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Unnamed Father (Burgundy) Blog Entry |
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November 15, 2024, 12:00:15 AM 11/15/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's characters from my anthro WWII storyline are an entire family sans one: Unnamed Father; Unnamed Mother; Unnamed Brother; and Unnamed Wife. They're the family of 2nd Lt. Burgundy Rat. Burgundy's father is deceased, and he's estranged from the others during the main story as there was some drama in their past. There'll be more about them later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding their design, Burgundy and his brother largely resemble their father, while Burgundy shares his mother's eye color. And dang I wish I hadn't given his wife such distinctive colors as she barely appears in anything, ah well. TUMBLR EDIT: Entries modified hereafter to avoid repetition. When I originally intended to write up Burgundy's entry, something happened to put me off, as you can see in the text. I'm not 100% certain but I believe my art was downvoted. (Edit--not long before this, I'd started taking screengrabs after every time I post art, as this had been happening so frequently, especially with my Trench Rats art for some reason. (Why? Because I'm used to people telling me I must be exaggerating about the amount of hate I inexplicably get online, so now I always get proof.) And yes, Burgundy was downvoted.) Like I said, this was happening very frequently, plus at the time my art tended to attract no other votes, so it was painfully discouraging. I had reason to believe the person I suspect was behind the downvoting was also lurking this Tumblr (maybe he still is, guess I'll find out), as when I would mention downvotes here, they would increase on Reddit. This really wore on me and I ended up never sharing Burgundy's story. Well...I still don't intend to go into excessive detail, though mainly because much of it is still undeveloped, but I'll finally lay out the basics here, as Burgundy's story largely revolves around his dysfunctional family. I think Burgundy is born around 1900, maybe a bit earlier. When he's young he's close to his father, because his mother is really overbearing, shrewish, and judgemental, favoring his brother. Burgundy's (that's obviously not his real name but I've never revealed what it is) dad is a kind soul...but also rather weak willed. He pretty much lets his wife run roughshod over him. He's the breadwinner, but just doesn't have it in him to stand up to her. Burgundy and his brother spend many nights lying in bed listening to the sounds of their mother shrieking at him in a rage while he meekly asks her to please lower her voice for the boys' sake, or simply says nothing at all. Burgundy's brother (I can't recall if he's older or younger at the moment, I think maybe Burgundy is younger but am unsure), since he's favored by their mother, is close to her, and so her mentality infects him as well and he grows rather disdainful of his father. Their dad is only ever good to them though, and Burgundy clings to his kindness as it's really the only kindness he receives. The mother isn't physically abusive or anything like that, but her screaming rage-filled hypercritical attitude wears heavily on both Burgundy and his father. The situation is just tolerable but when Burgundy is still a child it takes a turn. I'm not sure what sort of work the father is involved in, but I'd wanted it to be something white collar like investing or something, I don't understand how it all works, just something involving the state of the stock market. Obviously, what happens can't be the result of the stock market crash of 1929 as that's far too late. Wikipedia tells me of something lesser but still rather devastating called the Panic of 1907. Again, it's pretty over my head, but roughly fits the time period, if Burgundy was indeed born around 1900. So perhaps that's the catalyst, though the family dynamic definitely doesn't help. Burgundy's father is in his study one day, Burgundy playing or reading by himself, his brother and mother off in another part of the house, when Burgundy hears a loud bang. Puzzled, he heads toward the study, peers inside, but doesn't see his father at his desk. He creeps into the room with a growing sense of unease, calls out, hears nothing, reaches the desk--notices something spreading across the floor. When he steps around the desk he finds his father lying where he fell, eyes staring, gun still clasped loosely in his hand. And so much red, everywhere. He stands there staring mutely as thumping noises come from behind, and his mother and brother come in, mother also calling out. She screams when she sees what's happened, yells at her other son to leave, rails at her dead husband as a weak selfish man who left them, then unleashes her rage on Burgundy. Her screams that this is somehow his fault finally snap him out of his daze, and he tries to back away from the gruesome scene, only for his mother to grab his arms and shove him forward again--with a gasp and a cry he falls in the growing pool of blood. His mother says he has to stay there, think over what he's done. Burgundy is left sitting in the puddle of his father's blood for what feels like hours, unable to leave, tears streaming down his face as he stares at the body of the one person who loved him. He can't understand why he left...maybe it really was his fault. Shadows are growing a bit long by the time police enter the study and find him. The mother had tried to put them off, yet neighbors had heard