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Turquoise Rat Blog Entry |
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December 9, 2022, 3:00:12 AM 12/9/22: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Lance Corporal Turquoise Rat. He's one of the American forces and he's clairvoyant; his visions (which he doesn't control) have proven useful more than once. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. TUMBLR EDIT: Turquoise is one of my older Trench Rats characters, dating almost to the beginning. So he's been around a while. You can find an excerpt from his POV in the earliest surviving version of the story dating to 1990 in Anna Julian's entry. His personality has gone through various changes as well though not as drastic as certain others. In the earliest version, he was just cranky--in fact I'm not even sure if the psychic aspect existed yet--and certain aspects of his character and plot were interchanged with Doomsday Rat's. By the circa-2000 reboot, he was still quite pissy but it had more nuance I wasn't able to outline before losing interest. There was also an intended subplot involving his anemia. I just went and looked over the two chapters from his POV and he has an even worse attitude than I'd remembered, haha. It looks like I was trying to convey the idea of him being an empath as well as a clairvoyant, with a German patient inexplicably appealing to him for help he can't give. He's indeed strongly empathic, though this is tied in with his psychic abilities. Despite being a "furry" story set in an obvious alternate timeline, the focus on the Doomsday serum, and all that funny business that occurs in Ultima Thule (and even those latter two are presented more as alternative science), the Trench Rats series is intended to be mostly in the realm of realism; I try to avoid most fantasy or "magical" aspects. Turquoise (and his German counterpart Nixie, who shows up later) is a big exception to this, representing the main "supernatural" aspect of the story. You'll notice I refer to him specifically as clairvoyant. I consider this different from precognition and retrocognition--one involves perceiving things in the present, one in the future, one in the past, and for the most part, Turquoise receives visions of the present--but Wikipedia includes them all under the label of "clairvoyance," and Turquoise does indeed have a few visions of a different sort that seem precognitive, so...*shrug.* Mainly, though, he "sees" present-moment events, or things that are immediately about to occur, just usually at a distance. The main example is him "seeing" the attack on Trench Rat Headquarters while his company is away, and seeing an ambush the Germans set up targeting his company along the way. His vision saves his own company (actually Copper Rat's company) from slaughter. But anyway. Turquoise was heavily influenced by the character Fiver from Watership Down (I watched this movie when I was way too young), both in his psychic abilities and in his physical weakness; the latter's been largely downplayed by now though I think it's still there. A lot of this is touched on by his past so I guess I'll start at the beginning. Most of the characters who've been opening up to me lately are the newer characters on the canine side of the story, so Turquoise hasn't been terribly forthright yet. What I know of him (most info predating this 2021-23 reboot) is he's Irish-American and Roman Catholic, I think his recent ancestors/family immigrated to the US to escape the Potato Famine, his only remaining close family is his mother, and he was a very sickly child, nearly dying when he was young--it was this near-death experience that triggered his visions and psychic abilities, being the first time he left his body uncontrolled. When his mother learns of what he experienced while ill, she encourages him to try to welcome and cultivate these abilities: Turns out he's from a long line of "sensitives," as they're called, and to them, this is nothing unusual. (Goofy aside: I sometimes like to imagine this story was published in various formats including a graphic novel and a couple of TV cartoon adaptations... 😳 Shut up. Anyway, details vary drastically between the versions, with one of the TV adaptations being really "dumbed down" at first, more comedic, with numerous character name and personality changes. For example, Klemper is a goofy, chirpy Boy Scout/Hitler Youth-type kid rather than the foul-mouthed, meth-addled twink he is in the "real" story (this makes him one of the characters most hated by (my nonexistent) fans), Schavitz (bearing his original name Schavich) is more bluster than threat, and Turquoise is instead named Sensitive. I won't get further into this dorky daydream, just wanted to point out this alternate name and had to give the convoluted explanation why he has an alternate name.) Granted, all the sensitives in the family have so far been women...Turquoise is the exception. This doesn't matter to his pious mother, who views their abilities as a gift from God. Now that her son shows these talents, it's his duty to learn how to control them. He isn't terribly sure how to do this, though, and finds the entire thing frustrating, especially since his clairvoyant abilities seem so useless--what does it matter if you can see what's occurring miles away, if you can't be there to do anything about it? His tendency to leave his body is just as pointless to him; he can't control it, it happens at moments of extreme stress and serves no useful purpose for him. He makes a few halfhearted efforts to placate his mother, but he's just not into this psychic thing, and would prefer if he didn't have this problem, because yes, randomly lapsing into trances strikes him as a problem. He finally finds a sense of purpose in joining the military (he does so while still underage, like Otto Himmel and Godfrey Klemper), and is recruited to be among a small group of soldiers sent to Germany early on, when rumors of upcoming war are still only that, rumors. He's not sure why he feels compelled to do this, just that he has a strange feeling, a very bad feeling, that SOMETHING is either going to happen or is already happening, and in its sheer horror it's going to overshadow many other horrible things to come. He tells no one--nobody would believe him, probably not even his