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Jost Klaus Blog Entry |
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February 7, 2025, 12:00:07 AM 2/7/25: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's characters from my anthro WWII storyline are Jost Klaus and Karl Klaus. They're the sons of Major Konstantin Klaus and Emma Klaus; they're pretty minor characters who were nameless but I decided to give them names. The Klauses' marriage was an arranged one but they grow to love each other dearly and although often busy, Klaus dotes on his sons. There'll be more about them later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding their design, Jost resembles his father and Karl his mother. They're around eight and nine years old. TUMBLR EDIT: Konstantin Klaus and Emma are the rather unwilling participants in an SS-arranged marriage; Klaus is rather asocial and prefers his solitude, while the rather clumsy Emma has had poor luck attracting a husband. Still, the SS considers it ideal for their men to marry and have big families, and this is no exception. Their relatives and associates meet to discuss the situation and decide to pair them off. While Klaus agonizes over his impending loss of personal freedom, Emma attends a Bride Reich School to learn all those most important skills, such as preparing her new husband breakfast at like four in the morning, and shining his boots. Klaus is rather well off, has his own help staff to take care of his house located in the sprawling camp he oversees, so he really doesn't know what he'll do with a wife but here we are. The two of them meet for the first time on their wedding day, Klaus in his best black Totenkopfverbände uniform and dress sword, Emma in a pristine white dress and flowers adorning her braids, and nervously say their vows and listen to a selection from Mein Kampf and do all the other weird pseudo-pagan rites the SS insists on in place of Christian ones, then head off to Klaus's home, now husband and wife. They're both practically ill at the thought of doing anything that first night, though their second day together is much better. They're strangers living under the same roof, but they quickly warm to each other. Klaus gets used to having a wife do his chores and Emma gets used to doing someone else's chores but most of all, they get used to no longer being on their own. Emma appreciates finally making herself useful, and Klaus realizes just how much he was missing out on as a bachelor. He no longer resents what once felt like an intrusion into his space; the very rare occasions when Emma isn't there to immediately greet him on his return home are the times he feels confused and utterly lost. The two of them complete each other. The SS strongly urges their members to have big families, at least four children. Klaus and Emma never achieve that, though they do have two sons, in quick succession. Klaus had never considered himself a family man, a fatherly figure, yet the moment their first squirming, mewling baby is placed in his arms he's over the moon. "He looks like me! A tiny lil' me," he exclaims, holding the baby close. Emma suggests that he name his firstborn son; he seems at a complete loss. "Well...we could name him Konstantin, I suppose...?" Emma offers, but Klaus vehemently objects: "Herrgott, nein! You wouldn't believe all the taunts I got as a kid being named 'Konstantin'! Only thing worse would be 'Adolf,' may as well put a big 'Kick me!' on his back!" He mulls it over a bit longer (Klaus really isn't the mulling type, so this is rather challenging) and finally muses, "Well...how about...Jost?" "Jost...?" Emma asks, curious about the significance. Replies Klaus, "Is what my mother said she would've named me if she'd known 'Konstantin' would be so bothersome." "Jost," Emma says again, smiles, and hugs little Jost when Klaus hands him back. Their second child is a bit more unexpected. Klaus has returned home for the night, finished dinner, and is contentedly cooing and bouncing Jost on his knee when Emma brings in a tray of pastries, halts, and vomits on the floor. "Em!" Klaus exclaims, setting Jost aside and hurrying to her. "Are you all right--?" Emma insists she's fine, just feels rather nauseated; Klaus refuses to listen to her insistent comments that she doesn't need help, it's just a stomach bug, he hurries off to call the camp physician. He and the doctor return shortly after and the doctor examines Emma as Klaus stands nearby, wringing his hands. "Everything seems all right," the doctor finally says, "how long have you felt sick?" "Maybe a few days," Emma says, then flinches--"Em!" Klaus cries, "You been sick days now?