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Mahogany Rat Blog Entry |
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March 3, 2023, 4:00:19 AM 3/3/23: r/SketchDaily theme, "Cities In Western Germany." I had to not think about this too much. Straight lines drive me crazy. ... This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Lance Corporal Mahogany Rat. He's better with numbers and lists than with people, but he means well. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding his design, I wasn't entirely committed to his appearance yet so gave him longer fur to set him a bit apart. TUMBLR EDIT: I haven't a lot of background info on LC Mahogany yet, as he's not a major character. I know more about his current personality than anything. I'll say upfront that Mahogany is on the autism spectrum, though of course he has no official diagnosis considering the time period of the story (1930s/40s); his behavior and abilities are just considered "quirks" of his personality by everyone around him. (He shares some traits with SS commandant Konstantin Klaus, one reason Klaus's unusual ability to recall long lists of numbers and data resonates with him, though unlike him, I don't believe Klaus is on the spectrum, he's just asocial and has this one weird talent. I could always be wrong, though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) He's not good with people as he just doesn't "get" them, thus he often does or says things others find hurtful or offensive, without realizing it; when called out on it afterwards, he feels remorse, as he really doesn't mean to be rude, just that he's painfully honest and can't understand why others wouldn't be. This rules out him being prime soldier material, but it does make him good behind the scenes, dealing with the massive amounts of data and information the other Rats, such as Silver, bring back to Headquarters. The Rats are constantly dealing with both large numbers of refugees, and secret information on the Nazis' medical projects; somebody has to keep this stuff sorted out. Much of this falls on Mahogany--and while he may suck at dealing with people, he's excellent at dealing with information. Mahogany is one of the characters in the opening chapters of the attempted reboot in the early 2000s, when he was a relatively new character (he didn't exist in the original version). I'll here include his introductory chapter. The woman he's dealing with later came to be named Helena Urbach, and she becomes a recurring character of mild importance herself; though as you can see, originally she had a different name and mildly different circumstances. I believe in the current version she's seeking her husband, not a little girl, though it's still a developing storyline. (I may end up having her looking for both.) Here is that entire chapter; incidentally, it was the final chapter finished before I stopped writing. More info to follow. 14: MAHOGANY THE RAT DRESSED in dark blue held a megaphone to his mouth with one hand, gesturing with the other hand in the air. He pointed to his side in a sweeping motion and his voice carried across the giant room. "Everyone entering please form a line to your left." He repeated the sentence in German, then in Polish, Romany, French, Russian. Following this, the majority of people milling about drifted to the left of the room, though their looks were just as confused as before. Even with the megaphone he could barely be heard above the noise. Down in the corner, a small tumult started, and he lowered the megaphone, craning his neck to see. Another Rat, his cape a reddish-brown, stood at a long table bent over a stack of papers. He rolled his eyes at the noise and let out an irritated sigh. "Now what?" "I'll go see," the Rat in blue said, jumping down. The second Rat lifted his head and waved his hand. "Whenever you or anyone else gets the chance to get out of here, go find whoever's in charge of typing out those forms! I should have had them hours ago. If we had them now we wouldn't even have to be going through all of this!" The Rat in blue just waved back at him and pushed his way toward the commotion. He started talking in German, only to realize that wasn't the language being spoken; as soon as he recognized it he grimaced and glanced back at the second Rat. "Romany. I only know a few words. If you want a negotiator, you want Copper." Another grimace. The second Rat had to yell to make himself heard. "Just make whatever you can out of it and get the line moving!" The Rat in blue shrugged. He turned back to the woman who talked loudly, almost shrieking. He used hand gestures more than once. From what little Mahogany knew of Romany, he could tell...Sapphire knew just about as little as he did. "Problem?" Sapphire said in German, then grimaced and snapped his fingers a few times. "Trouble?" he said in Romany. A few more snaps. "Line to left, give name. All in order. In line." The woman, noticing he was talking to her now, grabbed onto his cape and started yammering in