Something about Mrs. Prosek...

[taalismn]

After all the discussion of ‘How to kill so-and-so’...a zany little thought...

*BEEP*
”Yes? You have? They did? She is? Is she? Yes, she is, then? You’ve what? As he been informed yet? No? I see. That is most certainly momentous news. Thank you for bringing it to my immediate attention. Excellent work.”
*click*
Karl Prosek, Emperor of Mankind in North America, took a deep breath, steadied himself, then punched in a private number, activating a hyper-encrypted communications link.
“Hello, Joseph? There’s been a development with ...your mother. She’s back.”

Okay, we all know Mrs. Prosek, largely off-camera except for her brief stint in Federation of Magic where she gets liberated from durance vile, and promptly gets bundled off to a nice safe Coalition sanitarium to recover from her horrible ordeal? Poor, abused, tragic Mrs. Prosek who seems to exist as a note of pathos in the Prosek family? Or, as some vainly hope, a near-forgotten possible voice of reason for some farfetched future reform from within?
Yeah, that Mrs. Prosek.
What if that was so utterly NOT the case?
What if Mrs. Prosek was such a harridan and ‘Mommy Dearest’ that Karl was GLAD she was kidnapped? A ‘battle axe’ with the worst traits of Hera, Princess Olga of Kiev, Lady MacBeth, Eva Peron, and Leona Helmsley, in a mortal woman?
One of the most closely guarded secrets of the Coalition States is that the Emperor’s domestic bliss before the kidnapping was a sham, and consisted mainly of Karl saying ‘yes, dear’ a lot and hiding out at the office, dealing with some humanity-threatening crisis after another rather than go home for the evening. Joseph Junior learned how to tell Big Lies early and often in order to protect himself and distract the attentions of HIS MOTHER. The fact of the matter is, the male Proseks are TERRIFIED of the Prosek matriarch.
As infatuated as Karl is with Adolf Hitler, he’s found more than a few parallels between his wife and Mao TseTung’s infamous wife, the ‘Dragon Lady’ of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Only that woman has been peacefully dead for centuries, and Mrs. Prosek was very much alive and stalking the halls of their home. She may not be officially the power behind the throne, but she is/was damn close to it. Evenings around the table consisted of Mrs. Prosek holding court, critiquing and criticizing each family member at length in turn. And it didn’t stop there. The fact that Karl managed to have kids with her is amazing and is arguably testament to Prosek’s military training and courage under fire, to ‘get the job done’ as it required him to put up with non-stop criticism of his technique before, during, and after sex. And the less said about the pregnancies, the better. So henpecked is Karl that going to the front to visit the troops, in spite of the danger, was a RELIEF. Karl actually feared his wife more than the prospect of assassination, to the point where he began to fear that if he did die a violent death, it could more likely be attributed to his wife. And from birth, Joseph Junior’s been driven to the discipline and relative peace and quiet of a military life because home was hell. Mrs. Prosek even swung the intelligence agencies of the CS to provide her with all the dirt on Joseph’s girlfriends, providing her with plenty of ammunition to use during family ‘talks’(she doesn’t like ANY of Joseph’s female friends and is more than a little suspicious of most of his male friends). And things promised to be worse for Joseph’s younger brother, despite Karl and Joe Junior’s best efforts to wrest the youngster away from Mommy’s influence. More than a few d-bees and disidents have suffered due to Karl and Joseph’s need to vent some frustration on somebody.
Despite having had her scanned multiple times for demonic influences, possession, or infiltration, and at least one quiet attempt at an exorcism, poor old Karl has come to the conclusion that his wife is just plain MEAN.
So mean and demanding in fact, that her personal security contingent has to be regularly mindwiped to keep from going mad, and deserting en masse. As it is, the specialists at Psi-Net are now worried that they may have overdone it; Mrs. Prosek’s personal guard are now mentally happy-land drones who have trouble relating to normal society(one CS Special Forces general has recommended either mercifully euthanizing them* or retiring them to suicide-mission shock squads, as most of them now have subconscious deathwishes).
Divorce was out of the question; besides the public relations nightmare that would be, the marriage was one of political convenience, and the missus’ family still held great influence in the CS, influence Karl still needed to effectively wield power in the States. Besides, they wouldn’t take her back; discussions with his in-laws made it quite clear to Karl that they considered her ‘Karl’s problem now!’. The fact that his wife is younger than him, and expected to have a longer life, was no salve to him either; outliving her was not a possibility under normal circumstances.
As tempted as he might be to pull a ‘Blue Beard’ on his wife, Karl’s nerve has failed him time and time again, thinking of what she might do to him if he FAILED. And ordering it done for him has run into similar doubts(especially after seeing her verbally FLENSE a hardened Spec Ops major, sending the man fleeing and practically crying from a security briefing, all but ready to eat his own gun) . Thus, when somebody FINALLY managed to blast through the CS defenses and grab Mrs. Prosek, Karl and Joseph were more than a little relieved. True, it was unfortunate that others, including Karl’s younger son, died in the attack, but such things are inevitable in times of war. The dead are (convenient)martyrs and Karl’s lost son has been spared growing up under his mother’s tyranny; a mercy killing of sorts.
When Lord Dunscon had Mrs. Prosek abducted, he soon found even his infamous rage paling when faced with Mrs. Karl Prosek. Even threats of torture had no effect on her. The missing fingers? She broke them HERSELF, slapping her demon guards upside the head, and trying to jab Dunscon in the eye with them. The fingers had to be amputated when they went gangrenous(a very dangerous procedure given the fact that Mrs. Prosek was berating the attending physician who did it the whole time**). After the balrog he sent to intimidate her showed up again under his bed wimpering and crying, Dunscon knew he had a potential discipline problem. Rumors were beginning to circulate about the ‘devil prisoner’ that everybody was afraid to go near. He also soon came to the correct conclusion that the CS wasn’t going to come after Mrs. Prosek, or give in to his demands for the simple reason that they didn’t want her back(he even considered the possibility that she has been deliberately planted on him). Unfirtunately, he couldn’t just return her, without admitting weakness, and so he ended up saddled with an inconvenient (and increasingly disruptive) hostage. And simply killing her would give Prosek a convenient reason to declare her a martyr(not that he hadn’t already), plus several of Dunscon’s mystic advisors warned that executing Mrs.Prosek would ‘give rise to an even greater evil’. He was greatly relieved when he caught word that an adventuring party had taken the leaked word ‘bait’ that he had put out about the whereabouts of Mrs. Prosek. After killing a few of the would-be heroes, both to make it look less contrived and to relieve some pent-up stress(hey, Dunscon’s still a malicious evil titch after all), he bid Mrs. Prosek bon voyage***, figuring that sending her BACK to Karl was among the worst things he could do to the man.
He’s partially right.
Now that she’s back, Karl and Joseph have taken measures to forestall her coming home. Under the story that she’s suffering from PTSD(amidst other hints of brainwashing and possible supernatural influence), they’ve had her closeted away and under psychiatric care for the time being. However, they dread that some well-meaning, but clueless, psychiatrist will take her off the drug regimen and recommend she come back home for some ‘quality healing time’.
Stress is again building in the Prosek household. The male Proseks are getting tense and ready to bolt. Or maybe temporarily move their residence to another CS city. Or go personally to the front lines and lead a massacre, or something.