mother--but his vague visions show him endless seas of blood, endless mountains of bodies, millions upon millions of the dying and dead and plumes of smoke choking the sky. To sit back and watch whatever will unfold next seems unconscionable to him, so he heads overseas, not quite sure what he expects. (Much of what I'm getting into now was revealed more recently.) Turquoise meets up with his tiny unit of soldiers sent to perform reconnaissance in German territory. A new political party, the National Socialists, have risen to power, and there's intelligence from America's European allies that they're engaged in some pretty suspicious activity. It starts out with them expelling certain citizens, then stripping them of their rights, but now there are hazy rumors of some sort of "camps" and, even more alarming, experiments. None of it means much, but they're there to learn what they can. Turquoise and the others are introduced--the characters who later on become known as Battleship Gray, Blue, Copper, Doomsday, Indigo, Silver, and Teal--and they head toward a nearby city to peek at what's going on. Intel has described some sort of building complex, and something called "Projekt Weltuntergang"--Project Doomsday. Whatever it may be, it doesn't sound good. The little unit works at gathering what intel it can, but considering how few of them there are, and how limited their resources, the info they obtain is limited, too. They do manage to get word back to the US that the Nazis are indeed running some sort of medical experiment with human (well, rodent) test subjects--Project Doomsday--but the details are hazy. It seems to center around the prospect of creating a "super soldier." A few in the unit scoff at this, assuming the Nazis aren't "all there"; while a few take it more seriously. Turquoise takes to sketching in a little notebook he carries on him--his disturbing visions only seem to be increasing, and he finds it helps a little to just let his pencil wander while his mind does the same. His fellow unit member who is later nicknamed Copper rifles through his belongings one day when he's preoccupied and digs out the notebook, flipping through it; he's noticed how Turquoise doodles in it while staring off into space, not even paying attention to what he's drawing. Within, he finds ragged sketches of corpse piles, raging fires, smoke plumes, rivers of blood, walking skeletons. He closes the notebook and puts it back. Normally this is when somebody would report Turquoise to their superiors, but Copper refrains. He's Louisiana Creole, Catholic yet superstitious, and he knows "hoodoo" powers when he sees them. He decides to keep a discreet eye on Turquoise for signs of what to expect. Things take an abrupt turn when the Nazis attack the tiny unit, having at last caught on to them--the one who'll soon come to be known as Doomsday, for obvious reasons, is captured. The others hole up in an old trench in the countryside and miraculously fend off their attackers, but it's a harsh blow, and the Nazi unit won't let them escape--they're pinned down with dwindling supplies and a dying radio. They send word to a British outpost of what happened, along with a plea for help, but they aren't sure if it gets through, and all they can do is huddle and wait. Turquoise is tense, but more worried for their missing companion than for themselves--he knows they'll make it even if he's not sure how. Unknown to them, the Americans had already been working on establishing a battalion to set up headquarters in German territory and look into both stealing Nazi documentation (they've also learned of "Project Doomsday") and to free potential captives if they can be found. The British receive the distress message and send it along. The Americans hurry to cobble together the rest of the battalion, called the Trench Rats, and they arrive in Germany and send help. The handful of soldiers are rescued in the nick of time (the corporal, Drake, literally drops into their trench and startles them all) and brought back to the battalion, which is already constructing a hidden headquarters. When Drake gets turned around trying to find the way back, Turquoise is the one to take the lead, which surprises him--they're being very careful to maintain the secret of its whereabouts, so there's no way Turquoise should know where to go. The small group is made part of the new battalion and assigned their roles as they make plans to rescue their comrade; the newly nicknamed Turquoise becomes part of Charlie Company, which is led by Copper Rat. The rescue itself is successful, yet the Rats incur another loss when Teal is captured instead. By now the Nazis have overcome their initial superstition of the Trench Rats (they wear modified Prussian uniforms of the Great War in an attempt to spook the enemy into thinking they're ghosts) and are even more on their guard, so Teal's potential rescue is even more complicated, and since the Nazis spread rumors that he's been executed, he sadly ends up on the back burner in the shuffle of all the other things the Rats are dealing with. (Teal's case ends up being one of the Trench Rats' greatest oversights.) Turquoise isn't much of a people person, for the very reason that being around people for too long is exhausting and painful for him; he's easily overwhelmed by the wash of emotions he feels when in others' company. To him, this is normal; he knows it's not normal for others though, so he can't talk about it. It's easiest to just keep to himself as much as possible. Charlie Company gives him this opportunity whenever it's their turn to patrol the trenches the Rats dig at the edge of the woods within which HQ is located; he sits off by himself and keeps an eye on things and occasionally doodles in his little notebook. He still draws pictures of corpse-mountains and walking skeletons but new images have crept in among them, tunnels with walls of earth cascading down, the sky falling. He knows it means something but not what. The what becomes clear only some time later when the location of Trench Rat Headquarters is leaked to the Germans and they launch a coordinated attack on all the companies; I can't find my company list at the moment 😳 but I seem to recall Delta and Echo Companies are the ones patrolling the trenches that day, Charlie Company (Turquoise's) is out in the woods, and Alpha