--why don't you tell me??" "I didn't want you getting upset--like this!" she says. "I'm fine! It's just a bug!" The doctor asks if she's had any other symptoms; she admits she's felt rather weepy and has been crying a lot. "When do you cry??" Klaus asks, confused; when he's at work, she says, and when he exclaims, "EM!" she retorts, "I don't want you getting all upset just like you're doing!!" The doctor asks if she's ever gone through anything like this before and Emma says, "Nein, not really, I usually feel just fine, I only ever felt something like this when--" And then cuts herself off, blinking. After a brief silence, she looks at Jost. Klaus blinks now too--"Em--?" Then furrows his brow. "So soon--?" Emma seems just as surprised; Jost isn't even half a year old yet. The doctor replies that, while it's not recommended, such things are possible. "In the English countries they call them 'Irish twins,'" he explains, at which Klaus bristles and says, "Hey! My kids ain't Irish!" The doctor suggests that Emma just continue going about her usual routine to keep in shape, yet get plenty of sleep at night, and try saltines and ginger ale if her insides keep bothering her. There's no way to tell for sure so soon, but he'll check in on her in a while to see if she shows any other signs. Klaus sees the doctor off, then proceeds to fetch crackers and ginger ale. He brings them to her on the tray she'd used for the pastries; Emma's face screws up--"I hate ginger ale"--and she breaks down weeping. "Em!" Klaus exclaims, "Don't cry, it's just ginger ale, you'll make me cry too," and he starts snuffling. "It's not the ginger ale!" Emma cries, "It's just you're being so nice to me!" "Why is that making you cry?!" Klaus wails, and husband and wife--and baby Jost--all start bawling their eyes out. Klaus wakes every morning at four AM sharp, never needs a clock, he's just used to it. Emma is a light sleeper and always wakes when he does. The moment he sits up and gets out of bed, she climbs out too, albeit with a lot of grimacing and a green tint to her face; "Em," Klaus protests, "why you getting up?? Doc says you need your sleep." "But I need to make your breakfast and shine your boots," Emma says. Klaus throws his arms up--"Can just fetch some coffee! And doesn't matter if my boots ain't shiny, what'll happen, will I punish myself--?" Still, Emma insists, she's his wife, the school told her, she has chores she needs to do. She makes a quick breakfast, lays out his uniform, shines his boots--starts weeping as he's getting dressed--"What's wrong now?" he asks, to which she sniffles, "I just love you so much," and he replies, "Em, stop!--you CAN'T make me cry at work, they'll make fun of me forever!" and he gives her a hug--"I honestly don't remember you being this bad last time!--you sure you don't want me staying home?--keep an eye on you for a bit?"--Emma murmurs that she'll be fine, just don't stay too late, she loves him so, he's so good to her, and he lets her go and then lets out a startled noise when she starts kissing him rather quite passionately. He has to pry himself loose--"EM!--this is how we ended up here, you remember??"--yet promises to be home at a reasonable hour, and leaves, obviously flustered. Emma is exhausted from the emotional rollercoaster by the time she reaches term--"I'm sorry, Konstantin, but I just want this kid out of me," she weeps--yet, oddly, the birth goes very quickly and smoothly, in fact it's over by the time the doctor arrives to check them out, and he declares that they have another healthy son. "He looks like you," Klaus exclaims, "a tiny lil' you...well...if you were a boy." He says she should name the child this time. "Karl," Emma says, and "Karl," Klaus repeats, peering upward. He asks what is the significance of Karl, frowning a bit when he sees her starting to giggle; "I just like how funny you say 'Karl,'" she admits, and when he asks, "What's funny about how I say 'Karrrl'--?" she bursts out cackling. Klaus does what he can to make sure Emma doesn't get overwhelmed caring for two young children at once, though it's as if Karl's birth wiped the slate clean; her crying fits dissipate, she's all soft smiles and maternal love now, cuddling her babies close and humming lullabies. She feeds them, washes them, changes them, is up at their crib side at the first cry; Klaus tries to do his own chores for himself but she does those too, smiling and