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Kaspar Lange Blog Entry |
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April 28, 2023, 3:00:38 AM 4/28/23: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Unteroffizier (Sergeant) Kaspar Lange. Not much I can say about him here but that he's one of the story's nastiest characters, with no redeeming qualities to speak of. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. TUMBLR EDIT: Ahmm...hm. So, Sgt. Lange. This guy is a real piece of work. Unlike most of my skeezy/unpleasant characters, I don't have any real background on him. I think similar to Schavitz (even Dannecker has SOME explanation, though no excuse, for what he does) he was simply born bad...unlike Schavitz, as far as I'm aware, he never does anything of any redeeming value for the protagonists (even Schavitz makes himself useful when it suits him). He's just evil, through and through, he has no explanation, and he doesn't care. Lange is a sexual sadist who targets exclusively other men. This is normally the sort of thing that would get him in serious trouble with the Wehrmacht; witness the crap Godfrey Klemper goes through after mere rumors spread of his brief involvement with a male Jewish partisan--it takes intervention by both his commanding officer and the SS to keep him from getting not just ousted from the military, but executed on charges related to perversion, breaking the race laws, and potential treason--despite this, he still ends up demoted and prevented from advancing through the ranks again, plus is forced into a fluff job "babysitting" Ratdog. Lange, however, has an advantage in that he catches the notice of Nazi physician Dr. Dietmar Kammler, who's always looking for new and creative ways to torture his subjects and keep them in line. When he catches wind of the sergeant's unsavory activities, it occurs to him to weaponize Lange for his own benefit. Lange victimizes numerous other characters before and throughout the series, the more notable ones being Boris, Teal Rat, Ratdog, Silver Rat, and Klemper. Boris is one of his earlier victims, before the official series starts; he and his unit desert from the Red Army and venture into eastern Germany, only to end up pursued by the Wehrmacht. Boris is separated from the rest of his men, gets captured, and Lange decides to "have some fun" with him. Boris isn't a weakling--he's tall and imposing and easily intimidates most men he meets. He's also the stereotypical macho character and rather homophobic; when he comes into contact with Klemper later on he frequently ridicules him with gay slurs (this has no real effect on Klemper as, weirdly, he uses gay slurs on others, himself). Needless to say, what Lange puts him through is utterly humiliating in addition to painful, in a way that it isn't quite for his other victims; Boris can't understand why he's unable to defend himself, so of course he engages in a lot of self-blame later on, trying to figure out why didn't he just fight back harder. An additional embarrassment is how he ends up rescued: After Lange departs, the remaining Nazis (they didn't participate in what occurred previously) resume beating and torturing the restrained, half-naked Boris, until suddenly, gunshots start ringing out, and they start dropping dead. Boris can't see everything that's going on, and can't tell where the shots are coming from--the Nazis are just as bewildered, as the gunfire seems to be coming from every direction. One by one the unseen gunmen pick them off with clean shots to the head; when only one is left, he flees in a panic, and the shooters apparently allow him to. By now Boris is terrified that whoever these people are might kill him next; he hears rustling and then footsteps approaching, before someone slices his restraints with a knife and he collapses. He immediately rolls over, prepared to defend himself, but the only person standing there is a slender, dark-haired woman with a knife and a rifle. Boris demands to know where are the rest of the gunmen. He refuses to believe at first that she's the only one, but nobody else comes forward, and the more time passes, the clearer it becomes that Didrika is in fact his sole rescuer. He's saved from torture and execution by a woman, and not even a physically impressive one, at that. Humiliating. Despite how close they become to each other as time goes on, Boris is absolute trash to Didrika at first; he even gets drunk and takes out his rage toward Lange on her their first night together, though when he sobers up the next day he's mortified by his own actions. Didrika witnessed only a fraction of what he went through; while it's no excuse, still, she understands from experience where the rage comes from. By the time they reunite with the rest of Boris's men, it's Boris who has to convince