and Bravo Companies are at Headquarters. Delta and Echo suffer few losses while successfully fending off the Germans; Alpha and Bravo are the least fortunate, suffering heavy losses when HQ is bombed from above, caving the walls in and burying many of them alive. Sgt. Camo Rat, Cpl. Drake Rat, and Cpl. Anna Julian (the one who, it turns out, leaked the location of HQ to her SS handlers) are captured alive. This leaves Charlie Company, which is out patrolling in the woods at the time. Turquoise has been "off" all day, distracted and tense; his feelings of foreboding just increase the longer the company walks along the forest road. It's peaceful and quiet, with no aircraft or threats overhead, so they walk openly although Copper is keeping his eyes open, and keeping them on Turquoise. When they come to a fork in the road and start to head one way, Turquoise abruptly halts, staring--it's just a rough path extending ahead of them, but in his mind he sees something else--he sees streams of blood running through the dirt, tastes the salt in his mouth, smells the gunsmoke. His feet refuse to move. He hardly notices when Copper calls the others to a halt and directs them off the path. He steps up to Turquoise and says, "Which way?" Turquoise is silent for a moment before murmuring, "We need to get back to Headquarters." Something about the look in his eyes unsettles Copper, and he directs the company to head back the way they came--though he does temporarily leave the company to take a quick but careful look along the road they just turned away from. Copper grew up hunting in the Louisiana bayou, so he knows how to sneak around and lie low. Just a few minutes of peeking around in the bushes, and he sees what they all otherwise would have missed if they'd simply gone walking through as they'd originally planned: a glint of a gun here, a helmet there. The woods along the road are riddled with camouflaged Wehrmacht troops waiting in ambush. If Charlie Company had gone that way, they would've been gunned down in an instant. Copper rejoins his company and they head back toward HQ. They hear the chaos ahead before they see it, and pick up their pace. They meet members of Delta and Echo Companies along the way, and they race to what's left of Headquarters, which is severely damaged; most of the ground attack had been focused on the other companies, with only a handful of German soldiers on hand to find and grab Camo, Drake, and Julian, so there isn't any significant force to fight off--now it's mainly a matter of rescuing the wounded and trapped. Doomsday Rat himself has spearheaded this effort--his increased strength and stamina, a result of the experiment he was subjected to, help him push aside obstacles and dig through the earth. By now he's running on autopilot, digging and tossing aside rubble without cease, his hands torn and filthy and bloody. The newly arrived Rats jump right in to help, though Turquoise's ability to be useful now proves limited--he starts hyperventilating, feeling as if his chest is being crushed, and has to be taken aside for a presumed panic attack. He's never experienced anything quite like this before so he doesn't protest, although it wears on him that he can't do more to help. Casualties in Alpha and Bravo Companies are massive, and the Rats contact their allies to get in touch with the US. Before long, replacement troops are sent, including a new sergeant and corporal, Black and Gold. The theory is that Teal Rat, whom they now know is in fact still alive, gave away the HQ location to the enemy, though some of them are doubtful, including Turquoise; he didn't get along well with Teal, but Teal didn't seem like the type. Damage to one wing of HQ is so bad they can't dig their way through it, and thus can't recover anyone who may be left within; so it's unclear at first what Camo's, Drake's, and Julian's fates are. The Rats rebuild what they can and set back to work, stealing Nazi documentation and helping prisoners and refugees, because it's clear now what the Nazis are up to: Forcing "undesirables" into camps to be worked to death or outright killed. The emaciated dead are often piled like cordwood, and many are shoved into giant ovens to be burned. Turquoise's earlier visions make a lot more sense, now. While patrolling out in the country, a group of the Rats come under fire from a sniper (this could be Ratdog, I'm not sure) and since they can't pinpoint his location, they seek shelter. They spot a young woman waving them forward--they have no idea who she is, but follow her as they have no other choice. She leads them into the cellar of a farmhouse where they stay until the gunfire ceases; eventually she lets them up into the house itself, where the Rats meet her family. This is Nixie (a character dating at least to the circa-2000 reboot but whom I've never spent much time on, for reasons that'll probably become clear in this entry), and she and her family oppose the Nazi regime; they aren't part of any of the organized resistance efforts the Rats know of, but they do what few small acts they can to help. When Nixie takes Turquoise's hand, he feels a jolt, and a barrage of unfamiliar images flashes through his mind; Nixie lets go, and the look on her face tells him she just experienced the same thing. Neither of them says anything about it, though, being too overwhelmed; the two groups part ways, though Nixie's family promises to offer the Rats what help and information they can, and the Rats, in return, promise to bring some supplies and food the family has been needing. Turquoise is lost in thought as they leave, still trying to process everything. It's startling for him to suddenly know everything about a person--in that instant he saw Nixie's entire life unfold, and he's pretty sure she saw his. There's one thing he doesn't know, however, and this is that now, the two of them are inextricably linked. This becomes clear only when, one day not long after, something hits him like a mental ton of bricks--he's nearly knocked breathless from the shock of it. A feeling of sheer terror and grief overwhelms him and he has no idea what it is until a voice seems to cry out in his head, "Amerikanischer Soldat!