his face. She was short and stout, with dark hair and a round face, but Mahogany could tell her grip on the taller Sapphire was a powerful one from the panicked look the Rat got. He grasped her hands and tried pulling them free, attempting to cut her off a few times. Only a few of the words she cried out made it through to either of them, but they eventually got the message. "Ah, boy." Sapphire made a face. "You might want to hurry up on those papers! She's looking for her daughter. I'm not sure if there's another by her name. I'm not even sure I got what her name is!" "Just TALK TO HER while I try to get this all sorted!!" Sapphire rolled his eyes and sighed. He managed to get himself free of the woman's grasp and started snapping his fingers, a habit of his that Mahogany had noticed whenever he was trying to think of something. He managed a few more snippets in Romany, lapsing into German every so often in the hopes the woman would understand. Mahogany growled to himself and picked up the megaphone the other Rat had vacated, blaring over the crowd. "SOMEONE FIND ME COPPER AND GET HIM IN HERE NOW!" The megaphone whined with feedback and everyone cringed. A few Rats who had been directing traffic near the back of the room shook their heads, wincing, but vanished outside. Mahogany dropped the megaphone back onto the table and continued pushing through the stack of papers. There should have been a lot more of them, and some of them should have been seriously updated. Some of the records were older ones they'd managed to find before the successful raid on the concentration camp. Names, ages, relatives, who knew what was correct and what was erroneous. The Nazis had always been very good at record keeping; that was the one thing Mahogany had to admire about them. They were anal to a fault, and at the moment he did not have the benefit of their analness. "Those papers should have been here HOURS ago," he muttered to anyone who might be close enough to hear him. A couple of Rats who had appeared near the table to try to help sort out the mess cast him furtive looks but said nothing. "How am I supposed to even get this sorted out if I don't have the right records? I thought Silver was in charge of that?" "I heard he handed it on to Copper, Sir," a private said. "Then where is Copper?" "I...um...heard he handed the job on to Corporal Gold," another Rat said meekly. Mahogany grated his teeth. "Then where is Gold? And don't even tell me HE handed the job on to someone else!" "The last I knew he was away from the main office, Sir...I don't know where he went." Mahogany's teeth felt ready to break off. "Maybe we should just recruit the NAZIS to take care of our records for us!" he snapped, slapping the papers back into a dissheveled pile as if he were beating a sullen mule. "Maybe THEN we'd get something done!" The two Rats gave him odd looks but again said nothing. A dot of blue appeared in the sea of drab colors, and Sapphire waved his hand and pointed. Mahogany spotted Copper trailing after him, nudging his way through the crowd; he stood up and waved the other Rat over and practically had to yell at him to make himself heard. "A woman over there, speaking only Romany. Sapphire seems to think she's looking for a relative. Where are those papers I was promised? How do I end up with the refugees but not the papers?" "Gold was taking care of them. The last I heard, he was having trouble with the typewriter." Mahogany bared his teeth this time. "Just call in someone who reads German well and screw the damn typewriter! He can transcribe the stupid things LATER! And for the love of God, try to figure out what that woman is talking about, already!" Copper shrugged and stepped away. Sapphire waved to catch Mahogany's attention. "I can read German!" "Well GOOD FOR YOU," Mahogany barked in response. "You make your country proud. Track down Gold and get those papers and make yourself useful for a change!" Sapphire looked offended. "Hey, I was useful..." But Mahogany didn't catch the rest of what he said, as he turned away muttering to himself, vanishing back into the crowd. The other Rat let out a sigh and slumped back in his uncomfortable metal chair, pulling loose a few papers and trying once more to make sense out of them. When the refugee area had been set up, nobody had been incredibly willing to take over the duties of admitting the freed prisoners of the camps. Now, it was obvious why. Overseeing the admission of refugees was probably the most stressful and frustrating job in the entire battalion, and most days Mahogany couldn't even remember why he'd taken it. He guessed it was simply because if he hadn't, no one else would have. By now he practically dreamed in terms of long lists of names and numbers. Whenever he closed his eyes that seemed to be all he could see anymore. There weren't any faces attached; he didn't bother looking at them, for the most part. There were just too many to keep track of; names and numbers were more efficient than dealing with the actual