* And then there were reports of several Dog Boys who had to be ‘put down’ after encounters with Mrs. Prosek.

**As it was, Dunscon had the man executed afterwards anyway. Not that the shellshocked doctor noticed.

***The cyberknights were lucky enough to bust in during one of Mrs. Prosek’s few ‘nice times’ when she wasn’t a rage-a-holic. Otherwise they might have thought they’d stumbled into a trap and shot their way back out, sans Mrs. Prosek, much to Dunscon’s dismay.

[Tiree]

I personally like the idea that Mrs Prosek is really Erin Tarn.

[Mech-Viper Prime]

After all the discussion of ‘How to kill so-and-so’...a zany little thought...

*BEEP*
”Yes? You have? They did? She is? Is she? Yes, she is, then? You’ve what? As he been informed yet? No? I see. That is most certainly momentous news. Thank you for bringing it to my immediate attention. Excellent work.”
*click*
Karl Prosek, Emperor of Mankind in North America, took a deep breath, steadied himself, then punched in a private number, activating a hyper-encrypted communications link.
“Hello, Joseph? There’s been a development with ...your mother. She’s back.”

Okay, we all know Mrs. Prosek, largely off-camera except for her brief stint in Federation of Magic where she gets liberated from durance vile, and promptly gets bundled off to a nice safe Coalition sanitarium to recover from her horrible ordeal? Poor, abused, tragic Mrs. Prosek who seems to exist as a note of pathos in the Prosek family? Or, as some vainly hope, a near-forgotten possible voice of reason for some farfetched future reform from within?
Yeah, that Mrs. Prosek.
What if that was so utterly NOT the case?
What if Mrs. Prosek was such a harridan and ‘Mommy Dearest’ that Karl was GLAD she was kidnapped? A ‘battle axe’ with the worst traits of Hera, Princess Olga of Kiev, Lady MacBeth, Eva Peron, and Leona Helmsley, in a mortal woman?
One of the most closely guarded secrets of the Coalition States is that the Emperor’s domestic bliss before the kidnapping was a sham, and consisted mainly of Karl saying ‘yes, dear’ a lot and hiding out at the office, dealing with some humanity-threatening crisis after another rather than go home for the evening. Joseph Junior learned how to tell Big Lies early and often in order to protect himself and distract the attentions of HIS MOTHER. The fact of the matter is, the male Proseks are TERRIFIED of the Prosek matriarch.
As infatuated as Karl is with Adolf Hitler, he’s found more than a few parallels between his wife and Mao TseTung’s infamous wife, the ‘Dragon Lady’ of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Only that woman has been peacefully dead for centuries, and Mrs. Prosek was very much alive and stalking the halls of their home. She may not be officially the power behind the throne, but she is/was damn close to it. Evenings around the table consisted of Mrs. Prosek holding court, critiquing and criticizing each family member at length in turn. And it didn’t stop there. The fact that Karl managed to have kids with her is amazing and is arguably testament to Prosek’s military training and courage under fire, to ‘get the job done’ as it required him to put up with non-stop criticism of his technique before, during, and after sex. And the less said about the pregnancies, the better. So henpecked is Karl that going to the front to visit the troops, in spite of the danger, was a RELIEF. Karl actually feared his wife more than the prospect of assassination, to the point where he began to fear that if he did die a violent death, it could more likely be attributed to his wife. And from birth, Joseph Junior’s been driven to the discipline and relative peace and quiet of a military life because home was hell. Mrs. Prosek even swung the intelligence agencies of the CS to provide her with all the dirt on Joseph’s girlfriends, providing her with plenty of ammunition to use during family ‘talks’(she doesn’t like ANY of Joseph’s female friends and is more than a little suspicious of most of his male friends). And things promised to be worse for Joseph’s younger brother, despite Karl and Joe Junior’s best efforts to wrest the youngster away from Mommy’s influence. More than a few d-bees and disidents have suffered due to Karl and Joseph’s need to vent some frustration on somebody.
Despite having had her scanned multiple times for demonic influences, possession, or infiltration, and at least one quiet attempt at an exorcism, poor old Karl has come to the conclusion that his wife is just plain MEAN.