--American soldier!" Turquoise doesn't speak German, but it's as if the voice is translated, and he recognizes it as Nixie's. Somehow, she's in his head, calling out to him directly. He doesn't know how to react but sends out a vague mental question wondering what's happening. Nixie responds in kind, not with words, but with emotions--primarily raw panic--something terrible is happening, and she's calling out to him for help, since she doesn't know who else she can ask. Unfortunately, Turquoise is too far away from her home to go and directly help, so he does the next best thing he can think of--he shuts his eyes, calls up the image of her, and wraps his own mental image's arms around her. "Nixie" embraces him back, and the overpowering feelings of fear abruptly fall away as if they're enclosed in their own little bubble, away from everything else. Turquoise makes sure to keep his arms around her lest the connection break; he looks around at the mental bubble surrounding them, but everything outside is indistinct. He can feel something terribly unpleasant occurring just outside his realm of sight, but at the very least he can try to keep Nixie's mind safe, in here. He waits a bit for her to calm down. Turquoise: "You can understand me?" Nixie: (nods) Turquoise: "We're safe here, I guess." Nixie: "D...danke. I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do." Turquoise: "It's all right." Nixie: "I didn't mean to drag you into this but I didn't know who else I could reach. You're the only one I know who can do this." Turquoise: "It's all right." Nixie: "We tried to keep them out but they have guns." Turquoise: "Who? What's going on?" Nixie: "Soldiers. German soldiers. I think they suspect. They threatened my parents. We didn't tell them about your people. We didn't tell them anything but it doesn't matter, they don't believe us." Turquoise: "Your parents, are they all right? Have they hurt them--?" Nixie: "Not yet. I think they knew they wouldn't talk. Not even at gunpoint. One of them grabbed my arm. Said if guns don't convince them to talk then maybe I will. He pulled me into the bedroom." (hugs Turquoise tighter, pleading) "Bitte, don't let me go. I don't want to go back yet." Turquoise finally gets exactly what's happening. He feels awful that he can't do anything else, but keeps mental hold of Nixie, promising not to let go. Despite this vow, after a while he feels her growing further away, less distinct; he tries to look at her, and she looks back, but before his eyes she starts fading away. He calls out--although he doesn't know her name--and tries to keep holding on but it's as if she turns to mist and slips through his fingers. Then, just like that, he's awake again--letting out a startled angry yell at the abrupt jolt of pain. His whole body hurts as if he's been beaten, but it was the severing of the connection between Nixie and himself that hurt the most. He's overcome by fear that this must mean she's been killed; he can't think of a legitimate excuse to request a unit to return to her property, but he does manage to convince Burgundy, the battalion's surgeon, to accompany him there under the pretext that the family had requested a medical visit previously. The two arrive at the farmhouse but before they can go inside, Burgundy grabs Turquoise's arm and hauls him back, pulling his pistol. Turquoise looks up and sees what Burgundy noticed--the front door has been broken in. He pulls his own gun although he doesn't sense any threat. With Burgundy leading the way, they creep into the house and start peering around, searching the silent rooms; there are obvious signs of violence, yet nobody in sight. "The cellar," Turquoise says, as it's the only place they haven't searched yet, and as they descend, his feeling of fear--which he realizes isn't his feeling--grows stronger. They at last locate Nixie's family huddled in the far corner, all of them alive. Nixie is in rough shape--it's obvious she's been beaten. As soon as she sees Turquoise, however, her eyes light up and she says in halting English, "Amerikanischer Soldat. You come for me." Burgundy speaks fluent German, and this, as well as the red cross on his helmet, help convince the family to come out of the cellar and into the light where he can look them over. He questions Nixie's parents while checking their relatively mild injuries; Nixie holds Turquoise's hand tight the entire time, though he can feel that she isn't afraid anymore; the emotion of gratitude is palpable. He has to coax her into letting go of him so Burgundy can check her out privately; her fear spikes a little, but disappears when he says she can trust Burgundy. They go into the next room. Nixie's parents sit silent nearby, staring at the floor; Turquoise says nothing. He can sense their emotions, but most of all he can sense Nixie's--the shame is crushing. He excuses himself to go outside and get some air. Burgundy joins him a bit later and confirms the story Nixie had told Turquoise in his vision: Several German soldiers broke into the house and threatened the family, demanding whatever information they had on the Trench Rats. When they refused to answer, one of the soldiers dragged Nixie off to the bedroom, saying, "If our guns won't make you talk, maybe the Fräulein's screams will." Nixie has all the signs of having been beaten and raped. Burgundy gave her what medical attention he could, though she refuses to accompany them back to Trench Rat Headquarters; she comes out to wish Turquoise farewell, grasping his hands and smiling at him. Her reaction confuses him: "I didn't stop it, I didn't get here in time to help you." Nixie replies, "You help. You make it go away. Keep me safe. I help you. If I can. Danke, Amerikanischer Soldat." Turquoise can't think of how a farm girl can help him out, yet she does, when some time later the Rats are attacked by a group of Nazi soldiers with a strange type of gun they've never seen before--it doesn't shoot bullets, instead it sends out some kind of pressurized blast. Turquoise is the one to bear the brunt of this, the blast sending him flying and slamming him to the ground. He can literally feel himself leave his body--a glance over his shoulder, and he sees himself, lying on the ground, eyes wide and blank and blood streaming from his mouth and nose, the other Rats hurrying to surround him. Then, it feels as if he's being yanked by a chain and dragged at overwhelming speed across the universe itself; he cries out in pain and surprise, then