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Yevgeny Blog Entry |
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February 14, 2025, 12:00:17 AM February 14, 2025, 12:00:34 AM 2/14/25: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Yevgeny (last name never given), sans cap (top drawing) and with cap (bottom drawing). He's a Red Army soldier who assists the main characters when they reach the Alpine Fortress. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding his design, he's a Borzoi, because of course he is. TUMBLR EDIT: I don't know much yet about Yevgeny, as he's set to appear only in the final story arc, Ultima Thule, so far. He plays a role similar to Volodymyr in the rodent side of the story as a Red Army soldier who's paired with the main character group to journey into the Alps in search of the Alpine Fortress, where Nazi holdouts intent on carrying on the Third Reich (or, in Jäger's case, starting the Fourth Reich) are rumored to be hiding and perfecting the Doomsday serum. Although the Red Army is largely unfamiliar with the Alps, they know how to handle the bitter snow and cold, so presumably they provide some advantage dealing with that. There's also the fact that the area of Germany that the characters hail from is going to be handed over to the Soviets, so that probably plays a part in things. Yevgeny is a more reluctant partner to the Germans than Volodymyr is. He's heard of the von Dobermanns' reputation as resistance collaborators, yet is uncertain they should be trusted (aristocrats...ugh), and he's even more skeptical toward the others in the group at first. He finds Diamant and Lukas Mettbach acceptable only as he knows they were persecuted by the Nazis. Stephen Gerhardt presents an interesting scenario; Yevgeny first wrinkles his nose at yet another German, but modifies his stance once Gerhardt explains that he's actually American, though his father was German. "Half German?" Yevgeny muses, "Complicated." Well, that's one way of putting it. Yevgeny's alliance with the group grows even more tenuous once, within the Fortress, they meet two familiar faces: SS officer Gunter Hesse and Wehrmacht member Konrad Helmstadt. These two should be dead, yet here they are, alive again. Gerhardt's group gets in touch with the Trench Rats' group, working elsewhere within the Fortress, and is informed that the Doomsday serum, which grants enhanced strength, stamina, intelligence, and imperviousness to pain, has been tweaked and now provides an even bigger bonus: immortality, and even the ability to return from the dead. The Rats have yet to figure out how to kill somebody under the influence of the serum, but they have found a sort of antiserum that modifies the effects of the serum, which places its resurrected subjects into a kind of trance that makes them highly suggestible to certain commands. (Note that this part may change--Gerhardt's group might be the ones to figure this out first, and inform the Rats. This is actually more likely, considering.) The group gets their hands on the antiserum, and manages to administer it to Hesse when he tries to attack them. The serum's mental hold is broken and Hesse comes to his senses, bewildered to find himself in this strange location, in a strange uniform, when he clearly remembers being gunned down in the middle of a road not far from the von Dobermann estate. The others have to awkwardly explain what's going on; after it becomes clear that Hesse really doesn't want to be involved in whatever Project Ultima Thule is using him for (the fact that his very last act before death was to betray the SS and help the von Dobermanns and Dr. Schäfer escape works greatly in his favor), the group convinces him to accompany them in trying to dismantle the Nazis' final project, and he reluctantly accepts. Yevgeny, to put it simply, is really not okay with this, yet he doesn't have the final say. He bristles at the thought of working alongside a literal Nazi, the same ones who fought against his people's right to exist. He antagonizes Hesse throughout much of the story, reminding him at every turn what his party did and what he thinks of him. To Hesse, who spent a good chunk of his life looking down on "vermin," it's a bit jarring to be on the receiving end of being seen as subhuman. His efforts to counter this view are rather feeble, as he's seen enough by now to know what an a-hole he really is. Frankly, he just wants to get this all over with, and afterward, he really has no idea...by now he doesn't have much reason to keep on living, so his prospects following helping the group achieve their goal are unfortunately limited. Suicide is likely crossing his mind. This means that he's willing to take some big risks in the Fortress, endangering his life. The group has to fend off Helmstadt and the other project participants while placing explosives throughout the Fortress and ensuring that they'll go off properly and at the right time. While placing one of these, von Dobermann slips over a cliff; Diamant catches hold of