people. He preferred to leave that to the others; they could deal with the refugees as much as they wanted once he was done gathering their information. Most of them stayed only a few weeks, at the most, before being moved out to make way for new ones. The Rats had just about perfected a way of getting them out of the country unnoticed, not that that was any of Mahogany's business. Names, numbers, birthdates, this was all he dealt in. And even that was hard enough. He could hear Copper talking with the Gypsy woman, calming her down, and the other Rats worked to get the lines moving smoothly again...at least, as smoothly as they could. After a few more moments Sapphire reappeared with some papers--again, not nearly as many as Mahogany knew were warranted, but at least it was a start. He could always send him back for the rest of the records when they ran out. Sapphire started calling names, and one by one people started coming forward. Mahogany wrote down their names when they were called, then spoke to them tersely when they approached. "Number," he said; an arm was held out toward him and he looked at the number tattooed upon it, jotting it down and moving to the next line in the record. "Age." "Forty-three." "Move along." He waved to the right and Number 317409, Age 43, disappeared from his view. He wrote down the next name Sapphire called, even without really listening to it--he never listened to the names aside from writing them down. It was too easy to get caught up in names. "Number." He glanced at the arm held out before him. "Age." "Twenty-seven." "Move along." Another jotted annotation in the records. This went on for a while without further incident. One by one the refugees pulled up their sleeves to show their arms and then moved along. He could have identified them by the numbers marked there, but not by their faces. It didn't matter much anyway, as they would be out of here soon enough; copies would be made of their records, and it would be up to whoever's hands they fell into to sort out where they should go afterwards. None of that was Mahogany's concern. He jotted down a name. "Number." A slender arm was presented to him and he wrote down the number. "Age." "Twenty-three." "Move along." "Ex...excuse me..." Mahogany blinked, his bland concentration broken. The numbers weren't supposed to speak aside from answering his questions. He lifted his head and saw a young dark-haired woman staring back at him, her eyes shadowed and her face gaunt. She was still holding out her tattooed arm, so yes, she was in fact the one who had spoken. "What?" Mahogany asked with a twinge of irritation. The woman hesitated a little bit. "I'm...I'm wondering if anyone else with my name has come through here...in particular a little girl..." "Name?" He looked down at the record and read the name he'd written down automatically a moment before. Kurtzer. Then he snapped himself out of his daze and pushed the record aside, picking up the next. Sapphire looked down at him as if wondering whether to continue calling. "Hundreds of people pass through here every week, ma'am. I only take down their records. I can't keep track of everyone's name. Next." "I...I see." The woman cast her gaze down and turned away, pulling her sleeve back over her tattoo. "Thank you anyway," she added, before following the line. Sapphire called out the next name, which Mahogany wrote down. "Number. Age." "Fifty-two." "Move along. Number. Age." "Forty-four." "Move along. Number. Age..." Eventually, as expected, Sapphire's stack of papers ran out, and he had to interrupt the proceedings to go get the rest. Mahogany took a moment to take the growing stack beside him and set it in a basket under the table so it wouldn't get knocked over. The rest of the refugees stood on the other side, milling about uneasily; Copper had made his way to the very back of the room and had apparently spoken with everyone who still had some lingering doubts as to whether it was better to be here or back in the camp. At least no one was screaming anymore. Mahogany rubbed at his head and wished for some aspirin. He felt tempted to glance up to see how many were left to be processed, but stopped himself from doing so lest he see their faces looking back at him. Instead, he found himself reaching into one of the other metal baskets that had previously been filled with personal records from the rest of the week. It was almost overflowing, and would need to be put in order and sent out soon with the latest batch of freed prisoners. He picked up the stack of papers and set them on his lap, paging through them. They had been placed in alphabetical order, and he headed for the K's. Once he reached them he slowed down a bit to look more carefully over the names he'd written there himself. Katzenberg. Kirsch. Klein. Kozminski. No Kurtzer. Mahogany blinked. He sighed in irritation, shaking his head, and dropped the papers back into their basket, pushing it back under the table. It had been a stupid thought to follow anyway. Numbers