abruptly jerks to a halt. Blinks his eyes open, looks around. Sees just swirling haziness surrounding him. When he looks down at himself, he's hazy and indistinct; he sees a fragile silvery strand coming out of his chest. While he's marveling over this, something glows in front of him, then takes shape--it's Nixie, and she too has an odd silvery cord attached to her. When she sees him her face lights up again and she hurries forward to take his hands; when they touch he feels the jolt, and both of them become clearer and more solid. Nixie: "I got you!" Turquoise: "What is this? What happened?" Nixie: "What do you remember last?" Turquoise: (thinking) "Something hit me. Something hard. I landed on the ground..." (confused) (looks around) "Where is this? What are we doing here?" Nixie: "You left yourself. You nearly died. You see this...?" (takes hold of his silver cord) "It shouldn't look like this, it should look like mine." Turquoise: "What is this thing--? How do I get it off?" Nixie: "Nein! You don't! If it breaks, you can't go back." Turquoise: "Back where--?" Nixie: "Your body. Your life. You saw it, ja?--on the ground." Turquoise: (growing alarmed) "I'm dead...?" Nixie: "Not yet. But almost. If you'd kept going. I found you, though. It's not time yet, you wouldn't be here talking with me, I wouldn't be able to help you stay. But I can't make you go back, you have to do it yourself." Turquoise: "How? I don't have this ability, I don't know what this is." Nixie: "But you do! You always have! You're just not good enough." Turquoise: "What--?" Nixie: "You're not skilled enough yet. You need to practice. Remember--I saw your life, and you saw mine. We're the same, you and me. We were born like this. I've never met anyone else like this. Your talent is so strong, but you need to practice it." Turquoise: "But...I've never seen this thing before." (takes the string) Nixie: "It was always there, believe me. How do you think you were able to see things? Things far away no one else can see? This is how. You're not good at it yet, though. The things you see are foggy, you don't see them well, ja? Like looking through...ah...faraway spectacles?" (pantomimes) Turquoise: "Binoculars." Nixie: "Ja! Das Fernglas. Binoculars." Turquoise: "Why didn't it translate that...? This is weird." Nixie: "After a while you don't ask why, you just ask how. But the way you've seen things is like through binoculars. Far away, out of focus. You practice, you see things clearer, closer. You've always been able, like me. Which means you can go back. You just have to follow this." (takes string) Turquoise: "I just...follow it?" Nixie: "Ja, it's not so hard." (takes his arm) "I'll be holding on to you. Like you did to me. I'll make sure you make it." Turquoise: "How do I start?" Nixie: "Your Herz, ja...?" (touches his chest) "Listen to what it says." Turquoise isn't sure how this goes but decides to just try to go with it. He takes a breath, shuts his eyes, focuses on his heart thudding in his chest, envisions it attached to the string. Feels as if his feet are leaving the "ground," although there's no ground to stand on--he feels a bite of terror, but Nixie squeezes his arm--"That's it! Keep trying. I'll hold on to you." Slowly, he feels like he's floating backwards, wind whistling past, but Nixie keeps hold, so he manages to keep himself calm, especially since he suspects if he panics, he'll lose whatever this is. As he starts moving faster, and faster, though, he can't fight down the fear anymore, especially when Nixie says she has to let him go. "I'm falling!" he cries, but she says this is part of it, and she can't keep holding on to him as he returns to himself. Her grasp slips away and again he calls out--again he doesn't know her name, though it doesn't matter--he grasps at thin air as he plummets back and downward, screaming as he expects to slam into the ground--then he's sucking in a sharp breath, and with a blink he sees one of his fellow Trench Rats stumble back with a startled yell. He starts gasping for air as it feels like it's been knocked out of him--his whole body hurts, but especially his heart, like it's nearly been yanked out of his chest. He's lying on the ground in the same position he last saw himself in after the Nazi weapon went off. His fellow Rats creep close again--"He had no pulse!" the one who'd yelled keeps exclaiming in disbelief--and once it's clear he's indeed alive, they carefully help him up and head back to HQ. While the others are reporting on the worrisome new weapon, Copper, who'd been present, stops by the medical ward--Burgundy has checked Turquoise out, he's bruised and battered but otherwise all right--and says under his breath, "What's 'nixie'?" Turquoise blinks--he's never heard the word before but automatically he knows it's the farm girl's name--yet he feigns ignorance. Copper insists he yelled the word right as he came to; he's been looking around in various dictionaries and books trying to figure out what it means, the only thing he at last comes across being a type of water spirit the rustic Germans believe in. Turquoise himself has always felt a strong connection to water (he's a Cancer, and here I encourage you to check out his "theme song," "Cool Change" by Little River Band), so he's rather unsettled by this, but again says he has no idea what Copper's talking about. Copper is forced to let the matter drop. Turquoise decides it's time to go meet Nixie directly again. She's glad to see him: "You make it back all right! Ja? I tell you so. You help me and I help you." When he asks if her name is Nixie, she confirms this (she isn't the least bit surprised that he knows), and mentions how "close" she feels to the water, so the name is fitting; she asks his name, and he gives his codename, Turquoise. "Toor...koyz? Toor-kwaz...?" Nixie echoes, perplexed; he points at the turquoise-colored band on his arm and understanding sparks: "Ah! Türkis." Her English is poor, and his German is almost nonexistent, but they seem to understand each other on some unspoken level; when he expresses confusion over this, Nixie takes his hands. Nixie: "You see me, I see you...you remember? Ja? Mein Leben, dein Leben." Turquoise: "Leben...?" Nixie: "Ah...not Tod. Still working." (touches his chest) "Breathing." Turquoise: "Alive--? Life." Nixie: "Ja...'life.' You see me, I see