|
Unnamed Hauptmann Blog Entry |
|
May 23, 2025, 12:00:07 AM 5/23/25: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Unnamed Hauptmann (Captain). He's in charge of a unit Klemper briefly belongs to and is definitely not a good person; Klemper ends up going AWOL and joins Lt. Dasch's unit. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding his design, he has a chipped tooth. TUMBLR EDIT: Not much to say about the previously known Unnamed Unit Commander--he plays only a bit role in the main story, though it's an influential one. This is the same guy who appears in Sergeant Badt's entry and Unnamed Unteroffizier's. I decided to make him a captain as he seems to hold rank over 2nd Lt. Dasch when the two of them confront each other; I guess I could have made him a first lieutenant, but captain felt more appropriate, he's older and more experienced and does his own thing. Still not an important enough character for a name, so now he's Unnamed Hauptmann. As I mentioned, this guy is a serious skeeze. General Schavitz has a thing for teenage girls; well, this guy has a thing for teenage boys. In these weird fictional units that patrol the forested eastern border, they play rather fast and loose with the rules, and underaged recruits aren't uncommon. Many of the Waldvolk avoid conscription entirely as the Wehrmacht would really rather not fuss with them, so anyone who willingly enlists is usually considered good enough. Godfrey Klemper, for example, is merely thirteen when he joins, presenting altered papers he stole off a dead soldier; it apparently becomes an open secret that he was too young to legally join, as when the SS later investigates him for an unrelated matter, there's already reference to his young age in his file, and Dasch makes use of this info to seek leniency. So naturally, when Unnamed Hauptmann overhears Dasch complaining that he doesn't have any place in his unit for a newbie, he's more than willing to take "the kid" into his, for reasons that become obvious to Klemper a while later, the night he flees the encampment and goes AWOL. The soldier keeping lookout--Badt, who has treated Klemper disdainfully his entire time there--steps aside to let him go and doesn't raise the alarm. Badt himself gives his reasoning in his own entry linked above; though he does not go into detail, it's enough to make the situation clear to Dasch, who hinted at something inappropriate in Unnamed Hauptmann's insistence that he return Klemper after Klemper begged Dasch to take him back. Badt tells Dasch that not too long ago, he was Klemper's age. Klemper had assumed that Badt was treating him so dismissively as he was jealous of the attention Unnamed Hauptmann was paying him, especially since Badt kept getting in between them. This is only half correct. Badt was indeed trying to deflect attention from Klemper--not out of jealousy, but to try to protect him. Once upon a time, Badt was around as old as Klemper. Once upon a time, he too joined the army while underage. Once upon a time, Unnamed Hauptmann looked at him the same way Badt saw him look at Klemper--once upon a time, until he got too old, Badt was Unnamed Hauptmann's "favorite." Badt indirectly gives Dasch a hint that Unnamed Hauptmann--who prefers to initially use charm and kindness to ensnare his victims--is perfectly willing to resort to violence if necessary; he tells Dasch, while rubbing the conspicuous scar over his nose, that sometimes it's best not to fight back. He himself once tried. Unnamed Hauptmann gave him the scar as a warning not to do so again. So of course, that night when Badt was placed on lookout duty--meaning he couldn't keep an eye on what was happening with Unnamed Hauptmann or Klemper--and spotted the distraught Klemper fleeing the camp, he stepped aside to let him go, and kept his mouth shut. Rewind, return to present tense, Badt's POV: Badt stands and watches the kid go running off into the Wald. Pauses to take a deep breath, lets it out, returns to his post. His heart is hammering--he knows he's going to have to deal with the fallout of his actions in the morning, so he tries to steel himself. It's hours yet until dawn, and that's a lot of time to agonize over whether, yet again, fighting back will be worth it. He also agonizes over his own failure to prevent this, wishes he'd insisted that somebody else take watch, though that would've also meant pushing back, and he's rather forgotten how to do that. He only knows how to follow orders, do as he's told, not rock the boat. Unnamed Hauptmann isn't interested in him anymore--yet the hold he has over Badt, the terror, the memory, is still there. He sits in the dark and unconsciously rubs his nose--long healed, yet sometimes he swears it hurts still, so much hurting that night he broke Unnamed Hauptmann's tooth and in return Unnamed Hauptmann slashed his nose open to make his point--and it's probably best he's on watch as he definitely can't sleep. Badt sits as the hours go by and the first dawn light creeps into the Wald. Hears birds start singing, undergrowth start rustling. Feels the dread rising in his breast, stronger and stronger, so he