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Unnamed Wife (Camo) Blog Entry |
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January 24, 2025, 12:00:13 AM 1/24/25: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's characters from my anthro WWII storyline are Unnamed Wife and Unnamed Daughter. They're the family of Sgt. Camo Rat and are deceased before the main story. There'll be more about them later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding their design, the daughter is around four and resembles both parents somewhat. I got her fur and eye color by overlaying her father's picture over her mother's at 50% opacity. TUMBLR EDIT: Sgt. Camo Rat's wife and daughter, I don't know much about them as they've never been developed, indeed they aren't much more than a plot device at the moment. This could of course change at a future time if I spend more time on them, though I'm afraid that time isn't just yet. I'm not entirely sure where it is that Camo and his corporal, Drake, hail from; I always assumed New York, though in my current imagining of how Genesis starts (Drake and Camo both headed separately along a country road to their military base, Camo riding in a military truck, Drake driving an old motorcycle, the driver of Camo's truck spotting Drake puttering along and "jokingly" running him off the road; in a later scene involving flying lessons, the scene where Drake ends up insisting on staying grounded "like God intended," this also occurs in an area like that described below), both come from some area out in the country, with wide-open fields and lots of sky. I just Googled if New York State has any such areas and while it does have plains, none really seem to fit the image in my head, so maybe they come from further west and travel to NY later on. Anyway. Camo lives out in the country but I don't get the feeling he's a farmer, I just assume he's career military. I can't imagine there were loads of employment options out in the country just before and during the Great Depression...? Because this is the time period when Camo must start his family, considering he fights in the Great War, where he has a brief run-in with Otto Himmel; he wonders about Himmel's young age (they must meet sometime around 1917, when Himmel is 17, so Camo must be older...I assume his birth year is around 1896 or so). He returns home, meets Wife somehow, and they have Daughter some time later. Another event which I know roughly coincides with Camo and his family is Prohibition, which according to Wikipedia was from 1920-33. About right; Camo shares many characteristics in common with his nemesis Himmel, and Himmel, in Germany, starts his family roughly around 1920, after returning from the war. Why is Prohibition a factor? Even way back when I settled on what happens to Camo's family, I knew this was tied in. As I was saying, I think Camo's profession is the military, so his wife is probably simply a housewife and she cares for their daughter when he's at the base. Every evening he makes the long drive back along the dirt road to his home to be with them. Their life is simple, uneventful, thankfully not poor but also definitely not rich; they have each other and really, that's all that matters. It sounds trite but they love each other dearly; they don't need anything more than what they have. Much like Himmel's family. It's quite a long, dusty drive to the nearest town, so this isn't something they indulge in often at all, though once in a while the family treats itself to a day out, putting on their best clothes, piling in the rattly old vehicle, laughing and chattering all the way there and Wife and Daughter dozing off on the way back. This particular evening is no different. Wife places sleeping Daughter in the vehicle and they all head back on the long drive home. Wife remains awake for a while, talking, though her head gets heavy and she starts nodding. Camo (whatever his real name is, I don't know that he goes by this name until the Trench Rats) also likely starts blinking and rubbing his eyes...this is a development I never considered before, I always just assumed one party is responsible for what then occurs. Wife blinks awake and lifts her head in time to stiffen up and yell her husband's name. His eyes pop open to see headlights barreling straight at them. He yanks the wheel, jerking the car aside, but the other vehicle grazes against the front just enough to send Camo's vehicle off balance; it hits a rut, flips, flips again, it's as if the entire world is spinning, Wife and Daughter both scream, the car tumbles in air and crashes to earth upside-down and aside from a soft hiss everything falls silent. The other vehicle grinds to a halt some distance away. The driver is rattled and gasping but none the worse for wear; he glances out and back, sees the wreckage, grasps the door instinctively to get out and help...then stops himself. Agonizes. Makes his decision...restarts his car, and drives away. Of course he wants to help. Of course he feels guilty for leaving them behind, and likely will for a very long time. But he can't afford to be caught. Even he can smell the illegal alcohol on his own breath. He manages to make it home safely and is never suspected of what he did, though, ironically, he probably just starts drinking