you. Everything." Turquoise: "I remember." Nixie: "Since this..." (touches his chest, then hers, then his) Turquoise: "Connected." Nixie: "'Connected.' You and me, is like, Eins. One." (touches his chest) "Ein Herz. Eine Seele." Turquoise: "Seele...?" Nixie: (pensive) "Ah...Geist?" Turquoise: "Spirit?" (understanding) "Soul." Nixie: "Ja...'soul.' One soul." Turquoise: "Eine Seele." Nixie: (smiles) (Authorial aside, I'm doing my best, but correct my German if need be, foreign language isn't my thing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) Over the course of the story, Turquoise and Nixie have various interactions as they get to know each other and she helps him understand the way he is; similar to his family being "sensitives," she explains that "second sight" runs in hers, so this is why her parents weren't surprised by her abilities. Despite this, Turquoise is the only other person she's met with the same abilities. She expresses an unusual insight that proves just how much she understands what he's going through, why he tends to keep to himself: "Loneliness hurt. But other people, to be with them hurt more...sometimes, is easier to just be alone." More than once, Turquoise displays the ability to "see" someone else's entire life merely by grasping their hand, similar to what happened with Nixie--it's overwhelming for him, and startling for the other party, though unlike Nixie, they don't see his life in return, and he doesn't form the same strong connection to them as he has to her. Nixie again explains this as the connection between their souls, that generally one experiences this with only one other person. Turquoise deliberately tries this with partisan leader Didrika, though only after she challenges him to and insults him when he refuses (she'd heard the spreading rumor of him having "powers" and wanted him to prove it); he grasps her hand, sees and feels the barrage of images, then Didrika yanks her hand free, angry and alarmed. Turquoise simply says, "I'm sorry for what he did to you," but the comment has a profound effect; Didrika goes white as a sheet, and doesn't question his abilities again. Another, although accidental, recipient of Turquoise's ability is SS captain Otto Himmel; when going to check on Turquoise after Turquoise collapses, he reaches down to push on Turquoise's arm, only to get his hand grabbed. He lets out a startled noise and pulls loose, stumbling back and drawing his gun. Himmel: "Try that again!" Turquoise: (panting, weak) "You're not like the others." Himmel: "What--?" Turquoise: "Why are you wearing that uniform? When you don't believe what they believe?" Himmel: (alarmed look) Turquoise: (pause) "They'll kill him if they find out, won't they?...I won't tell anyone." Himmel: (increasingly rattled) "I don't know what you're talking about! But you try that again, and I'll put a bullet in your head!" This incident ends up working in the Trench Rats' favor. Turquoise and Nixie are in each other's company later on when they're suddenly confronted by sniper Lt. Ratdog and his companion PFC Klemper; Ratdog despises the Trench Rats (due to a misunderstanding and a very big lie), and points his rifle at Turquoise, who puts himself in front of Nixie. Someone orders them down, however, and approaches; it's Capt. Himmel. Turquoise doesn't understand most of what's going on, just that Ratdog is angry about this--he and Himmel exchange a few words--yet obeys. Himmel strides to Turquoise and squats in front of him, talking so only he and Nixie can hear. He briefly mentions the "Wunderwaffe"--the weapon Turquoise had a run-in with--but says that while it's a genuine project, it pales in comparison to, and is basically a distraction from, the big project the Nazis are working on. Turquoise assumes he means Project Doomsday, but Himmel instead uses the term Uranspaltung--when Turquoise just looks blank, he translates it as uranium fission. "Mention it to your scientist friends," Himmel says at his perplexed look, "and they'll get it." As he starts to push himself up to leave, Turquoise asks, "Why are you telling me this?" to which Himmel replies, "I don't like being in debt." Basically, Himmel tips the Rats off that it isn't merely a medical experiment they need to worry about, the Nazis are up to even bigger, more alarming things--Turquoise mentions "Uranspaltung" to Burgundy and Doomsday, and they confirm that this most likely refers to a bomb, the destructive power of which nobody has ever heard before. It would make the rest of their bombs look like firecrackers in comparison. (By the way, while making sure I got the term "Wunderwaffe" right--actually I'd misspelled it--I came across THIS ENTRY that is along the lines of the mysterious weapon in my story. And yep, turns out the Nazis actually did experiment with such ideas. And even crazier ones, too. Giant solar lens to fry people like ants, anyone...?) Nuclear stuff is WAYYYYY over my head so this part of the story never goes into detail... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Anyway, like Copper, Himmel--who has the same sort of spiritual religious bent as Turquoise (he's a lapsed Catholic and often has "visions" of his dead wife, and believes in the possibility of mystical experiences)--recognizes something supernatural is at work, and REALLY does not want his secret getting out, so he pays Turquoise back, and outs himself as being disloyal to the Nazi cause, though Turquoise does keep his promise not to tell. Nixie gets a look at Turquoise's notebook of sketches; he expects her to be repelled, but she seems sad instead--"Feel like a curse, ja?