him, yet, realizing there's no way for Diamant to rescue him without falling himself, von Dobermann sacrifices himself and plunges to the rocks far below. Diamant loses his footing and nearly ends up following him, only for Hesse to arrive and grab onto him, same as he did with von Dobermann. Diamant chafes at his biggest enemy saving his life, especially when Hesse says he overheard von Dobermann's last request to Diamant before he fell, to look after his wife, Inga. All three of these men love Inga, so that makes this extremely awkward. Hesse, who gave up any hope of pursuing Inga long ago, is insistent that Diamant follow through on von Dobermann's request; Diamant, racked with guilt over being unable to save von Dobermann, responds by giving Hesse von Dobermann's wedding band, which slipped off his hand as he fell, and telling Hesse to give it to Inga as he can't bear to do so. Inga and Adelina von Dobermann, upon learning of von Dobermann's death, are inconsolable; indeed, the normally steadfast Inga loses all her resolve of getting out of the Fortress and returning to the mountain town her family escaped to. Effectively, she loses her will to live. Adelina thinks that if only they could bring von Dobermann's body with them, it might give a small sense of closure, at least there will be a grave for them to visit. This seems like an impossible task, given the immense cliff he fell from...and so Hesse promptly volunteers for the job. An argument ensues; Diamant wants to do it, yet Hesse insists that he's expendable, Diamant isn't, especially given what von Dobermann requested. (Diamant still hasn't told Inga about this, and instructed Lukas, who has also learned of the request, to keep silent.) Hesse also refuses to let Gerhardt do it as Adelina needs him. Still, this isn't a one-man job; somebody will need to descend into the chasm to retrieve von Dobermann's body if possible, while someone else will need to remain above and then pull them back up. Lukas tries to volunteer, and the others argue with reasons why he can't be the one. Finally--Yevgeny lets out a frustrated growl and throws up his hands. Unlike Diamant and Gerhardt, he has no family or obligations to look out for. As for Lukas, who demands to know why he can't do it, "Take a look, you got people obviously want you to stick around! Me, I don't know none of you, none of you know me. If it show up this Nazi and stop him being the big hero, I do it. Now shut up discussion and let's go!" Nobody really has an argument for this, so Hesse and Yevgeny set off together. To say it's a tense partnership is a massive understatement; Yevgeny's pure hatred of Hesse is hardly contained, so Hesse makes sure to hold his tongue; by this point of the story, the Allies have finally figured out how to kill the "immortal" subjects of Project Ultima Thule (destroy the brain), so Yevgeny could easily take him out if he wishes. (Yevgeny is armed; Hesse had his weapons confiscated by the others.) Hesse leads them to the cliff and they start rigging their equipment; Yevgeny will stay up top with the rope half-looped around an upright stone, and will carefully lower the harnessed Hesse along with a quickly assembled stretcher for von Dobermann's body. Yevgeny will then have to help pull up both at the same time, as Hesse will need to accompany the stretcher up to keep it from catching on or colliding with anything. It's a tedious, risky process but then again that's why Hesse volunteered; von Dobermann saved his life long ago, and Inga did the same, so even though he helped them escape at the war's end, he still feels he owes the family, and returning von Dobermann's body is the least he can do. Yevgeny makes sure he has a secure hold on the rope and braces himself for the weight; he nods at Hesse to get going. Hesse checks his own harness, makes sure the stretcher is safe, and lowers himself over the edge. He's never been much of a climber, but manages to very slowly descend to the bottom of the chasm. He tugs the rope once to signal he's down, then turns to peer around himself, needing to turn on his torch to see, as very little light reaches down here. The chasm floor is littered with a sea of jagged spikes of stone, and in the midst of them, Hesse spots a limp shape. He has to catch his breath and swallow a sharp pain in his throat, reluctantly raising his torch and looking closer. Von Dobermann landed among the jagged rocks, arms and legs outspread, and isn't moving...yet he looks oddly peaceful and unharmed, at least at a first glance, as if the rocks reached up to cradle him. Hesse squeezes his way between the rocks and presses his fingers to von Dobermann's neck, just to be sure, even though he knows...of course von Dobermann is cold and still and has no pulse. Hoping he at least died quickly, Hesse swallows again, and starts awkwardly trying to pull von Dobermann down and out of the rocks. It's quite a lengthy process, requiring a lot of stops and starts (and a few frustrated yells back at Yevgeny when he calls down asking if he's almost done), but