So mean and demanding in fact, that her personal security contingent has to be regularly mindwiped to keep from going mad, and deserting en masse. As it is, the specialists at Psi-Net are now worried that they may have overdone it; Mrs. Prosek’s personal guard are now mentally happy-land drones who have trouble relating to normal society(one CS Special Forces general has recommended either mercifully euthanizing them* or retiring them to suicide-mission shock squads, as most of them now have subconscious deathwishes).
Divorce was out of the question; besides the public relations nightmare that would be, the marriage was one of political convenience, and the missus’ family still held great influence in the CS, influence Karl still needed to effectively wield power in the States. Besides, they wouldn’t take her back; discussions with his in-laws made it quite clear to Karl that they considered her ‘Karl’s problem now!’. The fact that his wife is younger than him, and expected to have a longer life, was no salve to him either; outliving her was not a possibility under normal circumstances.
As tempted as he might be to pull a ‘Blue Beard’ on his wife, Karl’s nerve has failed him time and time again, thinking of what she might do to him if he FAILED. And ordering it done for him has run into similar doubts(especially after seeing her verbally FLENSE a hardened Spec Ops major, sending the man fleeing and practically crying from a security briefing, all but ready to eat his own gun) . Thus, when somebody FINALLY managed to blast through the CS defenses and grab Mrs. Prosek, Karl and Joseph were more than a little relieved. True, it was unfortunate that others, including Karl’s younger son, died in the attack, but such things are inevitable in times of war. The dead are (convenient)martyrs and Karl’s lost son has been spared growing up under his mother’s tyranny; a mercy killing of sorts.
When Lord Dunscon had Mrs. Prosek abducted, he soon found even his infamous rage paling when faced with Mrs. Karl Prosek. Even threats of torture had no effect on her. The missing fingers? She broke them HERSELF, slapping her demon guards upside the head, and trying to jab Dunscon in the eye with them. The fingers had to be amputated when they went gangrenous(a very dangerous procedure given the fact that Mrs. Prosek was berating the attending physician who did it the whole time**). After the balrog he sent to intimidate her showed up again under his bed wimpering and crying, Dunscon knew he had a potential discipline problem. Rumors were beginning to circulate about the ‘devil prisoner’ that everybody was afraid to go near. He also soon came to the correct conclusion that the CS wasn’t going to come after Mrs. Prosek, or give in to his demands for the simple reason that they didn’t want her back(he even considered the possibility that she has been deliberately planted on him). Unfirtunately, he couldn’t just return her, without admitting weakness, and so he ended up saddled with an inconvenient (and increasingly disruptive) hostage. And simply killing her would give Prosek a convenient reason to declare her a martyr(not that he hadn’t already), plus several of Dunscon’s mystic advisors warned that executing Mrs.Prosek would ‘give rise to an even greater evil’. He was greatly relieved when he caught word that an adventuring party had taken the leaked word ‘bait’ that he had put out about the whereabouts of Mrs. Prosek. After killing a few of the would-be heroes, both to make it look less contrived and to relieve some pent-up stress(hey, Dunscon’s still a malicious evil titch after all), he bid Mrs. Prosek bon voyage***, figuring that sending her BACK to Karl was among the worst things he could do to the man.
He’s partially right.
Now that she’s back, Karl and Joseph have taken measures to forestall her coming home. Under the story that she’s suffering from PTSD(amidst other hints of brainwashing and possible supernatural influence), they’ve had her closeted away and under psychiatric care for the time being. However, they dread that some well-meaning, but clueless, psychiatrist will take her off the drug regimen and recommend she come back home for some ‘quality healing time’.
Stress is again building in the Prosek household. The male Proseks are getting tense and ready to bolt. Or maybe temporarily move their residence to another CS city. Or go personally to the front lines and lead a massacre, or something.