were easier to deal with--cleaner, more efficient, and without faces and thoughts attached. He hated dealing with names. Another batch of papers was arriving from Headquarters, and he waved at the refugees again, directing them to get back in line until they were done. He didn't lift his eyes from the paper aside to look at the multitude of tattooed numbers being flashed at him, and he didn't remember a single one of the rest of the names called out that night. All righty. LOTS of that is hopelessly outdated, though this scene is still meant to take place. Current Mahogany is not nearly so much of an a-hole. He's flustered and frustrated and terse but not a jerk like this. (He also doesn't tend to order others around like this older version, he's a follower.) Gold still has trouble with the typewriter (partly because he's bad at typing, then later because the replacement "typewriter" he's given from a Nazi raid is in fact something called an Enigma machine). The character later named Helena Urbach, not Kurtzer (older than 23, BTW!), still stops to ask Mahogany if anyone else named Urbach has passed through, this time, an older man (her husband, though she doesn't say this). This line, which perfectly encapsulates Mahogany's thought process, still occurs: The numbers weren't supposed to speak. Mahogany still brusquely, though without malice, informs Helena he can't help her and she moves on; he does a quick search, finds no other Urbach. Tells himself to move on too. Except the woman sticks in his head for some reason. At one point when he mentions how the people passing through HQ are just lists of numbers to him, Gold takes him to task for it: "You're thinking like THEY think!"--"they" meaning the Nazis. Mahogany, deeply wounded by this comment, denies it, but the longer he thinks about it, the more it grows on him that, well yeah, that IS how the Nazis think. And that bothers him so greatly that he goes digging through the records the Rats keep, then, finding nothing, he looks through the multitude of Nazi records which Silver has stolen and brought to HQ. At last, he comes across an Urbach who fits the details the unnamed woman provided: He died in the camps. Mahogany enlists Copper to help him locate the woman, still being held with the other refugees in Trench Rat custody, and excitedly tells her what he found. He fully expects her to be grateful to get the information; he doesn't understand why her face goes gray as soon as she learns the news. She murmurs a numb "Danke" before leaving. Mahogany's confusion only grows when Copper grasps his arm and hisses under his breath, "Are you some kind of ghoul??" Mahogany asks what he did wrong, he was just giving her the info she was looking for. Copper replies, "You just told her the Nazis murdered her husband. Like you were giving her a present!" Of course, Mahogany is mortified--it hadn't even occurred to him WHY she would be asking after someone with the same name as hers, but it makes sense in retrospect, and he knows it should have made sense long before now. He confides in Gold about it; although his opposite in many ways, Gold seems willing to put up with him, and doesn't try to make him feel like an idiot. Gold just confirms what Copper implied and Mahogany is starting to figure out: "You're on a whole other wavelength, you know?" He waves off Mahogany's discouragement with the comment that that's not unique, all of them have their quirks, such as Doomsday, and Burgundy, and Turquoise; they've figured out how to deal with others (or not deal with them, as in Turquoise's case), surely he can too. Apologizing to the refugee lady might be a good start. Mahogany does so the first chance he gets. He explains his reasoning, feels wounded all over again when the woman says his way of thinking of people like numbers is exactly the way the Nazis think. She seems to understand, however, when he tries to describe his difficulty dealing with faces, names, personalities--he means no harm, lists and numbers are simply what make the most sense to him, though he knows now how that can be offensive. Unlike the Nazis, he knows there are actual people behind the numbers, he's just not sure how to deal with them. She accepts his apology, adding, "If you want to better know a person behind a number, it's all right for you to ask." She tells him her name--Helena--so she's not just a number anymore. And makes sure he knows that, despite his sh*tty delivery, she really is grateful that he went to the trouble of finding out what had become of her husband. Mahogany is curious, and asks her: "Does it make it hurt less...? Now that you know?" Helena pauses a moment before replying, "Nein...it hurts the same. But it helps." Mahogany doesn't really get it. But he decides to take her word for it. Mahogany gets many chances to see the awful realities of the war firsthand, many times over, in his dealings with the people the Rats rescue. He has an advantage over the others, and it shows up over time--despite all the awful things he