Hesse is relatively fit, plus the serum helps somewhat, and finally, he pulls von Dobermann onto the stretcher, carefully arranges his limbs close to him (he can feel the broken bones under the skin) and wraps him in a blanket and ropes, and, tears in his eyes, covers his face and secures the stretcher. He affixes the rope to himself as well and gives it two tugs; after a brief pause, the rope goes taut, and with a final check of his harness, Hesse grasps the rope in one hand and steadies the stretcher with the other, and with his feet braced against the cliff wall, starts to ascend. It's even slower and more tedious going up. The slope of the cliff makes it very awkward going, and more than once Hesse has to shout up at Yevgeny to halt a moment so he can navigate both himself and the stretcher around projecting crags. It's an immense relief when he pushes the stretcher up and sees it clear the top of the cliff as Yevgeny hauls it over and out of sight; he pauses to catch his breath again, then when Yevgeny peers over the edge, climbs up toward him. Yevgeny stretches out his arm and Hesse grabs his hand gratefully, exhausted--then gasps in pain and surprise when Yevgeny yanks hard, wrenching his shoulder and pulling him close so their faces are just inches apart. Hesse looks directly into Yevgeny's eyes and realizes that what he'd assumed was a helpful gesture was actually anything but. Yevgeny's eyes glitter malevolently in the dim light. "Nazi bastard," Yevgeny says quietly, his breath fanning hot over Hesse's face, "every one of you same as the last. So easy for me to let go this rope. So easy for you to go with it. Just one more dead Nazi bastard. Life go on. Better without you in it. You think this wipe clean the slate? Nowhere close. Your hands will never be clean. I do the world a favor crushing a bug like you." Yevgeny falls silent, though his fingers dig painfully tight into Hesse's hand. The two of them stare at each other for a brief, tense moment, before Hesse replies in a shaky voice, "I'm not arguing." Honestly, he can't help but agree...he knows this doesn't erase everything else he's done, there's nothing that can do that. And to hear Yevgeny so easily dismiss him as a bug to be eradicated, the better for the world, well...not so long ago he said similar things about others, and believed it. He'd really rather not die just yet but he can't blame Yevgeny for saying he should. Yevgeny's response is to continue glaring at him a moment longer. His eyes narrow. He already has the stretcher with von Dobermann on it, safely atop the cliff; Hesse fully expects for him to let go, slash the rope, and let him plummet. Instead, he grips Hesse's hand even tighter, making Hesse grimace, then with a yank that wrenches his shoulder again, hauls him up and over the cliff edge. They're both forced to hurriedly scrabble up and back as the rock and ice at the edge suddenly give way; the stretcher slips and Hesse grabs the rope while Yevgeny grabs Hesse. They freeze and wait until the tumbling and crackling stops, strain their ears, then slowly crawl to the top of the slope, pulling the stretcher--now functioning as a sled--between them. They get to their feet only once they're on level ground, and trudge back to the waiting group. Inga and Adelina gasp and put their hands to their mouths when Hesse and Yevgeny return bearing the stretcher and its sad burden. When they set it on the ground, Inga kneels beside it and gingerly opens the part in the blanket covering von Dobermann's face. She cries and kisses his forehead and wishes "my Louis, my North Star" goodbye. Adelina kisses him as well, then they carefully wrap him back up, wiping at their streaming eyes as the men take the stretcher. "Danke," Inga says softly to Hesse and Yevgeny, who can only stand mute. Hesse has--and takes--one more chance to do good, remaining behind in the Alpine Fortress to prevent Helmstadt from deactivating the explosives meant to end the project once and for all, and giving the others enough time to escape to safety. Inga, and especially Adelina, who Hesse practically raised, cover their eyes and cry again when a series of dull, distant booms starts sounding from deep within the Fortress they've vacated, and plumes of smoke and snow rise into the air. The men just watch silently, even Yevgeny. No, it still can't ever set right all the wrongs that Hesse did...just as Yevgeny vowed, he still has blood on his hands...yet it was at least one small good. Hesse dies taking along the remains of the Third Reich with him. I don't know all that happens to Yevgeny afterward; he fulfills his duty, I imagine he just wants to get back home. I also imagine his general view of his German hosts doesn't change much, though he has to grudgingly admit--to himself only, granted--that a Nazi bastard did one small selfless thing. He won't ever say it aloud, though. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. [Yevgeny 2025 [Friday, February 14, 2025, 12:00:17 AM]] [Yevgeny 2025 2 [Friday, February 14, 2025, 12:00:34 AM]] |