|
Berit Brenner Blog Entry |
|
January 31, 2025, 12:00:29 AM 1/31/25: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Berit Brenner. She's from the 2002 character list but has been drastically changed; I planned to draw her along with her father, Dietrich, but hadn't the time plus his character still needs to develop. He's a gamekeeper on Col. Heidenreich's estate and Berit helps him out and things get kind of weird from there. There'll be more about her later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding her design, she's a German shorthaired pointer. TUMBLR EDIT: Okay, this is odd. I already mentioned Dietrich and Berit Brenner dating back to the previous reboot, although they never entered what was written of the story. I've refrained from drawing them for so long as their characters never revealed anything to me and frankly, I couldn't remember them. Here's where I SWEAR their summaries on the list were so vague that I couldn't even remember if they were canines or rodents. Thing is...I just opened up the list, and it makes very clear that they're RODENTS: BERIT BRENNER: Dietrich Brenner's young daughter; headstrong and impulsive, wishes to help the Allies in a more active way than just sitting around. Interested in Silver Rat; ends up joining the partisans. Current storyline DIETRICH BRENNER: Rich German widower; ends up helping the Trench Rats by providing his house as a sort of temporary HQ. Pretends to be loyal to the Nazis but in fact despises what they do, and offers to help out in any way he can. Current storyline WELL WHAT THE HELL. I swear none of those details were there before! Not only could I not tell they were rats, but I couldn't tell if they were good or bad guys, either. Well! Guess they're dogs now! And aside from them being father and daughter, and Dietrich possibly being a widower, the rest of the info can be tossed for now. Berit and Dietrich wormed back into my head and started developing recently and I might know enough about Berit, at least, to pin her down--though she's still very much a WIP so take things with a grain of salt. Oh, right. Just a WARNING that the beginning anecdote here is disturbing, and while meant to illustrate the utter absurdity of Nazi belief, it isn't meant to belittle or make light of anything. Although I guess a lot of this story, due to who the protagonists are (the bad guys), could be considered black humor. Dietrich and Berit make their first appearance when Hesse, Wozniak, Adelina, Gerhardt, and some others pay a visit to the Heidenreich estate. I'm unsure if this is the same visit where they're shooting clay pigeons and Eva Heidenreich not-so-subtly threatens Addy by insinuating she suspects her mother was a Jew, and/or when Heidenreich cheats in the horse race to beat Dobermann and ends up getting Gerhardt injured, or if these are all different visits; but anyway. This time around, they're invited to a hunt, and gamekeeper Herr Brenner arrives with daughter Berit, both armed with shotguns and fully decked out for the hunt. They're both SUPER AMPED to get started, just, really really jazzed to get hunting. Herr Brenner introduces them and sets the scene as Berit stands nearby, silent but grinning from ear to ear. Their guests are a bit unnerved by them already, and that includes Hesse, you know, the same guy who shot Gesine von Gustedt in the head and set her house on fire and then so easily lied about it to Addy. The truth is, Hesse isn't overly fond of his boss Heidenreich or his wife Eva, he tolerates them because well, he has to. Hesse may be scuzzy but the Heidenreichs are REALLY scuzzy, so that's saying a lot. Anyway, Herr Brenner explains how today's hunt is going to be something EXTRA special. A few helping hands drag into view a large wooden container secured with chains. They point it toward the woods and start removing the chains. The guests are getting a tad nervous wondering what the hell exactly they're going to be hunting today, is it a bear, or an exotic zoo animal like a big cat...? Herr Brenner's speech reaches its climax and Berit pulls aside the last chain and hauls open the container. A man pops out just as Herr Brenner announces that they're going Pole hunting! He fires his gun in the air, the man goes running, and Herr Brenner declares that the hunt is on. To their credit, the guests from the Dobermann estate just stand there and watch everyone else, the Brenners included, go running off after the hapless man. Hesse and Gerhardt are in disbelief. Addy is horrified. Wozniak, well, I probably don't need to explain how Wozniak's feeling, but his face has gone a shade of green. They finally summon the motivation to hesitantly follow the others into the woods, though obviously they aren't thrilled. They mostly refrain from taking any shots (only Hesse, a skilled enough marksman to get away with it, fires his gun once to make it look like they're at least trying), though the other members of the hunting party are enthusiastic enough. Sensitive Addy (who breaks down crying in another part of the story when Dobermann has to kill a wounded deer with a mercy shot, and decides that hunting is not for her) flinches every time a gunshot rings through the air, and Wozniak grimaces more than once. At last there's one more shotgun blast, and Berit lets out an exultant yell; everyone converges on her spot in the woods and finds her standing proudly beside the man who'd been released earlier, lying motionless on the ground. "Fresh Pole!" Berit proclaims proudly. "Looks like