sees, it doesn't wear him down the way it wears down the others. He's able to keep a healthy sense of distance and offer his observations without an overly emotional aspect. He isn't emotionless--far from it--but things don't get to him the same way they do to others. This puts others off if they don't know him well, but the other Rats realize how useful it can be, the main reason he often accompanies Gold or others in their dealings with strangers or unpleasant situations so he can give his impartial impression of things. He still has no real clue how to best deal with people without inadvertently offending them, though he starts to learn how to hold his tongue when in doubt. Mahogany has to gather and go over the records and files the Rats get hold of as a result of their final raid on Project Doomsday headquarters. The fallout of this raid is massive and unexpected; the Rats end up with not only the gruesome death of Dr. Kammler, the one in charge of the project, but with a valuable prisoner--SS Captain Otto Himmel--and two rescuees, Lance Corporal Teal Rat and Corporal Drake Rat, who've been in Nazi custody for years. Despite his position as project supervisor, Himmel quickly proves cooperative: He wants to see Kolten, a Doomsday test subject previously rescued by the Rats, and then he'll tell them everything they want to know. Mahogany got to meet Kolten before he was relocated to a safe location; the Nazis' "superweapon"--a person with excessive strength, stamina, ability to withstand pain, and an imposing size and violent temper to go along with it--turns out to have the mentality of a child. His violent fits are merely temper tantrums akin to those a toddler might throw--it's just that they're a lot scarier when it's a hulking adult with artificially enhanced strength throwing them. Black Rat figures this out first; Mahogany has to deal with him a few times, and sees a bit of himself in Kolten's detached view of the world. When he's not lost in his own thoughts, or in the middle of an angry fit, he's very observant, and displays savant-like skills. Mahogany is one of the voices to suggest that Kolten isn't a threat when handled properly, and he should be able to tolerate living with the host parents who agree to take him in. Kolten indeed does well at the Albrechts' farm, readily settling into a life of simple routine--like Mahogany, he's most comfortable when things are laid out for him and he knows what to expect. The Rats go a long while without hearing about him. So of course when Himmel requests to see him, it catches Mahogany's attention. The others assume he's simply interested in how the project turned out, but Mahogany senses something else. He just doesn't know what. The Rats press Himmel a bit harder but he shuts down and refuses to answer any questions, so they ponder granting his request--as project supervisor, he could be full of priceless information regarding the experiment and its victims. Mahogany knows Kolten can likely handle the situation, but Himmel is a wild card. He and Turquoise Rat stop by the SS officer's cell to get a look at him. The Rat keeping watch says Himmel hasn't slept, hasn't eaten, has barely touched his water, hasn't moved from his seat. Mahogany peeks at him before Himmel sees they're there, notices the look on his face as he stares across his cell; as soon as the two Rats step into view, his head pops up, and his expression changes--spite and resentment. Mahogany asks if he wants to see Kolten, takes note of the flicker in Himmel's eyes; then asks why he wants to see him, and takes note of the hardness that covers it up again. Himmel simply echoes his request, adding, "Tell your supervising officers that until then, I have nothing more to say," and clams up once more. Mahogany reports back that he believes there's no way Himmel will talk unless his request is granted--but it isn't mere interest in the project motivating him. He has some sort of emotional attachment, even though Mahogany can't tell what it is. Turquoise, who's skilled at picking up on others' feelings, confirms this, adding that whatever Himmel's connection is to Kolten, it's a very close one. (Turquoise actually had a run-in with Himmel earlier in the series and already knows there's more to him than it appears, including his connection to Kolten, but for reasons of his own he keeps specifics to himself.) They both agree: Himmel is likely to keep his word if they grant his request. The Rats accordingly take Himmel out to the farm where Kolten is staying, and the two meet face to face. I don't think Mahogany is there but he of course learns of it afterward; Kolten is Himmel's son, who was forced into the project against Himmel's wishes. Himmel never tried to have him rescued following his capture by the Rats, as he knew he was far safer in their custody--the Nazis, and the SS in particular, make a routine of murdering the mentally infirm, and Himmel's entire existence revolves around keeping Kolten safe. Just as theorized, once Himmel gets to