humming and glowing the whole time. He can't understand how she doesn't run herself into the ground, yet "I don't know what it is, Liebe, I just feel like I can be a mother forever!" Emma exclaims--then he lets out a startled sound again when she starts kissing him. "Emmmmm," he hisses to try to avoid waking the dozing babies, "this is how you DO end up being a mother forever!" "Sweet Konstantin," Emma murmurs, nibbling his ear and making him squirm, "there are lots of things you can do without ending up with another baby!" To which Klaus blinks and blushes furiously and exclaims, "What the f**k they teach you at that fancy school??" The Klauses manage--mostly due to Klaus himself insisting that they tone things down for a while--to go without ending up with...well, Irish triplets? Jost and Karl end up being their only children; Emma sighs wistfully now and then, wishing they'd reached the preferred four children, or that she'd at least given him a daughter, but Klaus has no complaint; "They're the two perfectest kids one could ask for," he beams, and always shows off photos of them to his guards, visiting officials, anyone he comes in contact with, if the subject of children arises. Fellow SS major Ludolf Jäger and his wife Magda--herself constantly pregnant, and constantly in a whirlwind of weepy/rageful/horny--politely smile at the photos, though in private Jäger sniffs a bit, finding the middle-class, "woefully Austrian" Klaus rather beneath his own large family. Captain Otto Himmel, meanwhile, offers far more sincere smiles--"You're both so blessed!--such beautiful children"--though Klaus does end up putting his foot down when Emma flirts with Himmel (and immediately is remorseful). Of course, it's Himmel he tells to stop chatting up his wife, not Emma, for she's perfect and can do no wrong. (Himmel, completely innocent in the whole thing, is flustered but obeys until Klaus's wrath is forgotten...Klaus really isn't a wrathful sort, so this doesn't take too long.) When the Allied forces begin approaching the city and the war is obviously lost for Germany, Klaus manages to warn Emma to take the boys and hide. He's not so fortunate himself; by this point, due to many guards and staff bailing out and resources being held up indefinitely, the camp has devolved into a horrible state, overcrowded and with the prisoners beginning to starve and disease running rampant. Klaus was never a particularly brutal commandant, yet he's still a Nazi running a camp. He tries keeping things going but even his skeleton crew of guards deserts, and the kapos finally turn, the rest of the prisoners who are healthy enough following their lead. One of them crushes Klaus's kneecap with his club and then everyone piles on. He only survives the beating due to American Allied troops entering the camp at that moment and pulling the prisoners off him (though they keep yelling for the soldiers to hand him back over and let them finish the job). Klaus is dragged to a military truck and removed from the camp. After some heated debate over what to do with him (more than a few of the soldiers suggest he should be returned to the camp), they decide to dump him on the Trench Rats, who stick him in a cell, where he sits in the dark and damp for a good long while, throbbing all over, hoping that Emma and the boys are all right. The Trench Rat sergeant, calling himself Gold, shows up with a lance corporal to ask about the location of a prisoner of his. Klaus has no idea who they're talking about until the lance corporal gives his prisoner ID number from a ledger he's carrying. Klaus peers upward--he can see another of the SS ledgers, the one which correlated prisoner numbers with date of arrival, then the one which correlated date of arrival with whereabouts in the camp the prisoners were placed. He remembers every column, every row, every cell, every number. He gives the Rats the information they're seeking, though he warns Gold, as he leaves, that they better hurry, his sticks weren't in very good shape when he left them. He can barely see the disgusted look Gold gets on his way out. A very long time passes next. Klaus sits and dozes fitfully, longing for word of his family. He snaps awake with a gasp when something touches his bruised cheek--just slightly, yet it feels like fire. Somebody asks him in his own tongue how many fingers they're holding up; he tries hard to see, but his eyes are swollen shut so he can hardly see anything anymore. The person asks if he knows English and he says yes; they carefully check him over so