them that yes, Didrika is his lone rescuer, and he bullies the rest of the men, both his fellow Soviets and the other partisans they come across, into accepting her as their leader. He even gives her his rifle to use, recognizing that she's the superior marksman. Although Didrika engages in multiple relationships for a time, Boris remains loyal to her, and eventually she's faithful to him as well. (Though she does still flirt with and mock-seduce the men she comes in contact with as a strategic move, Boris doesn't care. The only time he expresses jealousy is when she focuses her attention on Silver, whom she doesn't even attempt to seduce. If there's anything Boris hates as much as the Germans, it's the Trench Rats.) Lt. Ratdog--ironically, the chief rival, on the Wehrmacht's side, of Didrika and by extension Boris--is another of Lange's high-profile victims. Unlike Boris and the Trench Rats, which are prisoner torture-style events, this incident is purely a vengeful one, as Ratdog and Lange are fighting on the same side. (Proving that Lange isn't too picky about who he targets.) Ratdog has been recruited as a sniper by General Schavitz, and granted an honorary lieutenant rank in the Wehrmacht; as part of the deal, and also as a sort of punishment for PFC Klemper's scandal, Klemper is assigned to be Ratdog's bodyguard (as well as to keep Ratdog out of trouble) whenever his unit isn't deployed elsewhere. Klemper seethes over this at first--especially considering how hard he worked only to lose his rank, while Ratdog had one handed to him--but has no choice in the matter. The fact that Ratdog himself is not only promiscuous, but sees no problem taking home women OR men, rankles Klemper even further, since he was punished for much less, yet here Ratdog's behavior is tolerated. Despite this, the two of them end up spending a night together; Ratdog pretty much expresses interest in anyone, while Klemper expresses interest in older men who express interest in him. Coming from an abusive background, he's easily victimized by such men yet is desperate for their approval, and keeps falling for any such man who seems to care about him. In other words, Klemper uses sex to get romance, while Ratdog uses romance to get sex. Result, Klemper falls for Ratdog, but very quickly realizes Ratdog isn't interested in a romantic relationship, so the next time Ratdog makes a move, Klemper rebuffs him and angrily snaps, "Go pick someone up in the bar if you want to get laid so bad!" Ratdog's confused by Klemper's hot/cold attitude, yet takes the advice, returning to the bar he frequents (another habit Klemper can't stand), looking for somebody to go home with. Lange hits him up and they chat for a bit, but something about him seems off; Ratdog politely declines, and ends up leaving the bar and returning home alone. Lange isn't the type to take no for an answer, obviously, and though he doesn't show it, Ratdog's rejection infuriates him--Ratdog's known for not being picky about who he goes home with, so why would he turn him down? Lange drinks and steams for a while before leaving, and he heads straight to Ratdog's apartment. Ratdog of course opens the door at his knock and is perplexed yet not alarmed to see him, at least, not until Lange forces his way in. Ratdog may be an excellent sniper but he's not a very skilled fighter, and despite his best efforts, Lange easily gets the better of him. He ends up passing out from the beating he takes, coming to after Lange's departed; although in rough shape and aching all over, he manages to lock his door, make a telephone call to inform his superiors he won't be in in the morning, wash himself up, and curl up in bed, just a ball of hurt. For some reason, Ratdog's message isn't forwarded to the right people, and Klemper is sent ahead to fetch him when he doesn't show up in the morning. No one answers his knock, so he picks the lock and lets himself in; on a casual glance nothing seems amiss, yet Klemper notices tiny details that start to concern him. A piece of furniture is just slightly askew, there's a scuff on the floor, and when he squats down to inspect it, he notices something under the couch: a sergeant's collar tab, torn from its uniform. Increasingly uneasy, Klemper looks around further, though Ratdog wakes on hearing him moving around, and comes out to confront him, armed with his pistol (assuming Lange has returned). Klemper is stunned by the shape he's in--bruised all over, limping, his lip swollen and both his eyes black--and asks what happened; Ratdog curtly replies, "Bar fight." He demands to know why Klemper's there--Klemper explains he was sent along when Ratdog didn't show up for work--Ratdog reiterates the message he sent before, and tells Klemper to leave, retreating back to his room. Klemper instead makes coffee; when