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Adel von NN/Ratdog Blog Entry |
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February 25, 2022, 2:04:20 AM September 16, 2022, 4:00:22 AM 2/25/22: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." Today's character portrait attempt from my anthro alternate WWII story is Lt. Ratdog. That's his codename, Ratdog. His last name is never given though I recently learned his first name is Adel. His personal details have been tweaked quite a bit recently but as things currently stand, he's not actually in the German military, his title is a purely honorary one granted him by the Nazi general who recruited him as a sniper to hunt down Trench Rats (the Americans in my story--and no, I'm not confusing them with WWI soldiers, this is a detail in the plot). There's a lot of juicy backstory around him (for starters, he's not entirely a bad guy, and he actually hates Nazis) but I'll save it for my Tumblr and Toyhou.se. I wasn't sure what to put on his head. Until recently I always imagined him bareheaded but it seemed a bit plain so I went with a utility cap similar to Doomsday's; I envision him wearing various uniforms and headwear as the situation warrants, though he prefers regular fatigues, and technically can't wear fancier uniforms since he's not actually in the military. He also didn't originally have a nicked ear though I wanted to differentiate him a bit, and he's had kind of a rough-and-tumble existence so I guess it's feasible. (EDIT, interesting, I just happened across THIS PHOTO that shows some German soldiers(?), off to the right, wearing what looks to be this type of cap.) TUMBLR EDIT: Okey-doke. Ratdog is one of my older characters, not one of the original or OLD old characters but he's been around a while. He started out as just a sniper German soldier character whom Gen. Schavich (who is a Nazi but has a goofy Russian-sounding name because I made him up when I was probably in my early teens) recruited to hunt the Trench Rats specifically, and that was supposed to be the origin of his nickname. In the past couple of decades he got more complicated, earning an associate named Private Godfrey Klemper and getting involved in relationships with not just him but Mirela and Didrika as well. (Not at the same time, obviously.) So, yeah, he's bi. 😳 One thing I always made clear is he's not a member of the Nazi Party, he just fights on the same side. He isn't interested in all that master race nonsense and in fact finds it distasteful. He's more street smart than book smart, which means others sometimes underestimate him. He also has a strong moral code regarding how he kills his targets; he refuses to shoot anyone in the back, and will usually refrain from killing anyone who's previously injured/sick and unable to defend themselves (the reason he doesn't take a shot at Silver Rat despite him being an easy target while he's recovering from the injuries he sustained in captivity). This moral code really annoys Schavich, who just wants dead Trench Rats, but nobody else is as skilled a sniper as Ratdog is. Newer developments with Ratdog's character have been that he's NOT actually a lieutenant (Schavich granted him this honorary rank as an incentive to work for him, which actually had little impact on Ratdog's decision to do so, since he's not impressed by military stuff plus the Nazi soldiers he often works beside kind of sneer down on him for this); his first name is Adel (he tells Klemper this when he asks); he leads a rather risqué lifestyle (he sometimes drinks more than he should, and is pretty promiscuous, often picking up people--female or male--at taverns/bars, which irritates Klemper, whom he'd gotten involved with--Klemper basically tells him to f**k off and pick up somebody in a bar when Ratdog makes a move on him again) (BTW, his preferences are openly known, the Nazis just put up with this since more than one of them are involved); and he's one of Sgt. Lange's victims, which is another reason he decides not to shoot Silver when given the chance. Lange happens to be who attempted to pick him up in a bar after Klemper told him off, though Ratdog turned him down; later, Klemper shows up at Ratdog's place to start the day and finds him battered ("Bar fight," Ratdog claims). Klemper realizes what happened since he saw Lange approach Ratdog in the bar and he's probably the only character who threatens Lange ("Unlike you, I've been a good boy and I have connections, so I can make every second of your life utterly miserable"--while pressing his gun against Lange's stomach) and escapes unscathed. Well, at least until Lange is killed (Klemper isn't the culprit--neither is Ratdog, or Silver). A final new detail is WHY exactly Ratdog chooses to target the Trench Rats specifically. Turns out his lifestyle led to him becoming a single father when one of the women he'd been with left her baby with him. He had no idea WTF he was doing but did his best to raise the boy anyway. Unfortunately, he lived only to toddlerhood, getting run down by a passing motorcycle on the woodland road near where they lived (Ratdog spent his time between there and a city apartment); as Ratdog was cradling the body, a Nazi officer jogged down the road to tell him he'd witnessed the event and it had been Trench Rats on a motorcycle with a sidecar, who had run the boy down. (The Trench Rats' sergeant and corporal--Camo and Drake, then Black and Gold--often traveled like this.) So of course, the formerly nonmilitant Ratdog started targeting the Allies in general and Trench Rats specifically, and soon caught Schavich's interest. It isn't until much later in the storyline that he hears the distinctive sputtering sound of that particular motorcycle again and realizes the Trench Rats were NOT responsible for his son's death. Ratdog and Klemper also spy a strange incident near a stopped train in the woods and start to learn that they aren't just transporting military supplies and criminal prisoners, as they'd been informed. This leads to a drastic decision on Ratdog's part, at which Klemper tags along--"What are we doing?" Klemper asks, to which Ratdog confesses, "I have no idea." There'll be more eventually on Toyhou.se. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ [Ratdog 2022 [Friday, February 25, 2022, 2:04:20 AM]] 9/16/22: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." Two portraits today. This week's (second) character from my anthro WWII storyline is merely a redo of a previous character, Lt. Ratdog. I decided finally to redraw his field cap to match those which were actually worn, with earflaps buttoned at the front. I don't think I got the shape of it just right but there are lots of mildly varying versions of this cap, so...anyway. His older art is already posted. [Ratdog 2022 2 [Friday, September 16, 2022, 4:00:22 AM]] |