we'll be eating excellently tonight!" Herr Brenner exclaims. Wozniak finally loses his head, blurting out, "You EAT them?!" "Of course we don't eat them!" Herr Brenner scoffs, "Just that we're going to have a fine feast to celebrate a good kill. No one-pot meal! Full courses! Delicious boar!" As Berit looks over the dead man and Herr Brenner leads the rest of them back toward the house, Wozniak mutters under his breath, "Gott sei Dank, they aren't f**king cannibals." This bizarre incident is mostly forgotten by the time Gerhardt, working in conjunction with the resistance Diamond Network, finds himself again on Heidenreich's property, this time furtively, as the Heidenreichs--both of them--have a tendency to shoot trespassers. Unfortunately, as soon as he enters an old outbuilding, he's discovered by Berit, who has a gun. Wondering aloud exactly what he's doing there, and saying she can't let him go now, she aims and seems perfectly ready to shoot him, when a voice from off to the side rebukes, "What are you doing...? Quit being ridiculous and put down that gun, he's one of us." Gerhardt stiffens--he knows that voice. The person behind that voice once put a gun to his head and threatened the same thing Berit's threatening now, though there's no reason for Josef Diamant to be here. Yet that's exactly who it is--he emerges from the shadows at the side of the room and jerks his hand at Berit with a disapproving look. Berit gets a sulky pout and lowers her gun, though she does say, "What do you mean, he's one of us? Looks just like cannon fodder, to me." Gerhardt, of course, wonders WTF is going on. Berit exclaims in return, why is he talking like that (Gerhardt abruptly gained an American accent). Diamant briefly explains that Gerhardt is American, then that he turned Berit for the Diamond Network some time previously; she's...rather odd, but useful so far. Gerhardt gets a look and asks what exactly did turning her entail. The scowl Diamant gets in return makes it pretty clear his suspicions are correct and there was some sort of "physical exchange" involved. Diamant clarifies that sometimes you do what you have to do, and Berit was pretty enthusiastic about it, even if she was initially startled to find him on the property and assumed he was going to shoot her. As Berit heads further into the building Gerhardt hisses at Diamant, "What are you thinking--? Getting your jollies with her--? She HUNTED a guy down right in front of us, I figured you had at least a FEW standards left--?" "Oh, f**k off being all high and mighty!" Diamant retorts, "Like you wouldn't have taken the opportunity!" "Actually, I wouldn't," says Gerhardt, "because at least I have my priorities straight!" "Well--good for you!" Diamant says, raising his hands in a mock clap, "You're perfect among men and absolutely beyond fault, how does it feel to be der Übermensch--?" And then just as Gerhardt opens his mouth to respond, Berit comes walking back with the same Polish guy Gerhardt saw lying on the ground dead, now very much alive. Gerhardt lets out a startled yell as if he's seen a ghost. Diamant has indeed "turned" Berit, enough for her to collude in some bizarre showmanship for the Nazi sympathizers. The Pole hunt was all just a ruse to make the Brenners look like good little fascists and open up an avenue for the Diamond Network to gain access to the Heidenreich property. The Polish guy is a member of the network. Berit only pretended to hunt him down. And she seems pretty smug about Gerhardt's confusion. Diamant instructs her and the Polish guy to head off for the nearest escape route so he can return to his comrades. Now left alone, Diamant promptly takes Gerhardt into his confidence, saying that, while Berit can be trusted enough to work for them and not rat out any of them to the Nazis, she's still a bit of a wild card, and he's not entirely sure she's all there. "You're telling me she's crazy?" Gerhardt says; "Kind of an important detail to hold back!" "Ja, well..." Diamant says, and shrugs, "you have to take what you can get!" ...Other details remain to be developed yet. I know Berit is rather unstable, and a jealous sort; even though what occurred between them was just a brief fling for Diamant, Berit's still very much interested in him, and she seethes whenever Gret Dannecker is around (Diamant and Gret, too, had a brief fling after his escape, but mutually agreed it was for the best not to continue); she constantly and aggressively flirts with Diamant, who does his best to maintain some distance, not wanting to get pulled back into that. There's the constant threat of Berit's emotional instability sabotaging everything. She's a useful asset, but everyone's always wondering, at what cost. I'm unsure how she'll engage in the rest of the plot so far. Another detail I haven't worked out yet is her father's, Dietrich's, role. While in the original version of things he was a resistance sympathizer, this time around, I honestly do not know. I can say he's NOT in on his daughter's weird subterfuge with Diamant, but I can't rule out that he involves himself in the resistance in other ways. Personally I think it would generate some interesting conflict if he and Berit end up on opposite or at least conflicting sides (sort of like Gerhardt's more humane approach versus Diamant growing more violent and unhinged as the story goes on), though for now I simply can't say. Maybe he'll reveal some more about himself at a future time. [Berit Brenner 2025 [Friday, January 31, 2025, 12:00:29 AM]] |