Ratdog reappears and snaps at him to get lost, he refuses, and starts rummaging around in the food, saying, "You're going to have to go back in before those bruises are gone." Ratdog belatedly realizes this, and after a moment retreats again. Klemper speaks up. Klemper: "Cold water." Ratdog: "What?" Klemper: "For when you don't have ice. Cold water on your eyes for the swelling. Later on, heat to take away the bruise." Ratdog may be kind of dense but he gets the distinct feeling Klemper is speaking from experience. He goes to the bathroom sink and spends a while pressing cold wet cloths to his face. Some time later, both Ratdog and Klemper attend an officers' gathering and Lange approaches. Klemper has had a run-in with his unit in the past--a sergeant back then himself, he prevented them from torching a village they claimed (without proof) was harboring partisans. This earned him an Iron Cross. Obviously he and Lange dislike each other over this, but it was their only encounter and both of them have pretty much moved on and forgotten it. So he's more bemused than anything when Lange stops to talk with Ratdog, not him. Lange makes a suggestive reference to them passing time with each other; at first Klemper assumes he's yet another of Ratdog's one-night stands, but Ratdog's body language hints otherwise--his breathing picks up, his pupils dilate, he leans back slightly when Lange leans forward. He also doesn't respond to Lange's mildly derisive banter the way he usually would. Klemper picks up on all of this, and notices this guy is a sergeant--his collar tabs match the one he found torn off on the floor. If there's one thing Klemper knows, it's predators. Ratdog makes no move to make Lange leave them alone, so he does. When Lange leans even closer to get right in Ratdog's face, he suddenly tenses and takes a step back--Klemper pulled his pistol and nudged it under his ribs. He quietly informs Lange he's gotten in trouble before and he can handle getting in trouble again, as the SS itself bailed him out--and what's more, his unit is still devoted to him, despite him no longer being in charge--whatever action he decides to take on Lange, they'll back him up. "What about you, do the SS and the Heer have your back...?" he says. Lange knows he's feared yet highly unpopular; he backs off. As he walks away Ratdog relaxes a little and murmurs, "You're not going to make many friends this way," to which Klemper retorts, "I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to keep YOU out of trouble. Lot of help you're being!" Later on, Klemper's and Lange's units are both tasked with searching an abandoned house for any goods they can use (scavenging derelict homes is a thing the Wehrmacht does in my story, these are "wandering" troops who patrol the eastern interior of Germany, it's a weird plot element not based anything on reality to the best of my knowledge); Klemper is especially skilled at finding the good stuff, so he's sent upstairs first to browse around. He locates a bedroom and while perusing the shelves gets distracted by a snowglobe; he has a childish fondness for small toys and pretty things, so he picks the snowglobe up and looks it over admiringly. As he's doing so, however, he notices a reflection moving in the glass--someone is creeping up behind him. He ducks just in time to avoid the butt of Lange's rifle smashing into the shelves. When Lange comes at him, he does get in a few decent blows of his own, but after a moment or so of sparring Lange starts hitting him back, and gets hold of him and hurls him at the bed, pinning him down. Klemper gets the picture now and starts fighting even harder, though he can't get any blows in this time. When it becomes clear he won't be able to free himself, he stops fighting and goes limp. Lange pushes himself up a bit to reach for his clothes and at that moment, Klemper brings up his knee as hard as he can, jamming it in his groin--Lange hunches over in pain, and gets Klemper's Stahlhelm slamming against his head. He lets go and stumbles out of the bed and next thing he knows, Klemper is raining kicks and blows all over him while he can hardly defend himself. The men in Klemper's unit are often given Pervitin to keep them going on their long treks and today is no different. Pervitin is methamphetamine. So basically, Klemper beats the s**t out of Lange in the middle of a meth rage. Stupid choice, Lange. This whole time, Klemper never yells or screams for help. The two of them do snarl at each other while fighting though, and make a great deal of noise thrashing and hurling around. Result, it's only belatedly that Klemper's commanding officer, Lt. Dasch, realizes something is amiss, and heads upstairs to investigate the noise. Finds Klemper whaling on Lange, who by now is mostly just trying to defend himself. Yells