he assumes they're a doctor of some sort. They ask where he's injured and he mentions his knee; he was unable to walk on it when the soldiers dragged him out of the camp. He winces and hisses when they carefully palpate his knee; they tell the Rat guarding the cell to bring a stretcher to help carry him to the medical ward, needing to repeat themselves, a bit forcefully, when the guard hesitates. The stretcher is brought, the doctor attempts helping Klaus onto it, only for Klaus to cry out and press his arm to his side; the doctor exclaims that he'd asked him to point out his injuries, which Klaus insists he did. Some more prodding; the doctor says he may have a broken rib, and carefully helps him onto the stretcher. He's carried away from the cell, placed in a bed in the medical ward, and has his injuries tended to. The doctor sets his leg, but says that, due to his patella being crushed (Klaus has no idea what a patella is or where he got one), it's unlikely he'll ever be able to use his leg again. He's left again lying in his bed and aching and thinking of Em and the boys and wondering what they're thinking of him. The swelling in his eyes has gone down somewhat by the time Gold and his assistant return. Gold says they found the prisoner they were looking for, and asks him what he knows of the camp's records. It turns out that the ledger the other Rat is carrying is one of only a few that survived an apparent purge by the camp's guards before they fled; Klaus confirms that they were only following protocol. As for what he knows of the records, "All of 'em," he says, and taps his head. "They're all in here, I never forget any of 'em." Gold requests that he help them identify the remaining prisoners, alive and dead, to bring closure to the families; when Klaus hesitates and says, "And what do I get out of it...?" Gold bluntly replies, "We found your wife and sons." Klaus's eyes go wide. "Em--? My boys?" he exclaims; "Where are they? Are they all right?" "They're safe," Gold says. "If you want to see them, you'll help us with these records." Knowing how little he has left to bargain with, Klaus retorts, "You bring them here to see me first--then, I tell you whatever you want. Only then!" Gold hesitates, then says, "I'll bring your wife to see you. Then you tell us everything you know." Klaus agrees, and sits and waits in pure mental agony until Gold returns, which feels like forever. Yet--"Konstantin!" Emma's voice cries, and his head pops up as she flies toward him--"Em!"--and they hug each other tight, he even ignores the stab of pain in his side. "Oh my poor Konstantin!" she says, eyes tearing up as she looks him over, "What did they do to you--?" "Was my sticks, not them," Klaus says; "Em, tell me, the boys, they all right?" Emma confirms that their sons are frightened, but just fine; the Allies found them all hiding just as he'd told them to, and took them into custody, but have so far treated them well. She asks him what's to become of them now? When Klaus says he's promised to give up what info he has in exchange for her and the boys' safety, Emma asks, "What about you?" Klaus shrugs, says, "They take me to trial, I guess?" Emma now protests: "Trial--? They'll kill you, you know!" Before he can answer she turns to Gold and demands, "You want him to help you, you make sure they don't kill him!" The Trench Rat sergeant just frowns--he can't speak German. The doctor interprets, as Klaus is too flustered, exclaiming, "Em!--don't worry about me, what you doing??" Gold listens to the doctor, nearly scowls, says, "I don't have the authority to promise that!" The doctor repeats in German, Emma retorts, "Find the authority! You want his help, you make sure he lives," Klaus nearly yells over her WHAT IS SHE DOING, the doctor interprets, and finally Gold glowers but relents: "No execution. They decide to sentence him to prison, though, then you have to live with it! I can't offer anything more. Now will you start talking...?" The doctor interprets. Emma relents now too; Klaus has never seen her show such backbone, sweet-natured Em, speaking back so to American soldiers. She nods at the doctor--"That's...that's acceptable, danke, now he talks," and hugs and kisses Klaus. She's shaking and he can tell she's overwhelmed by her own audacity. They sort out a few more details; for now, Emma, Jost, and Karl will remain in Allied custody to ensure Klaus's compliance, but they'll be taken care of. Meanwhile, Klaus will share everything he knows from the camp records, and any other useful info, before facing