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Gesine von Gustedt Blog Entry |
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January 26, 2024, 12:00:41 AM 1/26/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Gesine von Gustedt. She's a Junker whose association with the resistance ends up not going very well for her. There'll be more about her later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding her design, she's a black-and-silver German shepherd. TUMBLR EDIT: Gesine isn't an entirely new character, she's yet another unnamed character who's been around for a bit yet has only just acquired a name. I don't know that I've ever mentioned her or not, but she's a neighbor of Louis Dobermann and Katharina von Thiel who's secretly associated with the Diamond Network and has an unfortunate run-in with Lt. Gunter Hesse. Seeing as she's mostly a bit/background character whose main purpose is to show Hesse's duplicity, as well as how even the Junkers aren't completely safe from the eyes of the SS, I know next to nothing of her past; it was only at the last minute I decided whether she's actually a Junker or merely a well-off neighbor. Like Katharina, she has no actual noble title. And like most of the Junkers in this story--Dobermann, Katharina, Wil Volker, Ratdog, von Staden--she has little to no family left. (The only exception I can think of at the moment is Hasso Reinhardt.) A detail that emerged just today is that she recently lost her father, presumably to suicide, and this is likely a big reason for her attitude toward Hesse, the implication being that Herr von Gustedt killed himself in response to the SS's ongoing investigation of the von Gustedts. (In the scene that popped into my head, Hesse and his men are searching Gesine's house for the umpteenth time; Hesse, feeling some initial sympathy, says to Gesine, "I heard about your father, I'm sorry for your loss," then as they finish their search and prepare to leave, he salutes--"Sieg Heil"--yet Gesine doesn't offer the expected return salute, just says, "I'm sure you can find your own way out," and walks away.) Hesse rather regrets all the hassle he has to keep putting Gesine through, thinking that, since no evidence of any collaboration with the Diamond Network ever shows up, perhaps the investigation is in error. He soon changes his opinion on this. On one visit to Gesine's home, Master Sergeant Theodor Schulte heads upstairs for what he figures will be the usual perfunctory search while Hesse talks with Gesine downstairs; Gesine seems a little distracted, glancing after Schulte as he climbs the stairs, yet is otherwise her old terse, hostile self. Schulte peers through a few rooms, spies nothing amiss, and even decides to cut his search short; yet on his way back to the stairs, he notices that a door he passed previously is in a different position; he slowly peeks inside a bathroom, creeps to the shower, yanks open the curtain--nothing. Letting out his breath and figuring he must've just been mistaken about the door, he exits the bathroom and steps back into the hall--only to have someone come barreling straight at him and plow into him, knocking him down the stairs with a yell. Everyone downstairs turns and watches in surprise as Schulte tumbles head over heels all the way down the winding staircase, landing with a clanking thud at the bottom; "Schulte--!" Hesse exclaims, and rushes over to check on him. Schulte pushes his hand away and points--"He's upstairs!"--so Hesse shouts to his other men, "Keep an eye on her!" and hurries up the stairs, gun drawn. He finds nothing...but an open passage. A quick look inside gives no results and he knows the person is likely long gone; it'd be too dangerous to go into the passage alone, where he can be trapped and cornered. Incensed, he storms back downstairs and across the room to Gesine. "Who was he?" he demands. "Answer!" Then in response to her stubborn silent glare, "I saw the passage. People come and go from your house. This is all the evidence we need now. You want to salvage anything you have left?--then tell me who he was and where he went!" Silence. Hesse steams, then raises his gun, pointing it at Gesine. "Tell me who he was," he says, almost under his breath; then, "or at the very least, spare your father's reputation, and show your loyalty to this Reich." His men share a few looks; Gesine's habit of never saluting is well known by now. Hesse's always just put up with it, despite it being a sign of disrespect toward the Führer. He offers her a simple out to a terrible situation--give up the resistance member who just escaped, or give a salute. All she has to do is lift her arm and say two words. Gesine stares at the gun for a moment, her eyes wider and her breath a little faster. Her eyes shift back to Hesse's. She takes a breath, swallows, squares her shoulders and speaks: "Long live the Jack of Diamonds." Hesse blinks--then his vision goes red. His nose crinkling as if he smells something bad, he aims and fires; Gesine topples to the floor, a small scarlet bloom on her forehead, a larger bloom rapidly forming around her head like a halo. Hesse holsters his pistol and jerks a hand; the nearest officer steps forward. "Tear this house apart and catalog every passage," Hesse orders, "then burn it all to the ground." He turns and stalks back to the room's exit as Schulte calls out, "Boss--?" and waves at Gesine. "What about--?" "Leave her," Hesse snaps. Schulte obeys, stepping over Gesine's body as if it's nothing and following Hesse. The rest of the officers rip down drapes, smash down doors, hurl aside furniture, take axes and hammers to the walls. Once finished, they set the rooms alight. Everyone exits as the mansion, slowly at first, then with increasing speed, starts to burn, flames rising and smoke billowing. Hesse doesn't bother casting the house a backwards glance as he heads to the car with Schulte and tells a stunned Lt. Paul Wozniak, who's been waiting outside this whole time, to drive. There's an extra hideousness in Hesse's actions: His own parents died in a fire when he was just an infant, his mother giving her life to protect him from the flames. He disposes of Gesine's body and home in the same way without another thought. The von Gustedt family goes extinct. Word spreads fast among the neighboring Junkers as they can see the distant smoke from their windows; nobody openly blames the SS, yet they all know. All of them except Adelina Dobermann, who merely knows there was a suspicious fire; when she hears the rumor that the SS may be involved, she questions her closest friend and confidant, hoping for her fears to be set at ease. Lt. Hesse reassures her that this was more likely an awful accident than anything...and even if the SS had something to do with it, well, surely there was some reason. Gesine wasn't faithful to the Reich. When Addy worries that they could target the Dobermann estate, Hesse replies that she and her father are loyal German citizens, they have nothing to fear. He'll look after them. Hesse has always kept his word and protected Adelina and her family. She feels sorry for Gesine's fate, but her fears are allayed. She has no reason to doubt Hesse, and knows he'll keep them safe till the end. [Gesine von Gustedt 2024 [Friday, January 26, 2024, 12:00:41 AM]] |