for them to break it up and knock it off, having to physically pull Klemper off of him before demanding to know what the hell is going on. "Misunderstanding!" Klemper, panting and bloody, snaps; of course Lange doesn't bother protesting. Dasch knows it's obviously a lot more than that--he's aware of both Klemper's repeated history as a victim, and Lange's repeated history as a victimizer--but he can't do anything without a complaint, and neither one of them complains. He orders Lange to get back to his unit, and Klemper to clean himself up and return downstairs; afterwards everyone picks up and moves out. Klemper, unbelievably, is the only one to successfully fend off Lange, and Lange doesn't mess with him again. He pays a nasty price for defending himself, though; when Ratdog meets him a bit later, he's stunned by Klemper's appearance, his lip split and his eyes black and swollen. "What happened...?" he asks; this time, Klemper curtly responds, "Bar fight." Klemper doesn't frequent bars, so his meaning is immediately clear to Ratdog: He knows what happened in Ratdog's apartment that night, and who was responsible, and had a run-in with the same person himself. Ratdog suggests cold water: "On your eyes, for the swelling. Later on, heat to take away the bruise." He takes issue with Klemper going about his duties as if nothing happened, trying to convince him to ask for a break; Klemper rankles at the suggestion and retorts, "I don't need you protecting me! I fought him off, not you!" This shuts Ratdog up immediately with its implication that maybe he should've fought harder, himself. Klemper, regretting his words, does take a moment later on to apologize: Klemper: "I wanted to say I'm sorry." Ratdog: "You? Sorry?" Klemper: "When I said I fought back and you didn't. I know you did your best. It's not your fault if it wasn't enough." Oddly, Lange's actions end up helping Ratdog and Klemper understand each other a little better, in that the two of them have something in common now. It takes a while, and there are still a few false starts, but they eventually become emotionally inseparable. Lange's main role is as a literal weapon of Nazi Dr. Kammler, who, learning of his proclivities, recruits him to help torture certain subjects of his. I don't know how these two meet or how they come about this weird arrangement, but Lange is 100% on board. He enjoys the job a little TOO much, even by Kammler's standards; Kammler, frankly, despises Lange, finding him perverted and disgusting, but that's beside the point, he's not there to be friendly with him. He just makes a point to leave the room whenever Lange does his thing so he doesn't have to witness it. I don't even know that Lange receives any sort of monetary reimbursement for this; the job itself is payment enough, he enjoys inflicting pain and humiliation so much. Kammler likely promises to protect him from persecution by the Wehrmacht though that's probably it, and I'm not sure he even has the ability to follow through on that. Lange doesn't care, he's having too much fun. His victims under Kammler's watch are likely numerous. It's the Trench Rats who are the most prized targets, though. Kammler doesn't inflict this punishment on everyone, it's rather arbitrary; for example, test subjects Wolfstein, Kolten, Doomsday Rat, and Drake Rat are never put through this, even though D-Day later becomes a Trench Rat. Kolten is too well connected (his father is an SS officer, and in charge of supervising the project); D-Day just happens to be Kammler's most successful subject, and obeys commands so such punishment isn't needed--he could easily have become Kammler's golden boy if he hadn't been rescued. Wolfstein and Drake are the outliers: They're both Jewish, and they both passively resist most of Kammler's efforts to break them. He loses his temper with them multiple times, and puts them through some horrific torture, but for some reason, never sics Lange on them. I don't know, maybe he just doesn't see Jews as worth the trouble? Or maybe because it would be a violation of the race laws or it's possibly the line Lange won't cross? *shrugs* Frankly, that last one sounds most plausible. Teal Rat and Silver Rat aren't so fortunate. Teal's story is HERE--some random thing he says or does sets Kammler off, and Kammler calls in Lange; by this point Lange has beaten Teal numerous times yet Kammler always ordered him to go no further, so even he's a bit surprised when Kammler changes his mind. But he goes right ahead. This is the incident that finally ends up breaking Teal's will, and in a sad effort to remain in the doctor's good graces, he yells to get the guards' attention when Silver Rat later on breaks into project headquarters--ironically, thwarting his own chance at escape. The result is Silver goes through the same thing