"The country was under Austro-Hungarian rule, and was pretty deeply resistant to what they saw as the invasion of Slavic conquerors. Then, the arch-duke Franz Ferdinand decided not just to come to visit one of the major cities, but to come on the anniversary of an important battle. Historian guess that there were between six and twenty active assassination plots to try to kill him for daring to throw this in the faces of the noble Serbian etcetera etcetera."
Says Quentin, running fingertips over the turn stitches.
"Our boy Gavrilo was- seventeenish, I think, and part of a terrorist group called the Black Hand, who lined the duke's parade route with a lot of those assassins. He wasn't really expected to be in on the action, but he had a gun with him and was stationed in the crowds. But it was one of his co-conspirators who rushed the duke's car with a handgrenade. He missed- it detonated, and injured about thirty people, but no one in the duke's car, and the whole parade was cancelled. Everyone from the crowd on that part of the route scattered, since it was a pretty bloody scene, and the duke's car whipped away. He had to decide what to do was to go to the city hall and make a speech yelling at the local police for their sloppy control of the city, since many of them were resistant to Slavic rule too. But his driver misunderstood, and instead of that, turned them back onto the parade route, down near where Gavrilo was still waiting hopefully."
Clearing his throat, reaching for another shred.
"Everyone else was basically gone home, because of the bombing, but Princip was there just on the off chance- and it probably still would have come to nothing except that the driver was told his mistake, and parked the car in order to put it in reverse. Princip stepped off the sidewalk and killed him- the duke and his wife, and pushed over the very first domino."
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2019-01-31 09:05 am (UTC)Says Quentin, running fingertips over the turn stitches.
"Our boy Gavrilo was- seventeenish, I think, and part of a terrorist group called the Black Hand, who lined the duke's parade route with a lot of those assassins. He wasn't really expected to be in on the action, but he had a gun with him and was stationed in the crowds. But it was one of his co-conspirators who rushed the duke's car with a handgrenade. He missed- it detonated, and injured about thirty people, but no one in the duke's car, and the whole parade was cancelled. Everyone from the crowd on that part of the route scattered, since it was a pretty bloody scene, and the duke's car whipped away. He had to decide what to do was to go to the city hall and make a speech yelling at the local police for their sloppy control of the city, since many of them were resistant to Slavic rule too. But his driver misunderstood, and instead of that, turned them back onto the parade route, down near where Gavrilo was still waiting hopefully."
Clearing his throat, reaching for another shred.
"Everyone else was basically gone home, because of the bombing, but Princip was there just on the off chance- and it probably still would have come to nothing except that the driver was told his mistake, and parked the car in order to put it in reverse. Princip stepped off the sidewalk and killed him- the duke and his wife, and pushed over the very first domino."