a tribunal. Gold will pull what strings he can to keep him from being executed, though that's all he can do. "Don't care about me," Klaus says, "just keep Em and my boys safe, and I tell you everything you want." Klaus keeps his promise. He and Gold's assistant, Mahogany, go over the surviving ledger, and Klaus identifies all the living and deceased prisoners he can...far more of the latter, to Gold's displeasure. He shares all other information he can think of regarding the SS itself; he doesn't care about them anymore, they bailed out on him, so he has to look out for his family first of all. After he's mostly recovered from his injuries, he's brought before a military tribunal where he doesn't bother disputing the charges; he just wants Em and the boys to be all right. The judge weighs in the fact that he's already helped the Allies and has promised to continue doing so as long as he's able; he seems displeased to remove the death penalty from the table, but honors the agreement, and sentences Klaus to twelve years in prison. If he backtracks on his promise, the judge warns him, they may revisit his sentence. Klaus, to be honest, is surprised to get off so easily. He's allowed to see Emma and his sons briefly before he's taken away, and hugs them all tight, tears in his eyes; "We'll wait for you," Emma promises, teary eyed herself, and "Be good, boys, take care of your mother for me," Klaus says, "We will, Papa," Jost and Karl say, Klaus kisses Emma's forehead--"Love you, Em," "Love you, Konstantin," Emma says with a quiver in her voice, and Klaus is wheeled away. Military officials visit Klaus in prison. He always answers whatever questions he's asked. He's surprised to learn the female officer is Jewish; when she asks him why, he says the only Jews he's ever encountered are sticks. "Sticks...?" she asks, puzzled; "Ja, sticks," he says, "you know, prisoners...sticks." She doesn't really react to that, though she does start bringing him books to read...books that the SS had banned. Good obedient rule-following Klaus had never questioned why, never been interested in forbidden things, never even been much interested in reading, but he's curious now. He reads book after book as she brings them, and the books make him think for himself, and he finds this makes him incredibly uncomfortable. One day while discussing his sticks with her, it's as if a veil lifts, and it suddenly hits him--"Not sticks," he blurts out, realizing that he's talking about people, flesh-and-blood people like Emma and Jost and Karl--"So many not-sticks." He's too overwhelmed to talk further, though the next time she visits, he asks her why. Why does she come to talk to him? Why waste her time? She doesn't give him any answer other than to say, to her, it hasn't been a waste of time. A while after her visits stop, so Klaus is left wondering why she bothered with him, and why it bothers him so much. He's not used to so many thoughts and feelings but he's stuck with them now. It takes him a while to understand that he's feeling guilt. Klaus keeps his promises, is eligible to be released early for good behavior. Vows that he has no interest in seeking out any fellow former SS, no interest in returning to that life, all he wants is his family. The officials declare him "denazified" (what an odd word, he thinks) and let him out. Outside the castle prison stand Emma and his boys--both nearly grown now. He embraces them and breaks down crying. "My Em, my boys." Emma wipes her eyes and wheels him to a waiting vehicle. They leave for a small cottage near the city's edge. Emma and the boys live here, now Klaus will too; they've started a new life, she's stopped teaching the boys SS ways, though if people were to find out who Klaus once was, she imagines things might get difficult. Klaus replies that it's fine, he has no interest in going out again (especially since he's now confined to a wheelchair), though he laments that she should have to be the breadwinner when he's supposed to care for her. Emma kisses him atop the head; "My Konstantin, you already cared for us, now we care for you." Emma is the one who goes out to work every day now, and Klaus is the one who always welcomes her home. Jost and Karl also take jobs when they're old enough. Klaus rarely ever leaves the house--it's far too dangerous for him, and too much of a risk for his family--but it doesn't matter too much to him. Emma and Jost and Karl are all right and that's what counts. See also Karl's entry. [Jost Klaus 2025 [Friday, February 7, 2025, 12:00:07 AM]] |