see his son and know he's doing well, he keeps his promise, and starts telling the Rats everything he knows. And he knows a lot. The rescue of Drake and Teal, meanwhile, is a very big deal. They've been held captive by the Nazis and also forced into the Doomsday Project despite not meeting its standards; Drake theorizes that Dr. Kammler was acting out of pure spite. He talks to them without any teeth--Kammler had them all pulled, sans anesthesia, just because. Drake is obviously badly traumatized by his years of mistreatment, but is better equipped to handle it than Teal, plus, as a Jew whom Kammler outright despised, he never went through the same level of gaslighting and emotional torture that Teal, who was designated a special status political prisoner, suffered. Drake has always been considered solely a victim of the Nazis. Teal is an utter mess. It wasn't just that, as a special detainee, he was granted certain rights AND subjected to torture at the same time, hopelessly confusing him--upon his rescue and Kammler's capture, he first embraced the captive doctor and cried, then after learning the project was ended, pulled out a shiv and stabbed him to death. It's also that, for a long while, he was believed by the Rats to be colluding with the Nazis, providing useful information such as the location of Headquarters. (Corporal Anna Julian was in fact the one who did this.) While Teal admits he did help get Silver Rat temporarily captured and tortured, he denies any other sort of collusion right up to the end--asking Burgundy, the chief surgeon, to apologize to Silver on his behalf, before grabbing a scalpel and jamming it in his own neck. Gold (who's assumed command of the Trench Rats following Black Rat's death) and Mahogany head to the medical ward upon being called, finding Lance Corporal Lyndsey Skye tending to a rattled Drake (in the bed next to Teal's, he witnessed the whole thing), then a pale-faced, blood-spattered Burgundy, and medic LC Amaranth, standing by Teal. The other two Rats are caught off guard by the gruesome sight; Burgundy explains that when he tried to stop Teal first from stabbing himself, then from pulling the scalpel out, Teal made eye contact and shook his head, yanking the blade from his neck and quickly bleeding out despite Burgundy's and Skye's efforts. The look he gave was plain--he didn't want Burgundy to help him. Burgundy requests that they go through the Trench Rats' records and ascertain Teal's religion and next of kin, if he has any preferences regarding disposal of his body. Gold and Mahogany depart, mute, though as they walk away Mahogany murmurs, "Why did he do it?--do you think?" "Guilt," Gold says. "But he was a prisoner, he had no choice," Mahogany says, to which Gold replies, "Exactly." Mahogany doesn't really get it, but he can tell Gold is bothered--indeed most of the Rats are feeling guilty over the fact that they effectively wrote Teal off as a traitor, and didn't try as hard as they should have to free him--so volunteers to search the records himself. Teal was one of the original Battalion, and many of their records were damaged or lost in the same Nazi attack that was blamed on him. If there's anything to find, though, Mahogany will find it. He buries himself in the records, comes up for air some hours later, vaguely discouraged. He did find Teal's records, but there was very little to find. Teal has no religion listed in his file. Even worse, he has no next of kin, no family listed. Even the Trench Rats, whom he'd fought for and refused to turn on all those years, didn't miss him when he was gone. Drake had his faith, somebody who loves him, and the support of his fellow soldiers to keep him going, but Teal had nothing. Mahogany finally thinks he understands why, so soon after gaining his freedom, he just gave up. In addition to his guilt over Silver's capture (the one thing for which he WAS responsible), he didn't have anything to live for. Mahogany presents Teal's sparse records, asks what do they do now. After some thought, it's decided to bury Teal in Germany, as the Rats can't justify the difficulty of transporting his remains through enemy territory when he has nobody to take custody of them. Mahogany offers to help Gold find a location out of the way somewhere. They bundle up Teal's body, place him on a cart, and head into the woods. While they're scouting around for a decent location, they run across a rat dressed in a German uniform and gas mask; he startles them at first, before they remember who he is. His identity is unknown but he's assisted them several times in the past; they assume he's a partisan who wishes to keep his identity secret, perhaps to unnerve the Germans the same way the Trench Rats once did with their Prussian-style uniforms. He gestures at the cart they're pulling, seeming curious about what's upon it. Despite their unease, they pull back the sheet enough for him to see Teal's face. The stranger in the gas mask seems dismayed; though when Mahogany mentions why they're transporting