--seeing so much bad, doing so little good." She encourages him to find a way to use his abilities to help others. Turquoise can't think of anything useful he can do--his ability to sense future events is so weak he can never act in time--but a solution at last occurs to him when the Trench Rats seek survivors in a village which was recently attacked. The closer they get to a particular house, the harder his heart beats and his breath comes; he at last comes to a halt, trying not to panic. He doesn't understand this until Copper stops beside him and says, "Which building?" He looks toward the nearby house, and Copper gestures for several Rats to enter and look around. They locate several people hiding within; Turquoise had sensed their fear and pinpointed their location, "Like a landmine detector," Copper says. Turquoise is skeptical that this can be very useful but this time Copper is the one to urge him to work on this skill--like Nixie and Turquoise's mother, he claims to come from a family of "sensitives," and while he himself inherited no such abilities, "I know hoodoo powers when I see 'em." He convinces Turquoise to walk point with him to "sniff out" living souls in the areas the Rats visit to seek refugees and wounded. And at last, Turquoise's clairvoyance and empathy prove useful rather than just bothersome; he senses the fear and pain of survivors, and the hostility of concealed enemy forces, as well as their general location. (It really speaks to the effectiveness of this technique that even the hyper-rational Burgundy accepts it at face value, theorizing that some as-yet unknown scientific principle could explain it.) It isn't perfect--the further away he is, the weaker the feeling, so he often needs to get quite close to detect exactly where someone is, plus the emotions get more overwhelming the more people there are in one area, which threatens to emotionally shut him down; as well, he can handle only so much of this at a time before getting completely exhausted and needing to rest. Still, it's far more than what the Rats had before, and he keeps at it as it dampens the guilt he still feels over being unable to help Camo and Drake or Nixie. Word about his talent gets out, however--Didrika's partisans hear of it, and so eventually the Nazis do, too. All their scientific efforts focus on the creation of a superweapon--whether man or machine, they don't care, any will do. Project Doomsday focuses on the creation of a genetically modified super soldier, whereas the "Wunderwaffe" and uranium projects focus on a weapon itself; the Nazis end up splitting into different groups regarding which should receive the most focus. Allgemeine-SS major Ludolf Jäger, who's more interested in the preservation and advancement of life (he theoretically opposes the Final Solution, believing the Jews and others should have been expelled rather than killed), focuses on Project Doomsday (run by Himmel's brother-in-law, Dietmar Kammler)--he thinks the super soldiers could be used to, in effect, "break a few eggs to make an omelet"; whereas officials in the Waffen-SS focus on the development of a machine weapon capable of mass destruction. Still, a weapon is a weapon, and when news of Turquoise's talent finally reaches the SS, both parties are interested. In theory, someone like Turquoise would serve Jäger's purposes better, but Jäger is rather skeptical, and it's the Waffen-SS who hear about this first, anyway; a lieutenant colonel (this is a completely new character *moans* who needs a name) in the Waffen-SS expresses interest in obtaining use of someone with such abilities for scientific study, though since this doesn't involve a machine weapon he needs to get funding through Jäger's department, and presumably, Jäger's scientists will conduct the study. (Kammler is peeved about this, wanting to focus all the attention and resources on his pet project rather than on "pseudoscientific junk.") Turquoise, as a Trench Rat, is a hard target, so they get hold of Nixie, I believe killing her parents in the process and bringing her to project headquarters where the lieutenant colonel orders her treated like any camp prisoner, having her head shorn and being put in a striped uniform. (The guards have no idea what badge to put on her. They end up going with the black triangle that marks people as mental defectives.) The building is locked down to test her abilities, and several parties are unwittingly trapped inside at the time, among them Ratdog, Klemper, Himmel, Rosina Kestler (one of Jäger's secretaries and Himmel's coworker), and Jäger himself; Jäger invites the others along to come watch while they're awaiting their chance to leave. They go to the room where the lieutenant colonel and Dr. Kammler are waiting already, and Himmel is dismayed by the state Nixie's in but can say nothing. The lieutenant colonel demands she show off her powers; she claims she has none she can overtly display, but, assuming she and Turquoise possess the ability to deflect the Wunderwaffe with their minds, he threatens her to show them SOMETHING. Nixie finally asks for his hand; he's puzzled, but removes his glove and holds it out. Nixie grasps it and he feels a jolt; a moment later he pulls free, demanding to know what she did. Nixie, struggling to recover from everything she just saw, merely replies, "You...are an awful, evil man!" She gets a swift backhand to the face, but Jäger orders the other officer not to hit her again; the other officer tries pulling rank, but Jäger reminds him who holds the purse strings. Since he didn't see any obvious display of powers either, he declares a lack of interest in the potential project and turns to leave; "And what am I to do with her, send her to the camp--?" the lieutenant colonel exclaims; Nixie realizes this could very well happen, and so abruptly speaks up. Nixie: "Einsatzgruppen." Jäger: (halts) Nixie: (gruff voice, as if holding a conversation with herself) "'But we don't have the authority to make such a decision.' 'F**k authority. You think it matters? They're just Untermenschen. No one will care about them.'" Jäger: (turns around and looks at her) Nixie: "'Call them together, send them out and get it done.' 'But it's not even in our jurisdiction, there'll be consequences.' 