself be dragged below, as if by the tentacle of some unseen behemoth lurking below the water. He found himself pinned against the giant forward blower, yet he felt serene. The thought came to his mind "Now I'll see how much I have learned from Christian Science". Unbidden, he recalled the words of the 91st Psalm appeared in his mind "He shall give His angels charge over thee", and a that moment, a blast of hot air sent him shooting to the surface once again, returing to the air and the light of the RMS Titanic. He began to swim, but found the weight of the Webly Revolver inside his greatcoat cumbersome and he let the pistol sink into the depths. He swam away from the bow and came upon an overturned collapsable boat to which sevral swimmers were clining. Grabbing a rope at the front, he paused for a moment, exhausted by the torturous, murderous cold of the ocean. Suddenly, a metallic ripping reached his ears, and he saw the first funnel splash into the water, washing the boat and himself away from the bow.
 

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And here we go folks, the butterflies' wings are rustling. I already have two additional butterflies planned, any post April 1912 butterflies which might be interesting?
 
The American Experience 1917-1964
usa_fpolicy_750.jpg
Years​
Prologue

About​
So, I've finally gotten around to reviving my old AAR, the American Experience 1917-1964. This AAR will basically take after that AAR, with history book style storytelling, often drawing off of "primary documents", various assorted extracts of "books" detailing the events and even, on occasion a bit of narrative written by yours truly, the game will probably be modded to nth degrees, for various reasons, and those modifications will be available to whoever wants them. Furthermore, this will not be in any way economically paced. I have no gift for conciseness, and am constantly researching new angles from which to approach the narrative, so expect this to be drawn out. As a final disclaimer, as if it wasn't already obvious, this will be text heavy as all hell, so watch out for that. Anyway, away we go!

As long as that text includes more awesome commando missions, I'm happy.
Also, can you at least include a screenshot of were the action is taking place so we have a reference point. I hate how AARs will write a story and expect us to know exactly which province is whatthef*ckistan.
Also, SUBSCRIBED!!!!!!
 
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I'm here.
 
@Mssrs. Larkin, Santiago and Amerika: Welcome! I hope you enjoy the show...
@Sailatsu: Ohhhhh nooo not going into that territory.
@Anakin: The commandos are coming, and I hope that you're happy now.
 
@Mssrs. Larkin, Santiago and Amerika: Welcome! I hope you enjoy the show...
@Sailatsu: Ohhhhh nooo not going into that territory.
@Anakin: The commandos are coming, and I hope that you're happy now.

Yesh
 
Good start already.:) Thanks for reminding me in the old thread, I'd probably missed it otherwise.:eek:
 
I love the intro. It reminds me of the Walter Lord book about the sinking.

Trivia: Henry M. Jackson was born a month after the Titanic disaster and died the day the Soviets shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007.

And here we go folks, the butterflies' wings are rustling. I already have two additional butterflies planned, any post April 1912 butterflies which might be interesting?

John Schrank decides TR isn't that bad a guy after all and takes out Wilson instead. :laugh:
 
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This looks interesting! Though I don't know what the butterfly is in the Titanic's sinking, as it looks to be in sych pretty much with OTL.
 
Mmmh... Butt and the Titanic... it sounds promising.
 
Ooh! Is the butterfly in TTL going to be Butt surviving the sinking?
 
Ice, Part Two



night_T1996d_KM_sinking.jpg



North Atlantic
2:19 AM, April 15th, 1912

James Moody saw the stern lift higher and higher into the air as the screams of the passengers echoed across the icy water. Then a new, insistent note reached his ears, the straining and tearing of wood and riveted steel. His head snapped towards the ship's waterline, where metal and wood snapped and flew away with a cacophonous sound and a burst of light. As the great ship began to rip itself apart, a new calamity occurred, the bright lights of the Titanic blinked once and then shut off. plunging the world into inky blackness as the bow finally ripped itself free.

Charles Lightoller pulled himself up onto the overturned collapsible to a chorus of tortured metal, what he thought must have been the boilers ripping free of their moorings. Then he was bathed in darkness as the Titanic's lights blinked out. He looked over at one of the Wireless Operators, Bride, maybe? Asking him in a low voice "How far is the Carpathia?" He didn't like the answer.

Joseph Boxhall saw the ship's lights extinguish themselves and heard the ripping and tearing of metal slowly replaced by a great moaning and screaming as the ship began its final plunge. The entire boat was silent, stilled by the noise of the great calamity unfolding itself before them. Although they couldn't see the stern, they knew that the ship was surely in its death throes. Then the chorus of moaning, screaming voices grew louder as the people on the stern were plunged in to the icy North Atlantic. Boxhall spoke up, looking at the people in his boat, wondering whether to go and try to get pull a few more people into his boat. He spoke up, "Ought we go back and pick up some of them?", at the same time terrified that he might overload his boat. The shell shocked passengers seemed pensive, but finally nodded, overwhelmed by the screams of the passengers. He nodded to able seaman Osman and they began to row back towards where the Titanic had sunk.

Archibald Butt swam through the darkness away from the ship, careful to avoid the suction which he was sure would follow upon the ship's final plunge. But the cold and the water weighed upon him, and his strokes slowed as he was chilled by the icy Atlantic. Finally he stopped paddling and just began to float, his arms icy and deadened by the ocean, his legs frozen like the berg which had rudely tossed him into the water. Then suddenly, just a few yards off, someone shone a flashlight on him and yelled "Man in the water!" Summoning the last of his strength, he swam to the side of the boat, where someone grabbed him, he knew that he was saved when he heard someone yelling, "Seaman Osman, help me with this one!"

Joseph Boxhall was naturally cautious and although the sea was still glassy, he had already filled the boat to capacity and he did not trust it to take more. As the women tended to the ten or so people they had plucked out of the ocean, he had already started to row the boat away from the wreck site, but suddenly out of the dark, he saw a puff of condensing breath and the head of a man bobbing above the ocean. He immediately threw a beam of light on the man with his flashlight and then exclaimed "Dear Lord, MOODY!"
 
@Nikolai: Glad you like it.
@Xie: I'm sure that we can work something out, It'll just be small mods after all.
@Nathan Madien: Yeah, Lord really got the public's interest in Titanic going again, it had basically been forgotten before ANTR came out. The actual Titanic inquiries are pretty fascinating reading in and of themselves.
That's a neat fact, I knew about the Korean Air thing, because that was the subject of his last press conference, but the Titanic connection is interesting.
As for John Schrank, I'm not so sure what, if anything, I'm going to do with him.
@Imperator: We're not even sure if Wilson will be president at this point...
@Blitz: Butt's actions maybe, possibly Moody not receiving the head injury which Bride claimed to have seen on him, and Boxhall returning to the ship.
@Kurty and Blitz: Yup, our dear friend Major Archie will be an important butterfly, but I'm hoping to let a few more loose with Boxhall deciding to come back (OTL only Fifth Officer Lowe came back)
 
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