* And then there were reports of several Dog Boys who had to be ‘put down’ after encounters with Mrs. Prosek.

**As it was, Dunscon had the man executed afterwards anyway. Not that the shellshocked doctor noticed.

***The cyberknights were lucky enough to bust in during one of Mrs. Prosek’s few ‘nice times’ when she wasn’t a rage-a-holic. Otherwise they might have thought they’d stumbled into a trap and shot their way back out, sans Mrs. Prosek, much to Dunscon’s dismay.

man it expalins so much about Karl knows, his love life , apparently he doesn't have the greatest luck when it comes to women , his wife and erin tarn, we should find him a new woman who is less evil like Hel

[taalismn]

Must every single female character be either a shrew, possessed, or not who she says she is? Leave Mrs. Prosek alone!

She's not single, she's still legally married(to that poor shuddering bag of flesh hiding behind that desk, trying to decide to reach for the pistol or the whisky bottle in the bottom drawer).

(And what did all the historical women cited in the OP have in common?
They were all MARRIED.
One to her own brother, no less!
And as for Princess Olga? She's SAINT Olga in Russia.... canonization overlooked the little detail that she massacred and burned an entire city to get even for their audacity in defeating and killing her husband in battle after he tried to hit them up for tribute. Said razing happening after she burned their leadership in a sauna she invited them to. Hospitality plain and simple. )

[DhAkael]

Pharoness Hechepset (sp?) of Egypt.
Brutal and bloody thirsty wench she was. Mind you she DID unite the upper and lower Nile with an iron fist (no velvet glove for this woman).

There are MANY many many many expamples of females through REAL history (and fictional) of the "kinder gentler sex" being more bloody minded, cruel and down right MEAN than any male imiaginable.