him through the woods, he gestures for them to follow him. Puzzled, they do so...and end up pulling, pushing, lifting, and dragging the cart over and under hillocks and roots and boulders and pits until a splashing sound catches their attention. Ahead is a fall of water descending from a high crevice in the limestone and forming a shallow pool below. Gold and Mahogany admire the sight for a moment before Gold says, "What is this place...?" The stranger in the gas mask replies in a muffled voice, "He's [Teal's] the one who found it." The two Trench Rats are startled--the stranger has never spoken a word before now. He takes off his gas mask and Mahogany excitedly grasps Gold's arm. Although Gold doesn't recognize the stranger, he does, from his previous search of their records. It's Sergeant Camo Rat, who was captured at the same time Drake was, yet had escaped Nazi custody not long after. He's informally connected with the resistance effort, who advised him that if he returned to the Trench Rats too soon he might attract another attack; he decided to work from a distance trying to keep the Nazis away. Now that he's learned his corporal has been rescued and Project Doomsday dismantled, there's no point maintaining his disguise. He's on hand later when the Rats interrogate Himmel, as shortly following their capture, Himmel had shot and killed Anna Julian in front of Camo and Drake and Camo wants to know why; Himmel reveals she was the traitor, not Teal: "That poor Sonderhäftling [special detainee] you were all so quick to blame? He had nothing to do with it. He was just your perfect scapegoat. All those years loyal--for nothing. You rewarded a traitor instead." Gold, Mahogany, and Camo bury Teal near the waterfall. After the war's end, the Rats disperse, most heading back home to the US, though a handful remain in Germany to sort out their final affairs. Himmel is tried by a military tribunal, which finds him guilty of belonging to a criminal organization (the SS) but clears him of other charges, even his extrajudicial killing of Julian, as she'd been turned by the SS herself, led to the death of scores of Americans, and according to multiple witness accounts was going to be involved in more. (Himmel actually killed her to protect Kolten.) Stripped of his rank and honors and left without a home, he returns to the Albrechts' farm to see his son. Gold (a sergeant now) and Camo are left in charge of going through the property and vast number of records left behind by the Allgemeine-SS; Mahogany again volunteers. He visits Himmel's old office at project headquarters, is surprised that most of his worldly possessions consist of books--in multiple languages, some banned by the SS--and notebooks of drawings by Kolten. (When Himmel departs after his trial, all he requests are the notebooks, and a single book, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The significance of this isn't lost even on Mahogany.) He then tries to make sense of the SS records; they kept files on most German citizens and on many enemy parties, including the Trench Rats. The records were left in general disarray as the SS fled, but many escaped destruction, and Mahogany does his best to sort them out and put them back together. He's joined in his efforts by a surprising party: Helena Urbach, who, following her rescue by the Rats, decided to join the Diamond Network and aid the resistance. Learning of the Trench Rats' attempt to sort through the SS records and try to aid remaining survivors, she arrives at the newly repurposed project headquarters and offers her services. Mahogany is glad to learn she's made it, and grateful for her help; the two of them get to know each other better as they sort the records out and locate survivors. She meets Camo Rat as well; the two of them bond over their shared experiences (both lost their spouses and were victimized by the Nazis) and start a tentative relationship. A few of the Rats who have no strong ties left in the US, and/or who formed close ties in Germany, decide to stay permanently as the country is divided up by the Allies. Drake heads to France with Papillon, a partisan who'd frequently aided the Trench Rats, to recover from his experience; Gold settles down with Mirela, a Romani partisan whose father he and Mahogany had located in a camp. (See Mirela's entry.) Camo stays with Helena, and Burgundy and Skye pair up as well, continuing to provide medical care for those who need it. Himmel moves into an abandoned mansion near the Albrechts and keeps in touch with partisan leader Didrika, former Wehrmacht sniper Ratdog, former Project Doomsday subject Jakob Wolfstein, and the remaining Rats; his home itself becomes an informal gathering place for them all. Mahogany decides to stay as well; despite how scattered everyone becomes, these are the people he knows best, the ones who connected with him and who, like Gold and Helena, accepted him and taught him how to connect in return. [Mahogany Rat 2023 [Friday, March 3, 2023, 4:00:19 AM]] |