'Quit being such cowards! What is it you think he can do to us? He's a pencil pusher, a glorified secretary, a bureaucrat. Just do what I say, and get it over with.'" (Earlier in the story, Klemper literally stumbled into a pit of bodies in the countryside; he, Ratdog, Himmel, and Jäger inspected the site, concluding it was the work of the Einsatzgruppen, mobile SS killing units that tend to follow the Wehrmacht around like vultures and slaughter groups of villagers, leaving them in killing pits like the one Klemper fell into. Klemper's Wehrmacht unit has no such affiliation, but even more perplexing, this particular area is under the jurisdiction of Jäger's section of the Allgemeine-SS (the SS branch in charge of the Einsatzgruppen), yet Jäger never called together a killing unit--he's opposed to the use of Einsatzgruppen. Jäger managed to find the leader of this particular death squad, called him to his office, and upbraided him; when the guy argued back, Jäger shot him. The person actually responsible for calling out the unit had remained a mystery until now.) Jäger: (looking at the lieutenant colonel) "You ordered the unit." Obersturmbannführer: "She's making s**t up now! Why do you listen to her--?" Dr. Kammler: "You were the one who called this experiment! Said to listen to her!" Jäger: "Well?" Obersturmbannführer: (throwing up hands) "All right! So what! Ja, I called the unit. These people are a threat that needs taking care of and your office was doing nothing." Jäger: (getting angry) "You do not have this authority." Obersturmbannführer: "Someone had to do something. And what does it matter? They're Untermenschen! No one cares that they're gone." Jäger: (voice rising) "I will not tolerate people going over MY HEAD!!" Just like last time--Jäger pulls out his pistol and shoots the officer. Nixie and Kestler cover their eyes, everyone else gapes. Jäger yells for the lieutenant colonel's men to come in and take away his body; he angrily declares the experiment over, having no interest in the talent Nixie displayed. Klemper reaches to help Nixie to her feet, but quickly pulls his hand away after she touches him; he rubs it as if shocked and Nixie murmurs, "You didn't deserve it. You didn't deserve any of it." A few guards take her away and the others leave as well. Jäger ends up sanctioned for this--he did just murder a superior officer (albeit in a different branch of the SS), after all--but he's essential enough that to him it's merely a slap on the wrist: "I've been meaning to spend more time with Magda and die Kinder anyway." He departs while the others try to figure out what's become of Nixie; rather than go to Kammler, she was taken away in a truck. A bit of digging reveals she was taken to the nearby camp after all. This is a combination labor and extermination camp--unwanted prisoners who are taken there often end up in the gas chamber--so they're suitably alarmed, and Himmel goes to talk with the commandant. Major Konstantin Klaus is dumbfounded by his questions: "I'm used to you people taking my sticks (prisoners) away, not sending me more!" He can't remember Nixie personally until Himmel mentions she came on a truck, and gives a general date and time range; after a moment's reflection Klaus gives the day and time she left and the name of the camp she was sent to: "My camp don't take women, we barely got room for the men." So, Nixie is still alive; or at least, she was, but her fate in the next camp may not be so good. Turquoise is likewise trying to find out what happened to Nixie; a visit to her house results in the Rats finding the bodies of her parents, so he knows she's in immense danger. They run into Ratdog and Klemper, who are seeking the train Nixie was taken away on; the two groups call a temporary truce since they have the same immediate objective. Turquoise tries focusing to sense Nixie, and, picking up a direction, goes running, Klemper following quickly after. When he briefly loses the trail, Klemper picks it up, knowing a railroad track is nearby; he damages the track with his Panzerfaust, and the train is far enough away to come to a stop to avoid derailment. (Though Klemper and one of the Rats argue briefly over this action, neither one fully understanding the other since the Rats don't speak German and the Germans don't speak English.) When the engineer and other crew angrily get out and start yelling at Klemper and Ratdog, the Rats take them captive; Turquoise hurries to the cattle cars, though it's difficult for him to do so--he can sense the emotions of everyone inside. He stops at one of the cars and isn't strong enough to force it open; Klemper breaks the lock with the butt of his rifle and they haul the doors open. The car is full of prisoners who are in moderately okay shape--they haven't spent much time in captivity yet--but hungry, exhausted, and panicked. The Germans and the Rats start helping them off; Turquoise waits until the crowd has thinned before climbing in to look at the straggling few remaining. Nixie is huddled in the corner with her arms over her head, also overwhelmed by all the emotion; yet she senses Turquoise, looks up at him, and offers a weak smile. "Amerikanischer Soldat. You come for me." Turquoise helps Nixie to the doors and Ratdog reaches up for her; she grasps his hand on the way down but once she's safely on the ground he pulls free, rubbing his fingers and frowning at her pensively. She gives him an equally perplexed look and says in German (so Turquoise doesn't understand), "You're wrong. You're mad at the wrong people." He just looks even more confused, not knowing what she's talking about. The others open up the remaining cars and the Rats make plans to take the freed prisoners back to HQ for safety. Klemper asks Nixie if she speaks English and relays a message to Turquoise: "He say they return to das Heer...they get big trouble if they don't." Turquoise holds out his hand, Klemper reaches for it, then makes a noise, pulls back, offers a halfhearted salute instead and leaves with Ratdog. Turquoise, Nixie, the Rats, and their captives and freed prisoners head in the opposite direction. ...There'll be more to Turquoise's, and Nixie's, stories--this is already far longer than I'd thought it'd be, most of this coming to me as I typed. And already, further developments regarding Nixie's part in the plot--including me almost creating ANOTHER new character, only for one I've already made mild use of in the past to step forward and offer himself for the role--are developing. Those will have to percolate a bit longer, though. I'm pretty sure both continue to work on developing their powers to help the Allies, and the Nazis keep working on their projects aiming for a super soldier or an übermensch, all of this leading to the craziness that ensues in Ultima Thule, though I'm so far unsure how big a role Turquoise plays in that and if Nixie plays a role at all. I do know she and Turquoise inevitably grow close since their souls are connected, after all, and I believe both survive the series, though there's always time for a more unfortunate ending to develop. :/ [Turquoise Rat 2022 [Friday, December 9, 2022, 3:00:12 AM]] |