has to force himself to breathe and try not to shake. Hears the first slight noises of movement from the camp behind him, but doesn't turn to look, just stares into the woods, swallowing hard and gripping his rifle. The faint sound of a tent flap being yanked aside, quick footsteps, camp items being scattered and startling a few of the still-sleeping soldiers awake. The footsteps turning and getting louder, closer. Then-- "BADT!" Badt jumps, looks back. The unit captain is stomping up the rough trail in his direction, fists clenched, lips curled back, teeth bared, eyes infuriated--Badt swallows, it's the same look he had before the knife slashed across his nose. He scrambles to his feet and salutes, gasping and jerking back when the captain smacks his arm down. "Where is he!" the captain practically yells in his face; from the corner of his eye, Badt notices the other men crawling out of their sleeping bags, blinking, peering up at them. He draws himself up stiff as a board, responds in as innocent a voice as he can muster. "Herr Hauptmann...?" "Don't you dare act stupid! You know exactly what I'm talking about!" The captain shakes a fist in his face. "That BRAT! Where is he?" "He's not in the camp, Herr Hauptmann--?" "You f**king well know he isn't! The only path out of here is straight past you. You were the one on watch! So where is he--?" "I haven't seen him since last night, Herr Hauptmann--" "There's no way he slipped past you unnoticed, Herr Unteroffizier!" "I must...must have dozed off at some point then, Herr Hauptmann. I never saw him." The captain stares at him. He doesn't say anything for a moment, though it feels like an eternity, and his eyes are pure murder; Badt again has to force himself to maintain eye contact and not shake. He feels like he's several years younger, again in the captain's tent, the knife in the captain's grip. He steels himself to be cut or struck or shot, he doesn't know which, just tries to convince himself it must be worth it, there was never anybody there to stand up for him. Then--the captain lets out his breath, relaxes his clenched fists--the crackling tension in the air dissipates, and Badt's muscles ache, he hadn't even noticed until now how tensed up he was--and "Get your s**t together. You're going to help me look for him," the captain snaps, and whirls to go stalking back into the camp. As he starts barking orders at his men Badt finally lets out his own breath. He has to move slowly as he gathers his stuff, his hands are shaking so badly. This was the second most frightening day of his life--yet he's still standing, he's still alive. And so is Klemper, wherever he is, so it must be worth it. He snaps to attention again when the captain comes stalking back, scowling and jerking a hand at him to follow; Badt meekly falls in behind him. Their impromptu march through the Wald ends up taking them back to Dasch's camp; and only then does Badt dare to feel a twinge of hope that the kid is safely out of the captain's reach. Dasch is only a second lieutenant, yet he has a stubborn streak fit to rival anyone's, and the captain's attempts at intimidation don't work on him. Badt stands by and watches as someone else fights back and wins, possibly for the first time in the captain's experience. They leave Dasch's camp emptyhanded. The captain mutters curses and invective against Dasch and Klemper the entire way back--though there's something subtly different in his posture and tone. He's sulky now, cowed, like a petulant adolescent. He's not used to not getting his way--or more like, as Badt realizes, he's not used to taking on a fellow adult, somebody who can stand up to him on even footing. Badt actually feels a twinge of Schadenfreude, along with relief. Klemper is beyond Unnamed Hauptmann's hold now, and whatever may happen next, Badt feels he can handle it, it can't possibly be worse than what he's already gone through. He does surreptitiously drop his mess kit on the way out of the camp, to give him an excuse to return later and thank Dasch. Nobody ever stood up for him, but Dasch stood up for Klemper, and managed to instill just a smidge of fear in the captain. Badt defied the captain a second time and lived through it. He dares to hope that maybe, finally, the nasty cycle--picking a favorite, using him, discarding him for someone new--is over. If not...well, he bears one scar, he can surely handle more. Unnamed Hauptmann pretty much disappears from the story after this. (He likely makes a brief appearance in the main story to establish his existence as a background character in Klemper's past, though that's probably it.) As much as I'd like to say he gets his comeuppance, I really don't think he does. He does move on from his unit at some point but I think it's because he gets promoted someplace else--a bitter disappointment to his victims, yet it's just the way of the world. Badt likely assumes command of the unit. I'm unsure yet if he reappears in the story himself or what his role would be, but he outlasts Unnamed Hauptmann in that role, so, at least there's that. [Unnamed Hauptmann 2025 [Friday, May 23, 2025, 12:00:07 AM]] |