the shot and called them to investigate. They're stunned by the sight of Burgundy sitting in his father's blood; the mother says he ran in there and stayed of his own will, and the brother backs her up, yet they call child welfare services anyway. A social worker talks with Burgundy, yet he doesn't offer much to counter the story that was already given, so in the end his mother is allowed to retain custody of him. His father's body is removed, there's a funeral, life resumes. Burgundy is mute and withdrawn for quite a while, grappling with both the loss and his own perceived role in it; he's just a kid, of course he believes his mother and that it's his fault somehow, even if he can't understand why. His mind eventually constructs its own explanations, and he's weighed down by the guilt that he couldn't have saved him. He starts to fixate on this thought. His mother doesn't target him nearly as much afterward, mostly ignoring him instead, though she still snaps at him or cuffs his ear if they cross paths. He learns to simply avoid her, and keeps to himself, spending most of his time reading. When able, he stays hours at the public library, investing most of his time in medical and anatomy textbooks; what if he'd been able to help his father, get there soon enough, stop the bleeding, save his life? The more he reads, the more he realizes such a thing never would have been possible; yet still. It's just human to dwell on all the things we wish we could have done, all the ways it could've been different. Burgundy's brother is another matter. As he gets older he develops a mean streak, and takes that out on Burgundy, mostly in the form of taunts and cruel pranks. He spatters Burgundy with red sauce one day as a joke, but doesn't expect the dramatic reaction he gets; Burgundy promptly suffers a panic attack, gasping and cringing away from the sauce as if he's been burned. His brother's no idiot, he realizes immediately what's happened: The sauce looks just like blood. Burgundy just had some sort of flashback to what happened to their father. Burgundy does what he can to just avoid his own family. Gets older, keeps learning and teaching himself, does various jobs to earn money in addition to that which his father left in his will (he knows his mother isn't happy about that, but can't do anything about it). He has a plan by now and intends to stick to it. As soon as he comes of age and inherits the savings his father left him, he moves out, rents a small apartment, keeps earning while living frugally; he doesn't need much. He's effectively cut off from his mother now, she never writes or visits; his brother drops by now and then to see how he is and offer a few jabs (before reporting back to their mother). Burgundy is always cold but polite, not interested in drama. On one visit his brother notices the big books and lengthy notes Burgundy has spread all over the table, and looks over them curiously. "Medical books...?" he says, then spots some coursework Burgundy's been filling out. He blinks in surprise. "Surgery," he blurts out; "You're learning to be a surgeon??" He brays with laughter. "You're terrified of blood! And now you want to be a surgeon?" Burgundy holds his tongue until his brother finally leaves, laughing the entire way--"A surgeon scared of blood! Good luck with that!"--and returns his focus to his studies. He pointedly refuses to answer the door the next time his brother visits, however, and eventually is left alone. He becomes good at completely cutting people out of his life when it suits him...I guess you could say with surgical precision. He manages to make his way through medical school, despite his inconvenient handicap (he's actually mostly okay with blood, it's large amounts or spattering/spraying blood that makes him panic). Enlists and becomes a military surgeon. Meets the woman who becomes his wife...though his brother insinuates himself back into his life, again, with nothing but ill intentions. Burgundy's wife is a pretty decent person overall (a detail that wasn't always so in my concept of her), but her personality is much the opposite of his own; she's quite outgoing, and can be rather pushy. Plus it doesn't sit well with her that Burgundy is so often late at work and she's largely left on her own all day long. Well, you can probably see where this is going. Burgundy's brother makes a point of visiting while Burgundy is working and does his best to win Unnamed Wife over, not because he's genuinely interested in her, but simply out of malice. Unnamed Wife puts him off for a while, but her husband's lengthy absences wear on her, she's lonely, and of course Unnamed Brother plants the suggestion in her mind that maybe her husband doesn't care about her that much, maybe he's just selfish. He wears her down enough that she finally welcomes his attention. It's just everyone's bad luck that Burgundy returns home unexpectedly at that point, and hears what's going on. (I don't think the two actually go through with the deed, though they get close, and of course Unnamed Brother has some things to say behind Burgundy's back.) Burgundy doesn't confront them, instead he does what he does best: Gathers a few necessities, and walks out of their lives forever. I already mentioned he's good at cutting people off, and doesn't bother giving second chances; once you've betrayed his trust, that's pretty much it, you're dead to him, no muss, no fuss. Unnamed Wife hears the door close, realizes Burgundy must have heard them, hurries out--smoothing down her hair and dress--to see him and explain. Of course he's already gone. She tells Unnamed Brother to leave, feeling contrite, and sits up to wait for his return, hoping to make things right. Well...it takes a couple of days before she realizes her husband is apparently not coming home. Unsure where he's staying, she visits the military facility where he works. Is shuttled from one person to another until she finally ends up with a gunnery sergeant named Evans; she begs for what feels like the dozenth time to know where Burgundy is, so she can talk to him. Evans seems surprised--and confused--to learn that she's his wife. "I'm...I'm not sure I understand," he says, "you're saying you haven't talked with him--? For how long now?" When she says it's been a couple of days, can he please show her to Burgundy's office so she can speak with him?