even harder to cope with the shame. Camo, also ironically, never suspects him either, he blames himself, for starting to doze at the wheel, even though he was still on the right side of the road. He, too, carries this guilt with him the rest of his life, and chooses his own maladaptive coping techniques later. For now, though, he's left unconscious in the family car. He blearily drags himself awake to see Wife still beside him, crumpled and bloody and unmoving; he murmurs her name, tries to reach her, yet can't seem to do so and doesn't understand why. She doesn't answer him, so he tries calling for Daughter; no response. He tries to turn himself to look for her yet everything seems out of place, he notices that the sky is below him and he seems to be pressed against the roof of the car. He can't figure out why he can't find Daughter or reach out for Wife and ends up losing consciousness again. Another car comes across them the next day. The couple gets out and hurries over to check the overturned vehicle. The woman within is obviously dead. They almost don't even see the little girl thrown free of the vehicle, having landed in the nearby ditch; she, too, is already cold. They're startled to find that the man crumpled at an awkward angle above the driver's seat still has a faint pulse. They remove him as carefully as they can and drive him back to the town. Police head out to collect Wife and Daughter and take them to the morgue. Camo is stabilized, then transported to the military hospital on his base. When he comes to again, he's very groggy and confused, and it takes some time for realization to set in, after he asks what happened and where his family is, that he won't be seeing them again. Even then, he's too numb with shock to much react. And still can't understand why he can't move. The doctor informs him of fractures...he doesn't follow...something cervical, something thoracic. Makes no sense to his foggy brain. The doctor simplifies. His neck and back have been broken. While wonders can be worked with time and rehabilitation, he can't promise that Camo will regain use of his limbs again. But they'll do everything they can to seek improvement. Although he never breaks down once--the combination of drugs and emotional numbness prevents it--Camo does murmur, "What's the point." Without Wife and Daughter, there isn't one. He doesn't even care about the paralysis. He literally can't imagine a life worth living without his family. One of the nurses, a somewhat older, heavyset woman, hears the comment, expresses her concerns to the doctor about his mental state. The doctor sympathizes but has no suggestions; if Camo doesn't wish to put in the effort, they can't make him. This isn't good enough for her. She can't bear the thought of him giving up and fading away forgotten in some hospital bed. Every time she comes on shift, she urges him to try the exercises he's given, try to get himself moving again. Camo largely ignores these efforts at first, though the nurse starts to wear on him. As he adjusts to the medication he notices her accent and asks where she's from. She's a bit hesitant before replying that she's from Germany--a refugee of the Great War. Camo's unable to think of a reply to this. His demeanor shifts, however. Whenever she leaves and he's left on his own, he focuses every ounce of his attention on his hand. Wills it to move. For ages, nothing happens, but he keeps at it, straining and focusing until his nerves are raw. And late one night, it happens--his finger twitches. He always practices when nobody is around to watch. He doesn't like being seen struggling so hard, it's humiliating in a way. But he keeps at it. Slowly, slowly, he regains motion in his arms. He doesn't try to hide his progress, the hospital staff notice him beginning to slightly improve, but he won't work on any of it in front of them. This is easy enough when it's his arms...not so much when he decides to start working on his legs. He focuses, focuses, focuses, starts to feel his toes, manages to move one. Then another. After what feels like ages he attempts late one night to get out of his bed, to try to take even just a step or two. He knows it's a process. But even he misjudges, overestimates. His leg immediately gives out and it's only because he was still clinging to the bed that he doesn't crash entirely. He figures he's going to be stuck this way for who knows how long, but almost immediately, someone puts their arms around him and hoists him up; together they manage to get him back upright. He blinks in surprise to see the stout nurse. They work to get him back in the bed and she places the covers back over him, tucking them in. He expects a rebuke, gets none. She doesn't say a word about it all the rest of the next day. But she does show up later that night. Neither of them discusses anything any of the following weeks, she just helps. Holds his arm to help him up, lets him lean on her to get out of the bed, supports him as he slowly, gingerly begins to put weight on first one leg, then the other. Guides him along the wall, makes sure he doesn't fall over, helps him back in the bed when he's too exhausted to continue. His frustration with how lengthy and grueling the process is is obvious. He finally loses his temper one night after he slips and