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Information
Name/Nickname: Gold Rat (NOTE that this is his Trench Rats codename); Arthur NN (his first name is known but not his last name)
Gender: Cisgender male
Birthdate/Age/Sign: NA; thirties; Leo
Orientation: Heteroromantic heterosexual
Relationship Status: Single; involved/married (Mirela)
Race/Ethnicity/Nationality: Caucasian; European/possibly Celtic descent; American
Class: Working (blue-collar poor)
Religion: Unknown
Profession: Trench Rat; corporal/sergeant of the Trench Rats First Battalion; Allied forces liaison
Birthplace/Residence: New York, United States/Germany (deceased after Ultima Thule)
Personality/Characteristics
[Coming soon.]
Appearance
Gold is of average height; with a fit/athletic body type; has brown eyes; and has tan-gold fur.
Gold dresses in the standard Trench Rat attire of a modified Pickelhaube and Prussian-style uniform, gold cape, and armband with corporal's stripes; later in the story he assumes the rank of sergeant. Late in the story he loses sight in one of his eyes in an accident, but doesn't wear a patch like Black Rat did. He initially has a friendly, open, outgoing attitude, occasionally to the point of being overbearing or obnoxious; following Black's death he becomes more serious and reserved, with a permanent slightly worried/sad expression.
Family & Relationships
Amelia de Groot (Foster Mother)
[Coming soon.]
Unnamed Father
[Coming soon.]
Mirela (Ally/Lover/Wife)
[Coming soon.]
Nikolas (Ally/Father-In-Law)
[Coming soon.]
History
[Coming soon.]
Gold In Heaven
[Coming soon.]
Trivia
*Gold is one of my oldest Trench Rats characters, dating at least from back in the late Eighties.
*In the original story, he drives a motorcycle jokingly called the Goldsmobile, with a sidecar in which Black Rat often rides. It's a collision in this motorcycle (with a woodpile, I seem to recall) that leads to some of Black's major injuries, including a torn ear and crippled leg. This incident has since been removed from the story, though Gold still owns the motorcycle with sidecar, which Ratdog mistakes for the one (Udo Eisen's) which killed his son.
*He's dyslexic; due to lack of understanding of this condition in this time period, educators write him off as stupid. Although Miss de Groot helps teach him to read, he still has to go over longer words slowly; in one joke scene in the story, he comes across an absurdly long German town name on a road sign and exclaims, "Oh, come on!"
*For the above reason, he feels strong empathy for Kolten Himmel, who has also been deemed "stupid" by authorities--a term which Kolten bears almost with pride, yet which Gold finds intensely hurtful. To convince Kolten to give up his "blöd" (stupid) badge, he offers him a badge with his own name on it, and teaches him to recognize the word (as Kolten can't read). Gold later gives the old badge to Kolten's father.
*In the circa-2002 reboot, long before I determined that he's dyslexic, I wrote this scene in which Gold struggles to use a typewriter, has trouble finding particular keys, and loses focus in the middle of things. This was meant to illustrate similar frustration I'd experienced trying to use a manual typewriter (although I struggled with typing at first, I quickly picked it up in Keyboarding class--yet still can't use a typewriter); however, it now fits pretty well with Gold's current status. An important plot point which was meant to come about from the typewriter breaking down was another Rat bringing a confiscated Nazi typewriter to HQ, yet Gold was going to have trouble getting that one to work, too. Only later would the characters figure out that it isn't a typewriter, but an Enigma machine. So far a version of this scenario is still intended to occur in the story.
*[Coming soon.]
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