--Evans furrows his brow. "I'm not sure how to tell you this...but he's not here. He shipped out yesterday." "Shipped out--?" Unnamed Wife echoes, confused. Evans nods: "To Germany." And adds, "He didn't tell you anything...?" In Unnamed Wife's absence: A sergeant named Camo, seeking volunteers for his new battalion, is advised of someone who might fill the role of surgeon. Burgundy outranks Camo and his corporal, Drake, yet Camo offers him the job anyway. Burgundy accepts--and the battalion's recruits start shipping out immediately, to establish a headquarters and try to locate a missing American unit. Burgundy departs American soil without ever informing his wife of where he's going. He never attempts to contact her, and she has no way to contact him. After a long enough period has passed with no communication, Unnamed Wife reluctantly files for divorce for abandonment, and the marriage ends. There's a moment when Burgundy is attempting to coax a freed camp prisoner, Helena Urbach, out of her crippling grief over the loss of her husband and child; she can sense that the Trench Rat surgeon is entreating her from a position of experience. She asks him who he lost; he replies, "Everyone." Obviously, the circumstances are not the same--Burgundy's family, aside from his father, are presumably still alive--but it drives home the fact that, in his mind, they may as well be dead. He doesn't feel this way out of spite or any desire for them to actually be dead; it's just the way his emotions work, cutting out the source of the pain like someone would cut out a tumor, a sort of self-preservation. In Burgundy's mind, he really has lost everyone, and although he would never admit it, he really does grieve them all. Lance Corporal Lyndsey Skye is a member of the British military who ends up incorporated into the Trench Rats as a nurse serving in the medical ward headed by Burgundy. It becomes clear pretty early on that the two have feelings for each other, though Burgundy remains standoffish and distrustful; he finds it preferable to be alone rather than to be hurt, and he finds it difficult to believe Skye would be interested in him (he's not good at picking up signals). She figures out that the more assertive and domineering a woman is, the more cowed and withdrawn Burgundy becomes--so she backs off and gives him his space. When the Trench Rats meet up with a partisan group led by Didrika--the very definition of an assertive and domineering woman, and well known for attempting to seduce most men she comes in contact with--Skye warns her to not even try this with Burgundy when he arrives. Didrika rather jeeringly inquires why not?--has Skye called dibs on him? There's a brief silence while Skye stares Didrika down--before smacking her across the face. HARD. Everyone within earshot freezes, eyes goggling--even Didrika looks back at Skye in open disbelief. In addition to being known for her promiscuity, Didrika's known as someone not to mess with if you want to live, and almost nobody ever stands up to her. Skye holds her stare, however, and the look on her face is such that Didrika knows better than to push the issue...she sulkily backs down, and is on her best behavior when Burgundy shows up moments later. Negotiations carry on with Burgundy being none the wiser regarding what just happened and how Skye protected him. Burgundy is badly shaken late in the story when he fails to avert Teal Rat's suicide; Teal jabs a scalpel in his neck, and shakes his head when Burgundy tries to stop him from pulling it back out--the two make eye contact, and it's plain that Teal doesn't want to be saved. It's a horrible, bloody scene--Burgundy fears for the welfare of Corporal Drake, who witnesses it from the next bed, until Drake promises him later that he doesn't intend to do the same--but it's the sight of pure resignation and loss of hope in Teal's eyes that hits Burgundy even harder than the blood. He knows his father must have felt similar--he wouldn't have left him behind otherwise--and it hurts to know he died having no one to share his despair with. Teal's death feels like yet another personal failure. Skye is present during the incident; she hurries forward when Burgundy yells, pulls the curtain around the bed to cut off Drake's view, tries to help with Teal, and after a few moments has to convince Burgundy to cease lifesaving efforts as Teal is gone. She understands everything that happens. So, it's only natural that Burgundy turns to her at that point, and she doesn't turn him away. Burgundy and Skye remain partners, both professionally and personally, after the war. Please see also the entries for Unnamed Mother, Unnamed Brother, and Unnamed Wife, in addition to Burgundy's and Lyndsey Skye's. [Unnamed Father (Burgundy) 2024 [Friday, November 15, 2024, 12:00:15 AM]] |
