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Unnamed Father (Teal) Blog Entry |
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Friday, March 21, 2025, 12:35:09 AM 3/21/25: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's characters from my anthro WWII storyline are Unnamed Father and Unnamed Mother. These are the parents of Teal Rat, whose story is already in my art blog. Neither one plays any role in raising him, and he never gets to meet his father. There'll be more about them later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. TUMBLR EDIT: The awful story of Teal Rat and his relationship...or lack thereof...with his biological parents is given in detail in his own entry. The rest of this entry will be individualized to avoid repetition. (Please NOTE that I made a weird dumb mistake here, and outlined Unnamed Mother's story before Unnamed Father's, although his artwork is first! The way I tell the story depends on her story being first. So, my weird dumb solution: This is Unnamed Father's artwork, yet Unnamed Mother's part of the story. And her entry will contain his story. Sorry about this dumb confusion, my bad!) I don't give much info on Teal's mother as a person. Really all that's revealed of her is she had some sort of falling-out with her brother that caused them to become estranged, yet felt desperate enough to turn to him to take custody of baby Teal--actually named Aaron--who she couldn't care for herself; despite their differences, her brother did so, and Aaron was raised by his uncle. (Uncle will receive art in the future.) Why give up her son?--Unnamed Mother was married, and Aaron was the product of a brief affair. As soon as she discovered she was pregnant, she cut this off, but never informed the other man why. They didn't even know each other well. She does let drop one detail to her brother, though, that shapes a lot of other little details over the course of Teal's life: His father is Jewish. Uncle takes this detail and twists it into something nasty: When young Aaron asks why his mother didn't want him, Uncle, a virulent antisemite, explains that his Jewish father raped his mother, so of course she couldn't keep him. Aaron grows up despising his father and longing to win back his mother's love. As detailed in his entry, after his uncle's death he finds out his parents' identities, and goes to meet his mother. It doesn't go as he'd hoped, but he does learn one important thing from their brief meeting: There was no rape. She just didn't want him. She has her own family already, including a half-sister he hears calling her from another room, and wants nothing to do with him. He apologizes and leaves before there can be a scene, and never comes back. He throws away his biological father's address without attempting to contact him, and not long after enlists in the military, and heads overseas with Alpha Squad. There's a hint that Unnamed Mother isn't completely heartless, that her actions are driven more by shame than by hatred for her own son. When Aaron excuses himself to leave, she makes a small motion, opens her mouth as if to say something to him, yet he's already turning away, obviously mortified, and she cuts herself off and lets him go. She watches him hurry away before reluctantly heading back into her house. She obviously wanted to tell him something, yet never had the chance, and lacked the determination to follow through. I don't know what exactly she meant to say, but I do believe she felt sorry for what she did. She always would have gone through with it, but she wasn't happy about it, and I think she wanted him to know that it wasn't really about him. But a moment missed is a moment missed; she has no way to know that soon he'll be gone, and he'll never set foot in America again. She tries to put Aaron out of her mind, convince herself he's better off on his own than with a family that can't have him, maybe even he makes his own family. (He doesn't.) Focuses on her own family, does her best to forget her mistakes and be a good wife/mother. It isn't until years later that she's surprised to run into the man she had the affair with; he seems just as startled. They share a few words of smalltalk, just to be polite, yet the conversation soon heads in the direction she'd hoped it wouldn't--he wants to know why she cut things off so abruptly. She puts him off at first, just wanting to wrap it up and go, but he insists she at least owes him an explanation, and then he'll let her be. Unnamed Mother finally blurts out that she was pregnant--no way she could keep the child with her own family to look after--so she had to end the relationship. Unnamed Father is stunned speechless; she turns to go, when he numbly asks, "What was it?" She doesn't understand at first, but then gets it, and says it was a boy. "A son," he murmurs, half a statement, half a question; his eyes glassy, he has to swallow before asking what became of him. She hesitates, decides to tell him what she knows--"I left him with my brother. My brother passed some time back, we weren't close. He came to see me after but I didn't have anything to say to him, I don't know where he is now. Aaron. I named him Aaron"--and, "I don't have anything else. I have to go now." And like the time she turned her own son away, she turns and leaves. She again picks up her life, moves on, tries to forget. But the meeting rattles her. She understands consequences now, repercussions. Her actions affected more than just her--the ripples struck Aaron, as heavy waves, yet they also struck her brother, her lover, and she never knows it but the ripples spread and strike people she'll never meet across an ocean--Drake--Silver--Burgundy--Dr. Kammler--Otto Himmel--and on and on. I don't think the guilt ever truly lets her go. She isn't a hateful monster, she isn't even an uncaring mother. She just made some bad choices in bad circumstances--which Teal himself later ends up doing. She's human and she makes mistakes. Probably the biggest sin of which she can be accused is lack of foresight and understanding of how everything connects, how actions have consequences. In short, she was too self-centered, and didn't think. She leaves a trail of broken pieces behind her and tries to shield her eyes and believe there was nothing different she could have done, though I don't think she ever truly convinces herself. Unnamed Father is left to try to pick these pieces up; please now see his story, in Unnamed Mother's entry. [Unnamed Father (Teal) 2025 [Friday, March 21, 2025, 12:35:09 AM]] |