Teal did; that's HERE. The difference is that Silver, with Wolfstein's help, escapes; Teal isn't rescued until much later. That's already been covered in their entries, but they do share the difficulties of trying to work through their trauma; both of them are humiliated, confused, and full of rage (Teal ends up taking this out on Kammler himself), and not sure how to handle it. Silver learns how to cope with the aid of Reseda Rat; Teal has no one to help him. Probably why he simply gives up. (The following plot points have changed somewhat since the last time I went over this, you'll see how if you follow the link.) As for Lange...? He carries on mostly in the background of the plot as a sort of chaos agent, unimpeded and undeterred (his and Klemper's units even come into contact again, though the two of them have no further altercations--I think being beaten to a pulp by a shrimpy effeminate openly gay guy effectively humiliated him), until one day in the woods when he ends up separated from the rest. He hears little noises, and is sure he's being followed; he slowly draws his gun and creeps through the trees, focusing on the direction of the sound. He at last reaches a small clearing and sees something lying on the ground; peering closer, he realizes it's a Soviet revolver. After checking to make sure it's not attached to any traps, he picks it up and looks it over curiously; he has enough time to realize it's unloaded before something goes around his neck and yanks his head back. He's abruptly put in a headlock--Boris leans close to his face and says with a smile, "Remember me, droog?" Lange can't really speak since he can hardly breathe, but it doesn't matter; Boris says, "Looks like is just you and me this time, da?"--and manages to keep hold of Lange as he pulls out a large knife. Lange blinks at the sight of it. "Now is my turn to have fun," Boris says in a decidedly nasty tone, and jams the knife in Lange's gut, giving it a vicious twist--"Gut wound. Slow, painful way to die"--before pulling it out. He lets Lange go so he collapses, then nudges him over with his boot. Lange still doesn't talk, just clasps his hands over his wound, gasping and staring up at him. "Now I get to watch while you suffer," Boris says, wiping off his knife. And he accordingly goes and sits nearby to watch while Lange bleeds out. After a couple of hours or so Lange lets out a rattling sound and falls still. Boris waits a bit longer, gets up to go look, nudges him a few times--Lange just stares glassily--then snorts. He puts away his knife and revolver, grabs Lange by the arms, and drags him across the clearing; there he hauls him upright and, pulling out some rope, strings Lange against the trunk for anyone to see as they pass by. "Do svidaniya," he says, pushing Lange's cap onto his head, and leaves. The first to stumble upon Lange's body hours later, as luck would have it, are Ratdog and Klemper; Klemper notices the disturbed, blood-stained leaves left when Lange was dragged across the ground, and has Ratdog wait while he investigates. He's nonplussed at the sight of Lange's gore-stained body tied to the tree...yet after a moment or so he starts to laugh. Ratdog approaches and is even more shocked, not so much by Lange as by Klemper's ghoulish reaction; when Klemper scoops up a clod of dirt and crams it into Lange's mouth and starts cackling even louder he decides they have to get the hell out of there and report the find lest they be blamed for his death. It's the SS that investigates such things, so Captain Himmel volunteers to go retrieve the body as Major Jäger is rather skeezed out at the thought. It's partisan territory, so he ends up captured by Didrika's men (here's the scene where Didrika leans over him to jeer at his predicament, he notices her skull-and-crossbones pendant, she says, "You like looking at my t*ts, old man?" and Himmel replies, "I'm sure your t*ts are lovely but they're not what I'm interested in right now," to which she can't think of a response), and Jäger has to rescue him AND retrieve Lange's body by showing up with a white flag to negotiate...a pretty embarrassing situation all around. Throughout the rest of the story, nobody else ever figures out who killed Lange, though suspicion does very briefly fall on Ratdog and Klemper. Honestly, nobody really cares--Himmel investigates because it's his job, but the only person who loses from Lange's death is Kammler, and even he's "meh" about it. Everybody promptly moves on. Boris's murder of Lange makes his own death toward the end of the story a bit ironic, you can find that HERE. Such is war, I guess. Sadly, Klemper dies in a way much similar to Lange's, as well. Their deaths are at least properly mourned, a lot more than Lange gets or deserves. [Kaspar Lange 2023 [Friday, April 28, 2023, 3:00:38 AM]] |