the nurse is unable to stop him from hitting the floor. At first when she reaches for him, he angrily slaps her hand away, so she takes a step back and lets him steam. This time it takes rather longer than usual. "You know why I started doing this...?" he finally asks, an edge of spite in his voice. "Doing what?" the nurse asks. "Trying," he says. "Your accent. When you said you're from Germany. I decided I was going to get up and get moving. I don't want you watching over me every day of the rest of my life. I hate you." He gives her a venomous glare, though it's mixed with something else--he seems confused. "And I don't even know why," he admits. The nurse stares back for a moment as if at a loss for words. She draws herself up a little--he expects her to leave--yet instead, she simply says, "Well then. Good. Take that and use it. Whatever works. Whatever gets you back on your feet again." She crooks her arm--"Come on now, up"--and after a brief, perplexed pause, he grasps it and the wall and gets back to his feet. Camo slowly progresses to being able to use a wheelchair on his own, then crutches, then a cane. He still limps badly and can't stand unassisted, and has a great deal of physical pain which the doctor treats with morphine, yet "I know you probably don't see it for yourself, but you've made remarkable progress for someone with your degree of injury," the doctor tells him, not long before he's due to be released. They've done all they can for him, now it's in his hands to continue his rehabilitation. The military has a desk position waiting for him, until he's improved enough to resume regular work. The nurse sees him off when he goes. He pauses to talk to her, though it's obvious he's struggling to think of what to say. Finally, he says, "I wanted to apologize. For what I said." He explains that his own ancestors came over from Germany, albeit much longer ago, so he has no place to say such things. She insists she doesn't mind, she has tough skin; but he too insists the anger is unwarranted, he knows she had nothing to do with his war experiences, with the accident, and especially with what happened to his family. He doesn't know how to deal with it all, especially now that he's on his own. He used to talk to his wife; now, suddenly, he has no one. The nurse says it's only understandable he would lash out--"Hurt people hurt people"--but now that he's aware of his own reactions, he can take that into his own hands, same as he did with his recovery. It's going to be a long, painful, lonely process...but she believes he can do it. Camo resumes his military life, as now he has nothing else left for him. He does regain full use of his arms and legs, but deals with constant pain managed somewhat with a morphine addiction. He rarely ever talks about his lost family, keeping his feelings to himself lest they become overwhelming; there's some pain the morphine barely touches. When news starts filtering in of strange things happening under the new National Socialist government of Germany, he of course takes notice; as the rumors get more ominous, he floats plans to form a battalion. And after an alert arrives informing military officials of a squad of Americans trapped behind German lines without a declaration of war (Camo isn't in on this, so is perplexed to learn of it), a meeting is called, including Camo, Drake, and several others, to put his battalion plan in motion. They're going to be called the Trench Rats, and their first mission is to rescue Alpha Squad and then establish headquarters. Camo soon finds himself heading back to Germany, full of unease yet again. He finds echoes of his lost wife and daughter, and other aspects of his life, in many of the people he encounters during his time in Germany. Drake's own mother dies shortly before they're due to ship out, and though Camo and Drake don't get along well at first, Camo shares his sense of abrupt grief. His choice of surgeon, Burgundy, lost his father and is estranged from his family, not telling them goodbye before he leaves. A French resistance nurse named Janette reminds him of his time spent in the hospital. A Wehrmacht sniper who ends up assisting his battalion, Ratdog, took up the rifle first as their enemy after his young son was killed. He again runs across Otto Himmel, the young infantryman from the Great War, now an SS captain, who kills Corporal Anna Julian, with whom Camo had grown close; though it isn't until after the war that he finds out why: Julian was working for the enemy, and Himmel, a widower, was simply doing everything in his power to protect his son. Not least of all, he meets Helena Urbach, who lost her own husband and child in the camps, and for a time wondered if life was even still worth living. Camo has long been full of anger; Helena is full only of sadness. Yet he's had longer to sift through his feelings and let her know that there's nothing abnormal about still hurting. She in return lets him know that what he feels isn't strange either. The wounds remain, though they heal over, just a little; one day, after Helena tells him about her husband and child, she says, "Tell me about your wife and daughter," and, rather haltingly--he's not used to such things, after all--Camo does. [Unnamed Wife (Camo) 2025 [Friday, January 24, 2025, 12:00:13 AM]] |