...as for Mrs. Prossek? *shrug* this particular thought exercise is pretty much a "what if?"
For all we know there COULD be a version in the Multiverse of a Kind and loving mother and wife. Just like there could be a version who makes Karl look like a SAINT to the D-bee populations.

[taalismn]

For all we know there COULD be a version in the Multiverse of a Kind and loving mother and wife. Just like there could be a version who makes Karl look like a SAINT to the D-bee populations.

THIS thread's version of Karl Prosek: "A universe where SHE is kind-hearted and loving? Almost makes me want to reverse my position on creatures from the Rifts."
Joseph: "I hear you, Dad, I hear you."

[Lord_Dalgard]

I personally like the idea that Mrs Prosek is really Erin Tarn.

+1. I've a;ways liked that theory as well.

[Cyber-Knight]

That theory doesn't make much sense. She was a prisoner of the Federation of Magic for two years. Erin Tarn, however, has traveled all over the world for decades. How could she have possibly done all that traveling and exploration without being noticed? She's still traveling even after Lady Prosek was recovered. There's simply no way that they're one and the same.

[Damian Magecraft]

That theory doesn't make much sense. She was a prisoner of the Federation of Magic for two years. Erin Tarn, however, has traveled all over the world for decades. How could she have possibly done all that traveling and exploration without being noticed? She's still traveling even after Lady Prosek was recovered. There's simply no way that they're one and the same.

Temporal magic can explain that away...

[Balabanto]

That theory doesn't make much sense. She was a prisoner of the Federation of Magic for two years. Erin Tarn, however, has traveled all over the world for decades. How could she have possibly done all that traveling and exploration without being noticed? She's still traveling even after Lady Prosek was recovered. There's simply no way that they're one and the same.

Temporal magic can explain that away...

It's still illogical. Not only do I not like it, but I like the idea that Duncson pulled a switch better.

[Damian Magecraft]

That theory doesn't make much sense. She was a prisoner of the Federation of Magic for two years. Erin Tarn, however, has traveled all over the world for decades. How could she have possibly done all that traveling and exploration without being noticed? She's still traveling even after Lady Prosek was recovered. There's simply no way that they're one and the same.

Temporal magic can explain that away...

It's still illogical. Not only do I not like it, but I like the idea that Duncson pulled a switch better.

just showing its possible...
I dont even bother with Mrs. Prosek in my games...
I have found that most stories with her devolve into over used cliche...

[Tiree]

Actually the double and her being locked away can be more of a Carl Prosek thing. He's putting on a good show of how she's been raped, beaten, and mentally disturbed by the federation of Magic.

Remember Carl is the master of public perception...

But in reality, she's left him and has gone gallivanting around the world as Erin Tarn, trying to take down her husband.

[taalismn]

Actually the double and her being locked away can be more of a Carl Prosek thing. He's putting on a good show of how she's been raped, beaten, and mentally disturbed by the federation of Magic.

Remember Carl is the master of public perception...

But in reality, she's left him and has gone gallivanting around the world as Erin Tarn, trying to take down her husband.

"Doctor Bradford? I need a little job done...a clone, or a biosystem android...something to fill a PR gap..."
"How about a perfectly human-looking DogGirl with extensive plastic surgery?"
"Wow! That's so ethically squecky I find myself officially not approving of it! "

[taalismn]

[
LOL not single as in unmarried. Every. single. woman.

Check the first Rifts Mercenaries book: Braddock's little girl, aside from being effectively in charge of Daddy's merc outfit, doesn't meet your list of afflictions. And despite having a real hate-on for Splugorth, Captain Myriam is fairly well adjusted for a single, white, Altaran Warrior Woman.

[sirkermittsg]

this line of thought was so funny I almost peed my pants from laughing. the evil mrs. prosek. behind every bad man is a more evil woman. LOVE IT.

[taalismn]

this line of thought was so funny I almost peed my pants from laughing. the evil mrs. prosek. behind every bad man is a more evil woman. LOVE IT.

Well, not SUPERNATURALLY evil. After all the threads of point-counterpoint where "Prosek is Ultimate Evil!"/"Prosek is Ultimate Savior', I wanted to do a twist in which he's just extraordinarily henpecked and is fearsome on the world stage because he can't get a word in edgewise at home.

Yeah, his legions may be marching across the Dakotas, but Karl can't advance across his own bedroom with a barrage of thrown flowers and chocolates.